by Jamal Briggs and Yakira Hume – BASICS Issue #20 (July/Aug 2010)
March 22, 2010 marked the beginning of an agonizing two-week-long inquest into the murder of Alwy Al Nadhir, a young man murdered by Toronto Police in the fall of 2007.
Alwy’s family and the Justice for Alwy Campaign Against Police Brutality came into the Inquest with due scepticism.
The Inquest would not locate any culpability for Alwy’s murder; it was not a criminal trial.
In fact, the purpose of a Coroner’s Inquest is an inquiry into the manner and cause of an individual’s death. Information concerning the victim’s death is presented in order for the jury to determine the source and means of death (accident, homicide, natural, suicide or undetermined).
At base, the coroner’s inquest and its verdict are merely fact finding and statistical in essence.
We knew that justice through this process would not be had. What we didn’t know was the extent to which an allegedly unbiased and ‘scientific’ judicial proceeding would further extend the violence against Alwy, his friends, family and the community at large.
