The appellants, in separate incidents, committed violent acts while in states of drug-induced psychosis and automatism.
At trial, they were precluded from raising the defence of non-mental disorder automatism due to section 33.1 of the Criminal Code, which removes the defence for violence-based offences where automatism is self-induced by voluntary intoxication.
The Court of Appeal held that section 33.1 violates sections 7 and 11(d) of the Charter by permitting convictions without proof of voluntariness or the requisite fault element, and by substituting voluntary intoxication for the essential elements of the offence.
The Court further held that these violations could not be saved under section 1 of the Charter.
Section 33.1 was declared to be of no force or effect.
The appeals were allowed, with a new trial ordered for one appellant and acquittals entered for the other on the violence-based charges.
