Regis Korchinski-Paquet's mother questions purpose of coroner's inquest

Regis Korchinski-Paquet's mother questioned Tuesday the purpose of a coroner's inquest examining the circumstances of her daughter's death as she was pressed to clarify what she saw that day.

Claudette Beals was again shown excerpts of a video combining security footage from the hallway outside the apartment with audio from a police microphone as she resumed her testimony at the inquest.

Beals told the inquest last week she saw police push her daughter toward the balcony, causing the inquest to halt for several hours as counsel for the parties figured out how to move forward.

A lawyer representing one of the officers who was in the apartment when Korchinski-Paquet went over the balcony cross-examined her Tuesday, suggesting Beals was only inside the apartment for about a minute and also didn't understand what was happening at the time.

After one exchange, Beals said she didn't realize she was "going through a court case" or that the inquest was meant to "make police look better."

Moments later, she asked to take a break and the inquest paused for close to an hour.


The nearly 50-minute video, which in some parts includes audio from five 911 calls, has previously been played in its entirety.

Korchinski-Paquet, a 29-year-old Afro-Indigenous woman, fell to her death from a 24th-floor balcony while police were in the home on May 27, 2020.

The inquest has largely focused on her history of seizures from epilepsy and the episodes of confusion and aggressive behaviour that often followed, as well as police procedures and training.

A neurologist who did not treat her but examined her records testified that she'd shown symptoms in keeping with postictal delirium on several occasions in the years before her death. Postictal delirium is an altered mental state that can occur after seizures.

Korchinski-Paquet had experienced two seizures that day, one in the early morning and one in the early afternoon, her mother testified. Beals was one of three people to call 911, and she said she was hoping police would take her daughter to Toronto's Centre for Mental Health and Addiction.

On Tuesday, Beals said she felt police escalated the situation. She repeated her allegation that police pushed her daughter toward the balcony and added another that they'd pushed Korchinski-Paquet in the hallway. 

She said the incident was captured on video but agreed it wasn't in the stretch played for her Tuesday, which began with the officers' arrival at the building and continued past the point when Korchinski-Paquet went into the apartment with two officers.

The Special Investigations Unit, one of Ontario's police watchdog organizations, has cleared the officers of any wrongdoing in Korchinski-Paquet's death. The agency found she fell as she was trying to move from her apartment's balcony to the neighbouring one.

Jurors in a coroner's inquest do not assign blame or legal responsibility but can issue recommendations meant to prevent similar deaths in the future. Those recommendations are not binding, however.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 27, 2026.

By Paola Loriggio | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.