An Ontario judge is set to deliver his sentence this afternoon in the case of a teen girl found guilty of manslaughter in a deadly swarming attack on a homeless Toronto man.

The girl was 14 when she and seven other teens attacked Kenneth Lee in a downtown Toronto parkette in December 2022. The 59-year-old died in hospital after undergoing emergency surgery.

All eight girls were charged with second-degree murder, and seven ended up pleading guilty to lesser charges — five to manslaughter, one to assault and one to assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm.

This girl also tried to plead guilty to manslaughter as her trial began earlier this year, but the Crown rejected her plea.

Months later, Ontario Justice Philip Campbell found her not guilty of second-degree murder but guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Prosecutors initially said they would ask for the girl to spend some time in custody as part of her sentence but changed course earlier this week, instead arguing for a 16-month probation sentence, with the first year under an intensive support and supervision program.

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The defence argues the girl should receive a sentence of 12 months of probation, with a minimum of six months in an intensive support and supervision program.

On Wednesday, the girl offered a tearful apology as she addressed the court, saying she accepts full responsibility for her actions and is making an effort to change herself for the better.

“I know nothing I say will ever change what happened, but I still want to say that I’m truly sorry and I accept full responsibility and I am making an effort to grow as a person and learn from it and I’m disappointed in the actions and decisions I made,” she said.

The late-night attack that shocked the city was captured on security video, and the footage served as the central piece of evidence at trial.

Prosecutors argued the girl was the one who fatally wounded Lee, stabbing him with a knife or small pair of scissors in the melee. The defence, however, argued it was impossible to tell from the video who stabbed Lee or when, noting Lee himself didn’t realize he’d been stabbed at the time.

No knife was recovered in the investigation, and the girl’s lawyers said she didn’t have one at any point that night.

At the time of her arrest, she had two small pairs of scissors and some tweezers, court heard.

Lee died from hemorrhagic shock after he was stabbed in the heart, the forensic pathologist who examined his body told the court. The pathologist testified it was unlikely the scissors found with the girl would have caused the wound to Lee’s heart, though they could have caused a smaller, non-fatal stab wound near his armpit.

Campbell said prosecutors had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the girl was responsible for the fatal injury, or that she had the state of mind required for murder.

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A York Region paramedic says she was looking forward to working in the field again after a six-year union leave, but she was abruptly fired last month over a Facebook comment criticizing Israel’s military actions in the Middle East.

“I was about to be back on an ambulance at the end of July,” Katherine Grzejszczak said Thursday in her first public comments about the case.

“I was actually really excited and looking forward to going back out, to being a paramedic.”

Instead, the veteran paramedic said she was fired on June 20 after she criticized Israel’s bombing of Gaza and several countries, and accused the country of starving Palestinian children and killing health-care workers in a comment on a union social media post.

The Regional Municipality of York said last month that officials launched an investigation into an employee’s “concerning comments on social media” on June 19, which led to a dismissal.

“I think it’s extremely unfortunate that we are here,” said Grzejszczak, who served on the Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario’s executive board.

“It’s not a good time, it has been an extremely emotionally difficult time for me.”

Grzejszczak told reporters that the comment she made was in line with her “professional obligations” as a health worker.

“I love my job as a paramedic because it is first and foremost about preserving life and alleviating suffering,” she said, adding that calling for an end to “a genocide is not a threat to public safety, it is public safety.”

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“I really hope that I’m soon reinstated so that I can continue using my life saving skills to serve the residents of York Region,” she said at a news conference, surrounded by supporters and union members.

Her dismissal has triggered concern among free speech advocates and lawyers who say it was a violation of Grzejszczak’s Charter rights.

“Whether one agrees or disagrees with the content of her Facebook post, she was exercising her Charter-protected right to freedom of expression,” Daniel Paré, a senior fellow at the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto Metropolitan University, said at the press conference.

He called on York Region to reinstate Grzejszczak, who has been a paramedic since 2010.

“She is to be judged on whether she meets her professional standards of care, not her political beliefs,” Paré said. “And let’s be clear, there has been no suggestion that Katherine’s political beliefs have ever resulted in any inappropriate treatment of any patient.”

Reached for comment Thursday, a spokesperson for the Regional Municipality of York forwarded the statement originally issued in June about an employee’s “concerning comments.”

Patrick Casey also said “there is no change from York Region since the matter was initially addressed.”

Krista Laing, the chair of CUPE Ontario Municipal Workers, said the entire process of firing Grzejszczak took less than 48 hours, and alleged there was no proper investigation.

She said the decision sets a precedent that should worry workers across the province, and CUPE will continue to fight for her reinstatement.

The Centre for Free Expression says it has seen an increase in the number of people being penalized for expressing their political views since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

The latest war in Gaza began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which militants killed 1,200 people and took roughly 250 hostages.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said earlier this week that the war’s toll among Palestinians had surpassed 60,000. The ministry, which operates under the Hamas government, doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians in its count, but has said that more than half of the dead are women and children.

The United Nations and other independent experts view its figures as the most reliable count of casualties. Israel has disputed the figures, saying it only targets militants and it blames civilian deaths on Hamas.

–With files from The Associated Press

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