Post #300
800 words; 4 minutes to read
By Howard Sapers and Yusuf Faqiri
Summary: The case of Soleiman Faqiri illustrates how important it is to have public inquests into all deaths in custody, something the Ontario government now wants to make optional.
Three police investigations failed to uncover what a single coroner’s inquest ultimately made undeniable: the truth about how Soleiman Faqiri died.
When Soleiman died in temporary custody in December 2016 at the Central East Correctional Centre in Ontario, his family entered a justice system that seemed designed to keep them in the dark. They faced grief, confusion, and years of official silence. Only a coroner’s inquest, a mechanism well placed to shine light on deaths that occur under government care, finally broke through that wall. It revealed what the family had long feared: Soleiman was beaten to death by correctional staff while in the midst of a severe mental‑health crisis. The coroner’s jury ruled his death a homicide. That verdict did not carry legal consequences, but it carried moral weight. It acknowledged Soleiman’s suffering and affirmed the truth.
Coroner’s inquests remain one of the few accountability tools available when tragedies occur behind prison walls. They are public, transparent, and rooted in fact‑finding. They allow Ontarians to see what happens inside institutions that otherwise operate out of sight. For families like the Faqiris, they are often the only pathway to answers.
The public knows the broad facts of Soleiman’s death. What is less known is the near decade‑long fight his family waged to learn the truth about how their loved one died. The process was long, painful, and exhausting, but it was necessary. And it worked.
The inquest exposed a correctional system unable to meet the needs of vulnerable people. It revealed the absence of adequate mental‑health resources. It documented the harrowing 11 days Soleiman endured in custody. It showed how silos between health care and corrections can become deadly. It demonstrated how a person in crisis, a Canadian living with schizophrenia, could be left without access to a psychiatrist, deteriorate rapidly, and ultimately die at the hands of those charged with his care.
The “how” of Soleiman’s death (the central question of any inquest) was answered through a homicide verdict delivered by five ordinary Ontarians. That verdict was the closest thing to justice the Faqiri family has received. It is precisely why inquests matter: even when they cannot assign criminal liability, they expose the truth. Without the inquest, the circumstances of Soleiman’s death would remain hidden.
But truth alone is not enough. It has been nearly three years since Soleiman’s inquest concluded and not one of the jury’s 57 recommendations has been implemented. Meanwhile, 46 people died in Ontario’s correctional facilities in 2024 alone. The numbers for 2025 have yet to be released.
One of the recommendations stands out: the creation of an independent inspectorate — an external oversight body with the authority to hold correctional institutions accountable.
In 2018, the Ontario Legislature took an important step toward meaningful oversight by passing the Correctional Services Transformation Act (CSTA), which created an independent Inspector General for adult corrections — a reform long demanded by experts, families, and human‑rights organizations. The Inspector General was designed to provide the kind of accountability Ontario’s correctional system has never had – independent review and monitoring of conditions of confinement and the treatment of prisoners. The Inspector General would finally give Ontario an external watchdog with the authority to confront the very problems that contributed to Soleiman Faqiri’s death. Yet despite being passed by Queen’s Park, the legislation has never been proclaimed into force. The result is a troubling vacuum: the province has legislated oversight in principle but refused to implement it in practice.
Instead of more oversight and accountability, Ontario is considering making deaths in custody inquests optional. Families who have lost loved ones in custody are concerned that eliminating mandatory inquests would be a profound step backward and that this change would deny families the opportunity to learn how their loved ones died.
The inquest process must be preserved; not diminished. Any procedural change should reflect the views of those who mourn the lives lost in custody and must not reduce the transparency and independence of the inquest process.
The Ontario Human Rights Commission recently stated:
Deaths that occur in correctional institutions warrant the highest level of scrutiny. People in Ontario’s correctional system are subject to complete state control over their lives. Where one of these lives is lost, it is incumbent on us as a society to probe into why and ask what should be done to prevent the same thing from happening again.
We agree. Inquests provide a pathway to the truth. They are safeguards for families, for the public, and for the integrity of our justice system. They reveal when other processes obscure. And they remain essential to preventing future tragedies like the one that took Soleiman’s life.
Howard Sapers is the Executive Director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the former Correctional Investigator for Canada. Yusuf Faqiri is the brother of Soleiman Faqiri.
About this blog: The John Howard Canada blog is intended to support greater public understanding of criminal justice issues. Blog content does not necessarily represent the views of John Howard Canada. All blog material may be reproduced freely for any non-profit purpose as long as the source is acknowledged. We welcome comments (moderated).
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