PBP Lawyers participated in a consultation session with the Law Commission of Ontario on its “Improving the Last Stages of Life” project. This project considers how the law impacts the rights and choices for persons who are dying and their caregivers. The Law Commission is conducting consultations throughout the province in order to better identify […]
Tag: Perez
The Law and Mental Disorder Association (LAMDA) has prepared an open letter to the anonymous donor of $100 million to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, urging that some portion of the very generous donation be directed to meet some of the needs of those suffering with mental health issues. Perez Bryan Procope LLP […]
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 […]
Mercedes Perez was awarded one of the Mental Health Legal Committee’s 20th anniversary advocacy awards. The award recognizes excellence in advocacy in mental health law. The other recipients of this award were Jennifer Chambers and Lucy Costa (Empowerment Council) and lawyer Christel Francis. The Mental Health Legal Committee (MHLC) was formed in 1997 by a […]
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 […]
Vincent Li’s killing of Tim McLean on a Greyhound bus in July 2008 is one of the most widely-publicized crimes in recent Canadian history. Mr. Li, then a 40-year-old in an undiagnosed psychotic state, stabbed and beheaded Tim McLean, a stranger beside him on the bus. Mr. Li was found not criminally responsible on account […]
Mercedes was part of a teaching panel in the training program for students at Parkdale Community Legal Services. Mercedes spoke about capacity to instruct counsel and representing clients with mental health disabilities. […]
Mercedes presented at a training program for students at Parkdale Community Legal Services. Mercedes spoke about capacity to instruct counsel and representing clients with mental health disabilities. […]
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 […]
Mercedes Perez co-authored a paper with lawyers Tess Sheldon and Karen Spector analyzing the Charter’s liberty and equality protections for persons detained in psychiatric facilities. The paper is titled “Re-Centering Equality: The Interplay Between Sections 7 and 15 of the Charter in Challenges to Psychiatric Detention” and was published in the March 2016 issue of […]