Ontario Review Board
Re: Jason Murray
ORB File No: 6986
Hearing held on: Thursday, September 11, 2025
Place of hearing: St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton West 5th Campus, 100 West 5th Street
Pursuant to: Section 672.81(1) of the Criminal Code
Before:
Alternate Chairperson: Mr. C. MacIntyre, KC Members: Dr. P. Prendergast Dr. G. Nexhipi Mr. K. McKenna Mr. A. Mete
Parties Appearing:
Accused: Jason Murray Amicus Curiae: Mr. L. Dimitry The person in charge of hospital: Counsel: Mr. S. O’Brien Attorney General of Ontario: Counsel: Ms. J. McKenzie
REASONS FOR DISPOSITION
(Dated October 31, 2025)
Introduction
On July 7, 2016, Jason Murray was found not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder on charges of failure to comply with probation order (x5), carrying concealed weapon and mischief - not exceeding $5000, all contrary to the Criminal Code.
Mr. Murray is currently subject to an Ontario Review Board Disposition of September 19, 2024, which orders him discharged with conditions including that he reside at 402 - 89 King Street East, Hamilton, abstain from non-medical use of substances and on his consent, take treatment and medications pursuant to s. 672.55 of the Criminal Code.
On September 11, 2025, the Ontario Review Board convened at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton (“St. Joseph's”) to conduct Mr. Murray's annual review and to make a disposition further s. 672.81(1) of the Criminal Code.
Mr. Murray has not been represented by counsel for a few years and Mr. Len Dimitry has acted as his Amicus. Once again at this hearing, Mr. Dimitry was prepared to be appointed as Amicus and the Board made an order accordingly.
At the outset of the hearings, the parties were asked to present their positions. The hospital proposes a continuation of Mr. Murray's Conditional Discharge but recommends a removal of condition 1(c) that requires Mr. Murray to abstain absolutely from the non-medical use of alcohol or drugs or any other intoxicant.
The Attorney General joins the hospital in its submission, expecting to support the evidence to be heard by Dr. Shariati regarding the removal of the prohibition clause.
Mr. Murray agrees with the hospital’s recommendation.
Index Offences
A Hospital Report of August 18, 2025 authored by Dr. Shariati was entered as an exhibit. It includes an attachment from the Good Shepherd HOMES program of July 15, 2025.
The circumstances of the index offences are outlined in the Hospital Report taken from specific detail from the Crown Attorney’s case file synopsis for the NCR trial. The offences are summarized as follows:
On December 25, 2015, the accused was subject to a Probation Order of August 18, 2015, to keep the peace and be of good behaviour. On December 25, 2015, a witness discovered markings of the letter “V” on the front door of the Crisis Centre at 1675 Castle Street, North Bay, as well as on several other vehicle doors and other property at the site.
These markings were revealed to be made by the accused on a YouTube video. The estimated value of damage and cost to repair was approximately $400.00.
On January 13, 2016, the accused created a Facebook page and a YouTube account where he posted 268 videos. At the time he was subject to a Probation Order of September 9, 2014, which prohibited him from “not maintain or communicate through Facebook, Twitter”. By virtue of his posting these accounts he breached his Probation Order.
In many videos the accused follows unsuspecting people in North Bay while taking videos of them and he expresses hatred of Muslims, Germans and the Ontario Provincial Police. Tapes of OPP officers were taken without their knowledge. In other videos the accused made remarks that implied that certain people would be hunted including a local psychiatrist, President Obama and Presidential Candidate, Hillary Clinton.
On August 18, 2015, the accused was placed on probation with numerous conditions, including to keep the peace and be of good behaviour and “do not possess any weapon”.
On November 27, 2015, Mr. Murray received another Probation Order from the Court in relation to sentencing for assault with a weapon, uttering threats and failing to comply with Probation Order. This Probation Order required that he not possess any swords. On January 30, 2016, the accused was arrested after finding two knives on his person along with a makeshift sword with a homemade handle. As well, a quantity of suspected marijuana was also discovered and he had been consuming alcohol, both of these in contravention of an earlier Probation Order that he not buy, possess or consume alcohol or other intoxicating substances.
Background
The Hospital Report of August 18, 2025 contains considerable information regarding Mr. Murray's personal, criminal and psychiatric background and should be referred to for detail. Mr. Murray’s criminal record began on November 19, 2023, and includes convictions for resisting arrest, assault, mischief, assault peace officer, utter threats, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, assault with a weapon and failure to comply with probations.
During his interviews for his assessment for criminal responsibility, Mr. Murray reported that many of the offences took place in the context of alcohol use. He believed he was being targeted by police. He had posted threats on his Facebook page that appeared to target law enforcement. He spent nine months in jail for this offence and was released in March of 2015.
