Court File and Parties

CITATION: R. v. Gardner, 2007 ONCA 905

DATE: 20071228

DOCKET: C46950

COURT OF APPEAL FOR ONTARIO

DOHERTY, SHARPE and GILLESE JJ.A.

BETWEEN:

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN

Respondent

and

CHAD GORDON GARDNER

Applicant/Appellant

Mercedes Perez for the appellant

Megan Stephens for the respondent

Edmund Huang for the administrator of Whitby Mental Health Centre

Heard: December 20, 2007

On appeal from the decision of Justice Nicholson Duncan McRea of the Ontario Review Board dated November 27, 2006.

APPEAL BOOK ENDORSEMENT

[1] We see no merit in the submission that the Board’s decision to refuse the appellant’s request that he be transferred to medium security was unreasonable. There was ample evidence to support the Board’s conclusion that the least restrictive means of controlling the conceded significant risk posed by the appellant is that he remain at Oak Ridge.

[2] Nor do we agree that ordering an independent assessment prior to the next annual review reveals uncertainty on the part of the Board. The Board was simply alive to the fact that there was something of an impasse in the appellant’s treatment and progress and that it would be prudent to have additional information from an outside source prior to the next review.

[3] This precautionary step by the Board does not reveal any gap in the evidence available at the time of the hearing.

[4] The appeal is dismissed.