2 total
Accused found to remain unfit to stand trial; detention disposition maintained due to ongoing significant threat.
The Ontario Review Board held an annual hearing for an accused previously found unfit to stand trial on a charge of assault causing bodily harm.
The accused, who suffers from schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder, did not attend the hearing.
Applying the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision in R. v. Bharwani, the Board found the accused lacked a reality-based understanding to instruct counsel and remained unfit to stand trial.
The Board accepted uncontroverted medical evidence that the accused continues to pose a significant threat to public safety due to ongoing aggressive behaviours.
The Board maintained the detention disposition at the forensic psychiatric facility, with privileges for supervised community living, concluding a conditional discharge was inappropriate given the instability of the accused's mental state.
One-year mandatory minimum sentence for marijuana production declared unconstitutional under s. 12 of the Charter.
The accused pled guilty to producing marijuana and possessing marijuana for the purpose of trafficking after police found a 239-plant grow operation in his basement.
He brought a Charter application challenging the constitutionality of the one-year mandatory minimum sentence under s. 7(2)(b)(iii) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
The court found that while the minimum sentence was not grossly disproportionate for the accused himself, it would be grossly disproportionate in reasonably foreseeable hypothetical scenarios, such as a licensed producer making an honest mistake of law or a family member providing minor assistance.
The court declared the mandatory minimum provision unconstitutional under s. 12 of the Charter and found it could not be saved by s. 1.