Following his release, he continued to experience paranoid delusions requiring his hospitalization in North Bay. His admission was characterized by threatening verbal and physical behaviour towards staff and his psychiatrist. Subsequently, at Waypoint Mental Health Centre in 2015, he was diagnosed with a delusional disorder, persecutory type.
According to the Hospital Report, Mr. Murray has consistently denied that he has a mental illness and had years where he had been concerned about cults and conspiracies.
He has had chronic difficulties with alcohol and drugs and has resisted treatment efforts and has long held anti-authority and anti-government views indicating a strong dislike of law enforcement members.
Mr. Murray has reported that he first used alcohol and marijuana at the age of 15. He had used ecstasy, magic mushrooms and Percocet and cocaine a number of times in the past.
Following Mr. Murray’s NCR finding, he was admitted to the forensic unit of the St. Joseph’s Hospital and was on a detention order for a number of years. He eventually received the privilege of living in the community in accommodation approved by the person in charge in 2020 and in September 2024, the Review Board issued a Conditional Discharge.
On August 21, 2023, he was discharged into the community to reside in an apartment subsidized by the Good Shepherd Program where he lives independently.
At Mr. Murray’s last Review Board hearing, the panel heard that Mr. Murray's mental status was stable with no positive psychotic symptoms and he had been compliant with his urine drug screens and medication. There were no incidents of violence or threats.
Evidence at Hearing
Mr. Murray’s current diagnoses are delusional disorder, and cannabis and alcohol use disorder in remission. He is considered treatment and financially capable. His mental status continues to be stable and this has resulted in a reduction of his reporting to his case manager and transitional case manager.
Mr. Murray has enjoyed passes to spend some time with his mother in Mattawa and he remains in contact with his family and friends by phone and Facebook.
Mr. Murray has been an active participant and engaged in programs, including a training course supporting people with substance dependencies and a DBT program focusing on building skills and mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation and interpersonal effectiveness. He has worked on a 1:1 basis with a substance abuse treatment nurse to develop relapse prevention skills.
Mr. Murray continues to live in the independent apartment provided by Good Shepherd. He now has a dog as a companion, and he has been cooperative with residential rules to maintain the cleanliness of his apartment while his dog was in training.
The psychological risk assessment of 2024 is considered valid and accurate today. It observes that when Mr. Murray is untreated, he poses a risk of physical and psychological harm to individuals he perceives as threatening, including, but not limited to healthcare professionals and law enforcement officers. When he believes he is at risk of physical and sexual harm, he may make verbal threats or behave aggressively.
The risk assessment deems that with medication and the external support of the forensic system, Mr. Murray poses a low risk for violence while under the Ontario Review Board’s authority.
Dr. Shariati has been Mr. Murray’s attending psychiatrist since October 2022. It is Dr. Shariati and the hospital team’s position, that despite his considerable advances, Mr. Murray is still a significant threat to the safety of the public. He still relies on the Forensic Outpatient Team for support and to manage his mental disorder and he has no non-forensic support in place should he be absolutely discharged from the forensic system.
Dr. Shariati testified that he and the hospital team see Mr. Murray as “inching closer to an absolute discharge”. The team hopes that Mr. Murray will continue as he has, including substance prevention programming. He would also likely benefit from more structured activities, of which employment is one. However, he chooses to not work at this point but seems focused on applying for a pardon of his criminal convictions so that he can return to work at Power Engineering. Mr. Murray's first job had been working as a Power Engineer and Process Operator at Suncor in Sarnia. In 2008, he had graduated from Lambton College in Sarnia with a diploma in Chemical Production and Power Engineering Technology. Mr. Murray has wished for some time now to return to this area of work, but he needs his criminal record expunged first and that is his goal.
Dr. Shariati would also need to connect Mr. Murray with a civil team in anticipation of an absolute discharge. At the present time there is no such structure in place.
The only notable incident mentioned in the Hospital Report took place on November 18, 2024. Mr. Murray was spotted waiting in a LCBO line to purchase alcohol. He admitted to staff that he was waiting to purchase alcohol and that he had earlier finished a pack of six “tallboys” while watching a hockey game. Subsequent random UDS samples all came back negative. Greater emphasis was made to engage him with the substance abuse nurse to support relapse prevention planning. Mr. Murray also attended the Canadian Mental Health Association Smart Recovery Program.
Dr. Shariati testified that Mr. Murray has been forthcoming. He had disclosed that he sometimes has cravings for alcohol, particularly when he is watching hockey. He did not feel that a state of mild intoxication was too serious compared to the past when he used to drink 12 beers at a time.
Mr. Murray is more certain that he would not return to the use of cannabis. He has acknowledged experiencing a return of psychotic symptoms after using cannabis.
