Mercedes Perez and lawyer Anita Szigeti represented the intervener Mental Health Legal Committee at the Supreme Court of Canada in a case that considered the Superior Court’s jurisdiction to appoint amicus curiae and to fix the amicus’ rate of renumeration.  Read the Supreme Court’s decision in Ontario v. Criminal Lawyers’ Association of Ontario here. […]

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Mercedes spoke at a Canadian Bar Association professional development program with lawyers Lonny Rosen and Valerie Wise.   The program was titled “Civil Commitment under the Mental Health Act:  Does ‘Brian’s Law’ Go too Far?”.  Mercedes spoke about her work representing the applicants in a constitutional challenge to the Box B and community treatment order […]

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Mercedes and lawyer Marshall Swadron successfully argued that costs should be awarded in an unsuccessful public interest constitutional challenge. Costs in the amount of $100,000 were awarded to the Empowerment Council in its Charter challenge to the Box B and community treatment order provisions in Ontario’s Mental Health Act. This was a notable accomplishment given […]

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Mercedes spoke to protestors outside Toronto Police Headquarters who were demanding a full public inquiry into the deaths of mentally ill persons involved in interactions with police.  The protest followed the shooting death by police of Michael Eligon who had left a psychiatric facility and was found in downtown Toronto wearing a hospital gown and […]

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