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 […]
Category: Notable Cases
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]