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 […]
Category: Notable Cases
Kelley Bryan, along with Karen Spector representing the intervener ARCH, appeared in the Court of Appeal on March 24, 2017 to argue that individuals in the civil mental health system should be able to assert Charter rights before the Consent and Capacity Board. Currently, if a person’s Charter rights are violated while in psychiatric […]
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 was appointed amicus curiae by the Ontario Court of Appeal in a treatment incapacity appeal. She made arguments supporting the appellant’s position that she was capable of making psychiatric treatment decisions. Read the Court’s decision here. […]
Mercedes successfully represented the parents of a six year older boy on life support at the Hospital for Sick Children. The hospital sought to remove the boy from a life support system called ECMO, a decision his parents opposed. The Consent and Capacity Board agreed with Mercedes that the parents were making treatment decisions in […]
Mercedes Perez was co-counsel to the interveners Mental Health Legal Committee and the HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic in a successful judicial review application in Divisional Court. The case determined that a transgendered person who initiated a complaint against a doctor to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario was not thereafter prevented from […]
Along with Suzan Fraser of Fraser Advocacy, Kelley represented the Mental Health Legal Committee in an intervention before the Court of Appeal for Ontario. The case addressed, in part, the duty of fairness owed by the Ontario Review Board to accused persons. In particular, the Court accepted that the Board should disclose to an NCR accused […]
Kelley successfully represented a client with mental health issues before the Court of Appeal for Ontario. The case of Re Osawe was an appeal from a decision of the Ontario Review Board. On appeal, the Court of Appeal decided for the first time that the Board must give an accused person notice of its inclination […]
Mercedes was successful before the Court of Appeal for Ontario in a precedent setting constitutional challenge to Ontario’s Mental Health Act. Mercedes represented a deaf man who had been detained at the maximum secure unit of the Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care for almost two decades. In the case of PS, a five-judge panel […]
Mercedes Perez and lawyer Suzan Fraser represented the intervener Mental Health Legal Committee at the Supreme Court of Canada in an appeal that arose in the context of ongoing bed shortages within forensic psychiatric facilities in Ontario. The Supreme Court’s decision in R. v. Conception is available here. […]