Court File and Parties
ONTARIO COURT OF JUSTICE
COURT FILE No.: Toronto 4810 998 23 48116757 4810 9987 21 75005746
BETWEEN:
HIS MAJESTY THE KING
— AND —
TRISTAN CLARKE
Before: Justice André Chamberlain
Heard on: June 27, 2023, February 9, 11, 12, 13 and 18, 2026
Reasons for Judgment read: February 19, 2026
Released on: February 26, 2026
Counsel: Andrew Cox......................................................................................... counsel for the Crown Luba Szkambara.................................................. counsel for the accused Tristan Clarke
Reasons for Judgment
1On June 27, 2023, Mr. Clarke entered guilty pleas to three counts of robbery and two counts of disguise with intent, arising from two bank robberies and one convenience store robbery.
2The Crown seeks a dangerous offender designation pursuant to s. 753 of the Criminal Code, followed by a 10-year Long‑Term Supervision Order (LTSO). The parties jointly propose a further two-year penitentiary sentence in addition to his time served. Counsel on behalf of Mr. Clarke is not opposing the dangerous offender designation and agrees a 10-year LTSO order is appropriate
3The Agreed Statement of Facts reflects the following:
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) Robbery
4On December 2, 2021, at around 2:56 p.m., Tristian Clarke entered the CIBC branch at 3931 Don Mills Road in Toronto, Ontario. He wore a black-and-blue checkered shirt, black pants, a gray mask, sunglasses, and a black hat. Mr. Clarke approached bank employee Rajesh and handed him a crumpled note requesting “$2500.00 cash $100.00 bills,” while threatening he had a gun. Mr. Rajesh informed Mr. Clarke that the branch was cashless. Mr. Clarke then threatened Mr. Rajesh, asking if he wanted him to take out the gun.
5Mr. Rajesh led Mr. Clarke to the vault to show that there was no cash on-site. He then went to his office, retrieved $150.00 of his own money, and gave it to Tristan Clarke, who was disappointed with the amount. Mr. Clarke approached the branch manager, Debijani Gosh, and confirmed that the branch was cashless. Mr. Clarke then became distressed, unplugged Ms. Gosh’s charging phone, and exited with it.
Maple Leaf Convenience Store Robbery
6On December 2, 2021, around 4:11 p.m., Mr. Clarke entered the Maple Leaf Convenience Store at 445 Church Street, Toronto. He was dressed as he had been when he committed the robbery at the CIBC branch at 3931 Don Mills Road earlier that day: a black-and-blue checkered shirt, black pants, the same gray mask, sunglasses, and a black hat.
7Mr. Clarke approached the cash register, pulled out a knife, and pointed it at the store clerk, Xin Xu, gesturing toward the cash register. Ms. Xu opened the register and stepped aside. Mr. Clarke leaned over the counter, placing his bare hand on the lottery ticket cover, and emptied the cash register, taking about $400.00 in cash. He then escaped on foot.
8Toronto Police forensic experts examined the counter for fingerprints, and Mr. Clarke’s palm print was collected from the area he touched with his bare hand, as seen on the surveillance footage, as he took the money.
Scotiabank Robbery
9On Wednesday, December 15, 2021, at approximately 1:50 p.m., Mr. Clarke attended the Scotiabank branch at 2900 Steeles Avenue East in the City of Markham, Ontario. He was wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt, blue pants, and a green hat. His face was completely obscured by a black mask.
10Mr. Clarke spoke to a bank employee while waiting for a teller. He then approached one of the tellers and held up a note that read “give me all the money, I have a gun”. While in the bank, Mr. Clarke kept his hand in his pocket and made a motion as if he had a gun.
11The teller gathered $300.00 and a bait pack to give to Mr. Clarke, who came around the counter to collect the money. The bait pack resembled currency but contained a concealed GPS tracking device. Mr. Clarke then forced the other tellers to open their drawers in search of more money. Mr. Clarke exited the bank soon after.
12Mr. Clarke was located by police a short distance from the bank, wearing the same clothing he had worn during the bank robbery. The tracking device provided to Mr. Clarke by bank employees in the bait pack reported from the same location where he was found.
13Mr. Clarke was shot during his arrest. He had been in possession of an imitation Glock handgun (a BB gun) and a knife, both of which were recovered in the immediate vicinity of his arrest.
Background of Tristan Clarke
14Tristan Clarke’s life has been marked by significant adversity, instability, and untreated mental illness from a young age. The materials before the Court, aided by the testimony of Dr. Jonathan Gray, the author of the assessment report relied on by the Crown, describe an individual who has struggled for most of his life with the effects of schizophrenia, longstanding social marginalization, and an absence of the supports typically needed for healthy development.
