Anzovino Family Of Fort Erie Secures Provincial Funding For Coroner’s Inquest

By Doug Draper

The family of Fort Erie teen Reilly Anzovino, whose death following a traffic accident more than a year ago has raised serious questions about the Niagara Health System’s decision to close emergency rooms in Fort Erie and Port Colborne, will receive the provincial funding  support they need  for legal representation at an Coroner’s inquest into the tragedy.

“We are grateful for the efforts of (Niagara Falls Liberal MPP) Kim Craitor and (the province’s NDP leader) Andrea Horwath is obtaining the funding,” said Reilly’s father, Tim Anzovino, in a April 13 media release.  “An inquest presents a great financial burden for an ordinary family and this funding allows us to participate in the inquest in a meaningful way.”

Reilly died at age 18 following a car accident on Highway 3 between her hometown of Fort Erie and Port Colborne. She was still alive while she was being ambulanced to an emergency room at a hospital in Welland because the emergency rooms at the hospitals in Fort Erie and Port Colborne were closed months earlier, in 2009, by the Niagara Health System responsible for managing most of the hospital services across the region.
“This is good funding support for the family,” Wayne Redekop, a Fort Erie lawyer and former mayor of the town who has been one of many trying to help the Anzovinos, told Niagara At Large during a short interview. He added that it is “quite rare” for a family of a victim of a traffic accident to receive such funding, but he and the Anzovinos hope the government will set a policy for funding other families in similar circumstances.

Reilly’s mother, Denise, told Niagara At Large during an interview last year that she knows an inquest into her daughter’s death will never bring her back. She just wants an inquest that will lead to conclusions that will make it less likely other families have to go through the same torment her’s is. One of those conclusions would be to re-establish acute care, emergency services in Niagara’s south end, she hopes.

A date has yet to be set for the inquest. However, it will likely take place at a yet to be disclosed site in Fort Erie sometime in the coming fall.

Niagara At Large is posting below the complete media release on this news for our readers information.

MEDIA RELEASE
ANZOVINO INQUEST
Denise Kennedy and Tim Anzovino, the parents of Reilly Anzovino, wish to  acknowledge the offer of financial support by the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services to assist them with the costs they will incur for legal representation at the forthcoming Coroner’s Inquest into the death of their daughter as the result of a motor vehicle collision on December 26, 2009.  While no firm date has yet been established for the Inquest, the Pre-Inquest Meeting has been scheduled for April 27, 2011, in Hamilton.

“We are grateful for the efforts of Kim Craitor and Andrea Horwath in obtaining this funding”, stated Mr. Anzovino.  “An inquest presents a great financial burden for an ordinary family and this funding allows us to participate in the Inquest in a meaningful way”.

It is anticipated that, with the exception of the Anzovino family, the parties involved in the Inquest will be public bodies or agencies, or employees of those bodies or agencies.  As such, those parties will be represented by legal counsel paid for with public resources.  On the other hand, there is no specific provincial program that provides assistance to the family affected by the accidental tragedy that has given rise to the Inquest.  The family is therefore obligated to fund its participation at the Inquest from its own resources or to rely on the willingness of a lawyer or law firm to provide discounted or pro bono legal services.

The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services has provided Ms. Kennedy and Mr. Anzovino with particulars of the financial support that will be made available to them as an ex gratia payment.  While this is a unique application of the program from which the funds have been allocated, the Anzovino family has requested that the provincial government develop a specific policy that would provide financial assistance to any family directly involved in a Coroner’s Inquest in the future.

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