Mercedes Perez and co-counsel Karen Steward (Advocacy Centre for the Elderly) represented the intervenor Mental Health Legal Committee (MHLC) at the Supreme Court of Canada today in Ewert v. Canada. The case involved a Charter challenge to the Correctional Service of Canada’s use of psychiatric actuarial risk assessment tools, such as the Violence Risk Appraisal […]

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In a statement of claim filed in July 2017, Philip Alafe has sued the Brantford police over his treatment while he was held overnight in a police cell in July 2015.   Kelley Bryan and Alex Procope are representing Mr. Alafe in the claim. In April 2017, Justice Lenz of the Ontario Court of Justice stayed Mr. Alafe’s charges […]

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An Ontario judge has found that psychiatric patients at the Oak Ridge division of the Penetanguishene Mental Health Centre (today the Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care) endured gross violations of their human dignity and human rights and were tortured both mentally and physically while detained. The case was a multi-plaintiff proceeding commenced in 2000 […]

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The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario ruled on April 21, 2017 that the Peel police discriminated against Staff Sergeant BJ Sandhu when they failed to recommend him for promotion to the rank of Inspector.  The Tribunal found that Staff Sergeant Sandhu is a decorated officer whose excellent policing skills, combined with his cultural and linguistic […]

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Mercedes Perez was interviewed by the Lawyered podcast on three recent and important developments in mental health law:  a constitutional challenge to Ontario’s community treatment order regime;  the Charter jurisdiction of the Ontario Review Board; and long-term psychiatric detention under Ontario’s Mental Health Act following the Court of Appeal’s decision in P.S. v. Ontario. Lawyered […]

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Mercedes successfully represented the appellant in an appeal from a decision of the Ontario Review Board.  The Board had downgraded the appellant’s conditional discharge to a detention order.  On appeal, the Court of Appeal for Ontario agreed that the Board’s decision was unreasonable and restored the appellant’s conditional discharge.  Read the Court of Appeal’s decision […]

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