15Mr. Clarke was born prematurely, with a low birth weight, and raised primarily by his mother and maternal grandparents. From childhood, he exhibited early behavioural and learning difficulties, including problems with executive functioning, task initiation, and school engagement. Although intellectually capable, he needed structured support and struggled with motivation and organization.
16His father was largely absent, and collateral information suggests a family history of severe mental illness, including schizophrenia. These biological vulnerabilities appear to have been compounded by a childhood marked by inconsistent caregiving, frequent school suspensions, and early contact with the child welfare and youth justice systems.
17By his mid-teens, Mr. Clarke began to show clear signs of psychosis, hearing voices, experiencing tactile hallucinations, and developing fixed paranoid beliefs. His symptoms were noted by teachers, probation officers, shelter workers, and eventually mental health professionals.
18He was diagnosed with schizophrenia several years ago, and the record reflects a chronic course including auditory hallucinations since approximately age 17–18; symptoms of paranoia, disorganization, and unusual sensory experiences. He has faced periods of involuntary psychiatric hospitalization and appears to have limited insight during much of his illness. Multiple psychiatrists, including Drs. Patel, Morgan, Eisen, Wesley, and Gray have confirmed the diagnosis over time.
19A central feature of Mr. Clarke’s life story is his chronic lack of housing, support, income, and social connections. He cycled repeatedly between shelters, the streets, hospitals, and custody. He was often evicted from shelters for behaviours directly related to untreated mental illness, such as paranoia, disorganization, appearing unwell, or failing to abide by program rules. Because he had no stable housing and was frequently denied places to stay, he lived in a near-constant state of persistent insecurity, vulnerability, and lack of predictability in material or psychological welfare, particularly stemming from unstable employment, low wages, and diminished social protections.
20This level of instability severely impeded his ability to maintain psychiatric treatment, attend appointments, or follow through with community programming. Entire stretches of his adult life were spent outdoors or in temporary shelter beds, and he routinely struggled to meet his basic needs for safety, food, and warmth.
Substance Use as a Coping Mechanism
21Mr. Clarke began using cannabis in early adolescence and has relied heavily on it, often using several grams per day, to manage distressing psychotic symptoms. He consistently described cannabis as helping him “cope” with voices and anxiety. Professionals have repeatedly noted that substance use worsened his symptoms and destabilized him, yet it appears to have been one of the few coping strategies he understood, relied upon, or had access to.
22Outside custody, he has had almost no sustained periods of abstention from cannabis, largely because homelessness, untreated mental illness, and a lack of supports left him without healthier alternatives.
Challenges in Treatment Compliance
23A pervasive theme in his history is difficulty maintaining psychiatric treatment in the community. This is a well-known feature of schizophrenia, especially when combined with homelessness and cognitive difficulties. To be clear, he tends to score in the average range on intelligence but has superior scores in visual reasoning and receptive and expressive vocabulary. I noticed these traits when Mr. Clarke engaged with me about the process or asked questions as the hearing went along. Dr. Gray, however, noted that significant challenges in executive functioning would make it difficult for Mr. Clarke to engage in any analysis of the changes he needs to make and how to do so. Although he has shown periods of stability while medicated, often in correctional settings, he has never managed to remain consistently compliant with medication outside of custody.
24Many clinicians recommended long-acting injectable antipsychotics to help him, but he consistently refused them due to fear of needles and apparent limited insight. When unmedicated, his symptoms have increased the likelihood of impulsive, confused, or fear-driven behaviour. I felt very encouraged by Mr. Clarke’s statement to me yesterday, suggesting he will seriously consider injectable treatments for his schizophrenia. I believe he would be best served with a longer-acting treatment, as often suggested by the doctors, to help maintain better and consistent engagement with his recovery.
Criminal History Overview
25Tristan Clarke’s involvement in the criminal justice system began in 2013, when he accumulated entries on his youth record for theft, failing to comply, threats, assault with a weapon, and robbery in 2014. One offence involved a serious facial slashing of another youth with a box cutter knife.
26Mr. Clarke’s adult offending is persistent, frequent, and highly repetitive, dominated by robberies (often with knives), thefts, break‑and‑enters, assaults, including assaults on peace officers, weapons offences, especially recurrent unlawful possession of knives and chronic failures to comply with release orders and terms of probation.
27Tristan Clarke’s last entries on his criminal record before his arrest for these offences were for robbery and robbery with violence in August 2021, an armed robbery, assault on a peace officer, possession of a weapon, and carrying a concealed weapon in June 2020. In 2017, he received a significant penitentiary sentence for three counts of armed robbery and for failing to comply with probation orders.
