Mercedes Perez and lawyer Joanna Birenbaum are representing the Coalition for Gun Control at Nova Scotia’s Mass Casualty Commission. Final oral submissions were presented on September 22, 2022. Here is a link to media coverage of the Coalition’s comments and recommendations: CBC News, “What Both Sides of Gun Control Issue Want to See from the […]
Category: Media
On September 15, 2022, Mercedes Perez gave expert testimony at the Coroner’s Inquest into the death of Matthew Mahoney. Mercedes was summoned to provide expert evidence on Ontario’s psychiatric detention laws. Mr. Mahoney died in hospital on March 21, 2018 after an interaction with police in Windsor, Ontario. Media coverage of Mercedes’ testimony is available […]
Alex commented on two capacity cases in an article in this month’s The Walrus magazine. The article: Why Aren’t We Free to Age on Our Own Terms? discusses Public Guardians and incapacity findings across the country and is a great read. Disputing an incapacity finding is unfortunately not a straight forward task. The path to […]
In an application filed with the Human Rights Tribunal on International Women’s Day, Alex Petit-Thorne sheds light on how CUPE deals with sexual harassment internally. Kelley Bryan is representing Ms. Petit-Thorne in the claim. Ms. Petit-Thorne, a union member, made a sexual harassment complaint in November 2018 against Devin Lefebvre, CUPE Local 3903’s chairperson. Her […]
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. […]
Kelley commented today in The Lawyer’s Daily, on mental capacity issues arising in the case of Canadian boxing legend George Chuvalo. A recent ruling of the Superior Court (2018 ONSC 311) found that Mr. Chuvalo lacks mental capacity to decide whether to reconcile with his second wife. Two of his adult children from his first […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Kelley’s client, Kofi Patrong, successfully defeated an appeal by the Toronto police, affirming his right to sue the police over a gang-related shooting that left him with a permanent disability. Mr. Patrong was a teenager standing in his back yard when he was shot by a prominent gangster in Malvern, Scarborough. At the time, he […]