Police Misled Public On Mysterious Death Of Jewish Billionaire, Lawyer Says
Image by Nikki Casey
By Aiden Pink January 10, 2018
A lawyer for the family of Canadian Jewish philanthropists Barry and Honey Sherman, who were found hanged in their Toronto home last month under yet-unsolved circumstances, is saying that police acted irresponsibly in publicly disclosing that there were no signs of forced entry into the house.
“It’s simply absurd,” attorney Brian Greenspan told The Globe and Mail.
“You have to know a lot more before that becomes meaningful and before that becomes public,” he added. “Because the public may draw from that an inference that is just wrong and misleading.”
Greenspan explained that releasing that information led the public to believe that the case was a murder-suicide, which friends and family believe is not true. He told the Toronto Sun that there were many possible alternative explanations for not having signs of forced entry, including someone having a key to their home, or one of the Shermans opening the door after hearing the doorbell.
Toronto Police declined to comment on Greenspan’s claims, other than to say the investigation is ongoing. The family has hired their own investigators to look into the case.
Barry Sherman was the founder of the pharmaceutical company Apotex, and was worth an estimated $3.5 billion at the time of his death. Although he made enemies of rival businessmen and some family members who felt cut out of his profits, he and his wife were widely respected for their philanthropy supporting Canadian and Jewish causes.
Read more about the Sherman case here.
Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