With regard to the hospital recommendation to remove the substance use prohibition in Mr. Murray's Disposition, Dr. Shariati indicates that the hospital team is divided on the issue. One school of thought is that there should be no change and that the prohibition should remain in place. The alternative view is that the substance prohibition should be removed to measure his commitment to avoiding substances in the coming year. The proponents of this latter view assert that how he handles this would help formulate how to proceed in subsequent years.
When Dr. Shariati was asked what he would expect from Mr. Murray with respect to substance use were he to be given an absolute discharge today, he responded that no structure would be in place to follow up with Mr. Murray or monitor his substance use. The risk is really one of disinhibition. If Mr. Murray were to drink more, he would likely be inconsistent with or reduce his medication and/or fall off treatment and inevitably psychotic delusions would follow. His insight would fail, and he would present a similar risk to the safety of the public as he did at the time of the index offences.
Dr. Shariati is of the view that the Mental Health Act would be ineffective to act quickly enough, as an offence would have already taken place.
Dr. Shariati believes that Mr. Murray's compliance with keeping himself mentally stable and maintaining his medication is internally driven, but not so with substances.
Dr. Shariati testified that alcohol was involved at the time of the index offences. The Court’s Probation Order prohibited alcohol. In Dr. Shariati's view, Mr. Murray's thoughts about alcohol are somewhat ambivalent. He refers to the October incident when he was “caught” at the liquor store.
Dr. Shariati acknowledged that Mr. Murray does have some strong political views, but they do not border on the delusional.
Mr. Murray is currently tested for substances weekly, but Dr. Shariati agrees that this does not totally cover the opportunities that he might exercise to drink. Dr. Shariati does not believe that Mr. Murray has a pattern of drinking. Apart from the “six pack” incident and the fact that he was lining up for service at the liquor store, there may be only one or two other occasions in the last reporting period where his case manager has indicated he might have taken alcohol.
In general, Dr. Shariati testified that without controls in place, the potential is there for Mr. Murray to become a significant threat. Although he has been in the forensic hospital system for a number of years, he had many prior years of instability and it has taken many years to get his mental state to the point where he is currently. Relatively speaking, he has had a short period of time with treatment, and a long period of time without adequate treatment.
In submissions, the hospital counsel recognizes that an absolute discharge from Mr. Murray is on the horizon and that there is an argument for removing the substance prohibition to give him a chance to be motivated to abstain. Hospital counsel suggests that the coming year without the prohibition could be revealing. Counsel for the Attorney General agrees with the hospital. Mr. Dimitry acknowledged that Mr. Murray understands the significance of what is necessary to achieve an absolute discharge.
All parties have acknowledged that Mr. Murray continues to represent a significant threat to the safety of the public and the reasons for this, supported by the Board, are outlined in the Hospital Report and as provided by Dr. Shariati’s evidence. An excerpt from the Hospital Report’s clinical risk summary is as follows:
“Current risk is best understood as a vulnerability to relapse of psychotic symptoms under stress or if treatment intensity or monitoring were reduced. Alcohol has historically amplified risk, and during the current period he reported having consumed a six-pack of beers while watching hockey and expressed the view that such use was not harmful. While subsequent testing has been negative, this incident highlights that abstinence remains largely externally maintained at present. Protective factors include stable housing, cooperation with the team, reliable follow-up, and a generally prosocial routine, although independent structure remains limited.
Risk of violence remains low under ORB oversight with medication adherence and active follow-up, and would be expected to increase to the low–moderate range were those supports withdrawn. A Conditional Discharge continues to be the most necessary and appropriate disposition to meet the paramount consideration of public safety while supporting gradual reintegration.”
The Review Board has considered whether the substance abstention clause should be removed or remain in Mr. Murray’s conditional discharge. The Board observes that both the hospital team and the accused seem to be working generally towards an absolute discharge and partial planning is already in progress for this. The Board recognizes that by consuming alcohol in the past year and apparently intending to consume more when he was at the liquor store, Mr. Murray has breached a condition of his Disposition. This does not instill confidence in the Board that Mr. Murray could, on his own, abstain from substances including alcohol or that he can always be trusted to disclose his use with his hospital team.
Nonetheless, the Board agrees that at this point, when all other facets of Mr. Murray's rehabilitation seem to be going well, he should be given an opportunity to prove to himself and to his hospital team that they deserve his trust and that he can voluntarily and internally choose to avoid alcohol and other substances. Accordingly, section 1(b) will be removed from Mr. Murray's Conditional Discharge, but the testing provision will remain.
The Board concludes that the Conditional Discharge with the same terms and conditions but for the removal of the abstention clause, is necessary and appropriate for Mr. Murray and represents the least onerous and least restrictive Disposition for him.
DATED this 31st day of October 2025, at the City of Toronto, in the Region of Toronto.
Mr. C. MacIntyre, KC Alternate Chairperson
Office of the Registrar Ontario Review Board