(LifeSiteNews) — The family of a Canadian woman who died following an altercation with hospital security guards because she was not wearing a mask has been left in “shock” and “horror” after an Ontario judge tossed out the case.
The manslaughter and criminal negligence charges against two Toronto General Hospital security guards – Amanda Rojas-Silva, 42, and Shane Hutley, 35 – following the May 2020 death of 43-year-old Danielle Stephanie Warriner, were thrown out by Sean Murphy, a judge with the Ontario Superior Court, according to recently released court documents.
Warriner, who suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), got into an altercation with the aforementioned guards on May 11, 2020, the day after she was admitted to the hospital for breathing problems and a cough.
The incident began after the two security personnel noticed Warriner was not wearing her mask properly. During the confrontation, Warriner was physically taken to the ground by the staff members and rendered unconscious. The woman never regained consciousness and ultimately died 16 days later.
With the trial against the security guards slated to begin this May, Warriner’s family and legal experts remain baffled with the judge’s unusual decision to drop all the charges pending against Rojas-Silva and Hutley.
Warriner’s sister Denise told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) that her first reaction to the news of the case’s dismissal was “shock, horror,” telling the outlet that “there’s been no accountability and there’s a gaping hole in my heart.”
Denise said her sister was not a large woman and was “clearly” feeling “unwell” at the time of the incident, and was already in “respiratory distress” upon her arrival to the hospital.
Summarizing the event, Denise accused the security guards of having “wrangled” her sister “to her death,” while maintaining that there was “no lawful reason for them to have ever put hands on her.”
“This ought to have been put to a trial,” she continued, adding that the guards were effectively “anointed with any use of powers, use of authority,” and ultimately in her sister’s case, a “license to kill.”
Beyond Denise, Toronto-based criminal lawyer Frank Addario also chimed in, telling the CBC that having a judge toss a case before trial in this manner is “not common.”
“The system is set up so after a preliminary inquiry, the cases are generally set on to trial because the bar to get a case sent on to trial is very low,” explained the lawyer, adding that in the rare case where the “bar is not exceeded with the evidence,” the judge’s obligation is to “screen it out.”
Famed Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson also weighed in on the case, writing on Twitter:
Outrageous but unsurprising: Canadian judge tosses case against guards who killed a woman for not wearing a mask https://t.co/YT6Q34JqV2
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) January 17, 2023
Video footage of the never-before-seen incident surfaces
Warriner went to the hospital on May 10, the day before the incident with the guards, experiencing shortness of breath and a cough. Hospital staff treated her as if she was COVID-positive, however, she later showed a negative COVID test.
Video footage of the incident, which was obtained by the CBC and had never been seen publicly, was recently released after a publication ban on Warriner’s case was lifted.
The video shows Warriner waiting in the hospital lobby with a mask around her chin, wearing a hospital gown.
She was then told to put her mask on by hospital security guards before they approached her. After the guards made their way to Warriner, the video shows the woman being pushed into a wall and forced onto the ground.
It is at this point in the video that the security camera panned away. The guard in charge of the camera testified that he got nervous and “panicked” and that is why he turned the camera.
Warriner was handcuffed and left unconscious from the incident, never to awake.
A coroner’s report following Warriner’s death noted the cause of death as a brain injury from a lack of oxygen due to “restraint asphyxia following struggle and exertion.”
The forensic pathologist testified that Warriner would have most likely been “alive today” if it were not for the struggle with the guards.
Prior to the release of the video, the guards had claimed that Warriner was the one who began physically assaulting them, something disproven by the footage.
As it stands now, the Crown says it will not be looking to appeal to have the case revived.
During the COVID-19 so-called pandemic, Canadians were subjected to mask mandates nationwide, in some areas for a period of two years.
This is despite many health officials, including Canada’s pandemic chief Dr. Theresa Tam, saying early on in 2020 that mask use would do little to prevent the spread of the highly-survivable virus.
In fact, multiple studies have proven masking to be ineffective at limiting the spread of the coronavirus. Other studies have shown that prolonged masking is even associated with negative health effects.