28It is worth noting that since the incident with the slashing of a young person’s face in his late youth, there has been no overt physical violence against the victims of his robberies, but Dr. Gray reports a troubling lack of appreciation for the psychological harm caused to victims by these robberies, in essence, suggesting he does not appreciate that the robbery itself, in the presence of or with the threat of a weapon, is itself a violent offence that causes significant harm and damage to the victims. As Dr. Gray noted in his report on page 4, in the section on Mr. Clarke’s perspective on the offences that bring him before the Court:
He said, “They should understand that the protocol is they give me money and I won’t hurt them”. He does not think he has caused them any long-lasting trauma.
29It is also worth noting that some of the persistent features of his recidivism include that almost all robberies were motivated by money (often for cannabis) rather than by expressive rage. He has been targeting strangers in businesses or public places, individuals who, by the nature of their public employment in financially based customer service industries, are vulnerable because of the work they do. Mr. Clarke’s offences are often impulsive and poorly planned.
30Many justices before me have tried to direct Tristan Clarke towards the rehabilitative supports he needs. Unfortunately, because of the many challenges and vulnerabilities noted above in the background section of these reasons, Mr. Clarke has nonetheless struggled to comply with probation orders, weapons prohibitions, conditions to report to halfway houses/CRFs, mental health appointments, or medication plans.
31I think it is worth noting that Dr. Gray feels that Mr. Clarke’s challenges with complying with court orders are not a willful defiance of the court or the process. The record shows that Mr. Clarke never successfully transitioned from custody into the community, despite multiple attempts. Each statutory release from federal custody failed within days, primarily because he was overwhelmed by symptoms, he had no stable housing, he lacked insight into his illness, he became disoriented or paranoid, or he simply could not navigate the expectations placed upon him. His difficulties should be characterized by a combination of cognitive limitations, psychosis, fear, and an inability to cope independently.
Legal Analysis: Designation of Dangerous Offender
32The application proceeds in two stages. First, the Court must determine whether Mr. Clarke meets the statutory criteria for designation as a dangerous offender. The robberies at issue were committed with threats of violence, including the use of a knife and threats of gun violence. These offences meet the definition of “serious personal injury offences” under s. 752.
33The designation as a dangerous offender requires the Crown to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Tristan Clarke poses a high likelihood of harmful recidivism and that his conduct is intractable in the sense that he is unable to surmount his behaviour. As the sentencing justice, I must assess Mr. Clarke’s prospective dangerousness through these criteria. I am required to consider all the evidence adduced at both the designation and penalty stages, although, analytically, the findings relate to different criteria. At the designation stage, I must consider whether treatability relates to the threat he poses to the community.
34I am satisfied that the pattern and risk criteria under s. 753(1)(a) have been established: Mr. Clarke has seven prior robbery convictions, each sharing common features: targeting strangers, threats of violence, and the use or possession of weapons (notably knives and an imitation handgun), and each featuring apparent impulsive motives to achieve short-term monetary gains. I also find that Mr. Clarke’s statement that “they should understand the protocol; they give me money and I won’t hurt them” reflects an indifference to the foreseeable psychological effects on victims. Dr. Gray observed in his assessment report that Mr. Clarke does not appear to appreciate those harms. I also find that the evidence before me demonstrates both a pattern of repetitive behaviour under s. 753(1)(a)(i) and a pattern of persistent aggressive behaviour under s. 753(1)(a)(ii).
35I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Tristan Clarke has met the statutory criteria under s. 753. Mr. Clarke is designated a dangerous offender.
36I note that this was presented as a global position, supported by counsel for Mr. Clarke, considering the overwhelming evidence in support of the Crown’s application.
Future Threat and Intractability
37The assessment of future dangerousness ensures that only those posing a serious future risk are designated as dangerous enough to face the possibility of indeterminate detention. However, section 753(4.1) properly interpreted (R. v. Boutilier, 2017 SCC 64), does not presumptively impose an indeterminate detention. It provides guidance on how the sentencing judge is to properly exercise the discretion to impose a fit sentence, having regard for the applicable objectives and principles of sentencing. The sentencing judge may exercise discretion among indeterminate detention, a long-term offender sentence, and a conventional sentence. The sentencing judge must consider the offender’s moral culpability, the seriousness of the offence, and mitigating factors in deciding whether a lesser sentence than indeterminate detention would sufficiently protect the public.
38Dr. Gray scored Mr. Clarke at +32 on the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide, placing him in the highest of nine risk categories, with an estimated 75% probability of violent reoffending within five years of opportunity and 90% within fifteen. Mr. Clarke is 29, far from the age at which such traits typically blunt. Periods of community stability between offences have shortened over time, and the past 9 years have shown consistent re-offending similar to the predicate offence that brings Tristan Clarke before me.
