Mercedes Perez is representing the Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario at the coroner’s inquest into the death of Soleiman Faqiri. To date, the inquest has heard from numerous witnesses describing the conditions of Mr. Faqiri’s confinement at the Central East Correctional Centre where he died on December 15, 2016 while awaiting a court-ordered psychiatric assessment. […]
Tag: Notable Cases
Mercedes Perez is representing the Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario at the Coroner’s inquest into the death of Soleiman Faqiri. The inquest is being held virtually, began today and is scheduled for 15 days. It is being streamed live daily through this link. Mr. Faqiri died at the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, Ontario […]
The family of a Sudbury man, Andrew Martin, has filed a civil claim against the Greater Sudbury Police Service in relation to Andrew’s death in December 2020. Andrew drowned in Lake Nepahwin after falling through the ice. Andrew struggled with mental health issues and his family had reported him missing. The lawsuit was filed after […]
Kelley Bryan, with co-counsel Karen Spector and Professor Tess Sheldon, appeared at the Supreme Court of Canada on January 12 and 13, 2022 in Attorney General of British Columbia v. Council of Canadians with Disabilities. The Supreme Court is considering whether constitutional litigation may be brought by public interest organizations without an individual co-plaintiff. Public […]
Today, a judge of the Superior Court of Justice ordered bail in a bail review case in part due to concerns over potential outbreaks of COVID-19 within Ontario prisons. In R. v. J.S., the court found a material change in circumstances and granted bail, specifically commenting as follows: “In my view, the greatly elevated risk […]
Mercedes Perez successfully represented a patient detained at the Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care in a hospital transfer appeal. The patient had been civilly detained at Waypoint’s maximum secure unit pursuant to provisions in Ontario’s Mental Health Act. He applied to the Consent and Capacity Board for a transfer to the North Bay Regional […]
Mercedes Perez, appointed by the Superior Court of Justice as amicus curiae, successfully raised procedural fairness issues in an appeal from a treatment incapacity decision of the Consent and Capacity Board. The decision has been published in the March 15, 2019 edition of the Ontario Reports. The appellant suffered from schizaffective disorder and had been […]
In Rae v. Collins, the Ontario Court of Justice considered the rarely invoked detention powers in Ontario’s Health Protection and Promotion Act (“HPPA”) in the context of a man infected with tuberculosis. In this unreported case, Mercedes Perez successfully argued that the quarantine detention powers should be subject to a minimally intrusive standard; that is, […]
Mercedes represented a client in a complex New Brunswick Review Board hearing this week. Media coverage from the CBC is available here and at this link. […]
Mercedes Perez along with Karen Steward of the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly represented the Mental Health Legal Committee (MHLC) in an intervention at the Supreme Court of Canada in Ewert v. Canada. The decision was released on June 13, 2018. The Supreme Court’s decision was a big win for prisoners of Indigenous descent who […]