Mercedes was quoted in a Toronto Star article detailing a “landmark” successful Charter challenge to the Mental Health Act. Mercedes represented the appellant P.S. in the precedent setting case before the Ontario Court of Appeal of a deaf man detained for almost two decades at the Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care. The Court of […]
Tag: Social Justice Litigation
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. […]
Mercedes spoke at an event on “Mental Health in the Canadian Justice System” to commemorate International Prisoners’ Justice Day. The event was organized by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Legal Aid Ontario. The poster for the event is available here. […]
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. […]
Mercedes was co-counsel to the interveners Mental Health Legal Committee and the HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario in a life support case heard by the Supreme Court of Canada. In Cuthbertson v. Rasouli, a majority of the Supreme Court agreed that end of life treatment decisions require consent and life support cannot be terminated […]
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 […]
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 […]
Mercedes was co-counsel to the applicants in a constitutional challenge to the Box B and community treatment order provisions in Ontario’s Mental Health Act. Read the Superior Court’s decision. […]
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 […]