39Risk factors identified include: his antisocial personality disorder, known for being difficult and resistant to treatment; repeated acts of similar violence against strangers; ongoing cannabis use that impairs impulse control and may well aggravate his symptoms schizophrenia; unstable housing situations; lack of community support; impulsiveness; low motivation; and failure to follow antipsychotic medication regimens. Dr. Gray recommends that Mr. Clarke’s risk necessitate strong external controls. I am convinced that Mr. Clarke poses a future threat to the safety and mental health of others, and that his pattern of violence is unlikely to change without persistent, external oversight.
40I conclude, based on the record before me and in consideration of the review and assessment prepared by Dr. Gray, that no prior sentence, youth or adult, provincial or federal, has produced sustained behavioural change, reduced risk, or improved community functioning. Dr. Gray’s assessment concludes that Tristan Clarke’s criminogenic factors are entrenched, longstanding, and resistant to treatment. His risk is driven by an antisocial personality structure, schizophrenia, which remains poorly treated outside of custody, and chronic cannabis use, which appears to disinhibit him and interferes with engagement in treatment for his schizophrenia. Perhaps most significantly, effective risk management in the community is unlikely and would rely almost entirely on external controls (residential conditions, intensive supervision, enforced medication) to have any hope of success.
41The evidentiary record supports the conclusion that Mr. Clarke’s risk can be managed in the community through external controls and a stringent, lengthy LTSO with tailored conditions. There are clearly reduced moral culpability factors to consider, as noted above. Dr. Gray anticipates that breaches are likely and will result in reincarceration before more serious harm occurs. I am satisfied and adopt the parties’ joint position that, with an appropriate, structured, and supportive environment and staff, Tristan Clarke can be managed under a long-term supervision order for a period of 10 years.
Sentencing Phase
42Given Tristan Clarke's significant and related criminal record, and the repeated robberies of strangers, usually in convenience stores or banks, over the past 9 years, armed often with knives or imitation handguns, warrants a significant penitentiary sentence. A total sentence of 8 ½ years is well within the range. I am therefore adopting the joint submission on sentencing. The sentence, as structured below, also provides a good ‘runway’ to help give Tristan Clarke the opportunity to succeed, enabling him to adjust to his team at the institution and prepare for and support his release plan.
43Tristan Clarke has now served 1,528 real days, as of today’s date, February 19, 2026. He is entitled to Summers’ credit for time in custody served before he was sentenced for these offences. Total credit for time served will be 2,292 days, or 76 months 12 days, or 6 years, 4 months, and 12 days. The parties agree that, considering his time served, a sentence of a further two years in jail, or a further 730 days, will be imposed.
Recommendations for the Long-Term Supervision Order
44The Order may be reviewed, varied, or suspended in accordance with the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and the Criminal Code.
45The recommendations with respect to Tristan Clarke’s supervision order should be reviewed with the following considerations:
(1) I recommend that Tristan Clarke be supported in transitions to treatments and living accommodations, with a supportive staff person to accompany him for visits to help him have a better chance of success in transitioning from one institution to another. He would benefit from at least one, and perhaps multiple, visits before release to any structured living environment. Specifically, if he is being released to live anywhere other than an independent living situation, which he, perhaps unrealistically, hopes will happen, he will be more likely to attend if given the opportunity to visit with a staff member escorting him on day passes, perhaps on numerous occasions. This will give him an opportunity to have a more positive experience and discuss any concerns or worries he has in advance.
He is open and honest about his worries and concerns regarding new treatments, living arrangements, and other medical and psychiatric treatments. Supportive discussions with someone he trusts to help him through these transitions would increase his chances of success, and experience shows that, when reluctant, he will avoid engaging.
(2) I make a specific note of Dr. Jonathan Gray's recommendation on pages 55 and 56, which outlines the types of treatment Mr. Clarke may benefit from while in federal custody. Specifically:
(a) Substance abuse, with a focus on developing insight into the negative effects of cannabis on his mental illness and functioning. His risk is elevated when he uses cannabis given the disinhibiting effects, its contribution to his lack of motivation, and exacerbation of his psychotic symptoms which, by extension, would impair his ability to think through decisions rather than rely on "quick fix" solutions involving antisocial conduct, as well as decrease his retention of materials taught in treatment;
(b) Antisocial thinking and cognitive skills, to address his underlying ASPD and develop the ability to set reasonable, prosocial goals and attitudes and more effectively solve problems;
(c) Job skills programming or training, to enable Mr. Clarke to eventually develop more financial independence and structure to his day. This would reduce the risk of criminal behaviour to access more money;
(d) A life skills program to assist him in living more independently. This will be a challenge, given that Mr. Clarke has spent almost the entirety of his life since adolescence living in shelters, hospitals, or in custody. He has never lived independently for longer than a month or so, by my review of the records; and
(e) Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Psychosis or similar program to acquire coping skills to challenge the content of his auditory hallucinations and prevent acting on them.
Reasons Released February 26, 2026
Signed: Justice André Chamberlain