Parents fight 12 years to overturn suicide ruling
Connellys vow to continue battle despite setbacks
It’s been nearly 12 years since John Connelly plunged to his death from a Toronto highrise.
The one-time Ashbury College student and athlete was in his third year of the University of Toronto’s pharmacy program, studying for his exams not long after breaking off an engagement to his fiancée, when he fell on Dec. 9, 2001. The death was quickly determined to be a suicide, and the case closed.
His parents have never believed their son killed himself and have battled for more than a decade with the Ontario coroner’s office to have the death reclassified from suicide to undetermined.
Despite losing what may have been their last legal avenue to have the suicide finding overturned, they vow to keep fighting for a proper death investigation.
“I’m John’s father. It’s important to me. Why would I let it go?” said Dr. John Connelly, an Ottawa dental surgeon.
So far it has been a long and unsuccessful battle for Connelly and his wife, Gloria, a nurse. The Connellys have hired their own investigators, pathologists and forensic experts to review the evidence and expose what they allege was sloppy work and a rush to judgment by both Toronto police and the coroner’s office.
The coroner repeatedly violated policies and protocols, the Connellys allege. They have complained to the Ontario ombudsman, sought the intervention of the attorney general and asked for assistance from the Office of Victims of Crime. That office wrote Toronto police asking that the investigation be reopened and assigned to homicide, but the request was refused.
The Connellys launched a complaint against the coroner, but the College of Physicians and Surgeons concluded there was nothing wrong with the coroner’s conclusion. The Health Professions Appeal and Review Board upheld the finding.
In January, a judicial review of the May 2010 decision by coroner Dr. Andrew McCallum declining to order an inquest was heard. The Connellys initially wanted the suicide ruling to be changed to undetermined, McCallum’s decision overturned, and an inquest ordered, but they eventually dropped that request and asked only that the death no longer be considered a suicide. The divisional court ruled in June they didn’t have the jurisdiction to do that.
Connelly said he doesn’t intend to stop fighting.
“Gloria and I are responsible for our kids. And I am responsible for John’s death investigation.”