‘I’ll duct-tape your face’ RCMP pilot to testify at teen’s prison death inquest

TORONTO – An RCMP pilot seen in harrowing video as he threatened a teenaged inmate is slated to testify today at the inquest into her death.

Publication of the video showing Cpl. Stephane Pilon and Ashley Smith aboard a plane made headlines in October.

The images were taken as Smith, 19, was being transferred from a psychiatric prison in Saskatoon to a facility in Montreal.

The video shows Pilon warning Smith to behave.

At one point, he threatens: “I’ll duct-tape your face.”

Screening of the video in October following a two-year battle helped break open a legal logjam that had stalled the inquest.

On Wednesday, inquest jurors watched about 30 minutes of what coroner’s counsel Jocelyn Speyer said was three hours of video of the trip Smith made in April 2007.

In that section, the teen appears mostly relaxed and compliant as she sits in her seat, looking out the window from time to time.

At a given moment, however, correctional officers accompanying her decide she needs to be fully restrained.

Among other things, they put a “spit-hood” over her head and tie her to her seat as she starts to protest and the situation becomes increasingly unsettling.

Jurors will watch the rest of the video Thursday before Pilon testifies.

Smith’s family had long demanded the video be made public, but Correctional Service Canada fought its release every step of the way.

After a court sided with the family and part of the video was shown, Prime Minister Stephen Harper called CSC’s behaviour unacceptable and ordered prison authorities to co-operate with the inquest.

Smith was transferred from the Regional Psychiatric Centre after a supervising guard, John Tarala, was charged criminally with assaulting her there.

In testimony Wednesday, the chairwoman of a team that found Smith’s assault allegations founded expressed exasperation at the “code of silence” among correctional officers and staff.

Janet-Sue Hamilton, whose probe concluded that guards either refused to report misconduct or falsified their reports about it, said she didn’t know what could be done to break the silence.

Tarala was fired, but later acquitted of criminal assault charges.

Smith, of Moncton, N.B., was first arrested at 13 for assault and causing a disturbance.

She continued to find herself in trouble for making harassing phone calls and pulling a fire alarm, then was first thrown in jail at 15 for throwing crab apples at a postal worker.

Her sentence ballooned from days to years as time was added for numerous in-custody incidents.

After 17 transfers among nine institutions in under a year, she choked herself to death at a prison in Kitchener, Ont., in October 2007.