Re: Ebenezer Dadi
ORB File No: 8063
Hearing held on: Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Place of hearing: Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences 700 Gordon Street, Whitby
Pursuant to: Section 672.81(1) of the Criminal Code
Before:
Alternate Chairperson: Ms. C. Fromstein
Members: Dr. K. Hand Dr. J. Cheston Mr. C. Flanagan Ms. B. Naegele
Parties Appearing:
Accused: Ebenezer Dadi Counsel: Mr. A. Rai
The Person in charge of Hospital: Counsel: Ms. J. Szabo
Attorney General of Ontario: Counsel: Ms. N. MacDonald
REASONS FOR DISPOSITION
(Dated November 27, 2025)
Introduction:
- On April 22, 2022, Mr. Ebenezer Dadi was found not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder (“NCR”) on charges of assault with a weapon, forcible confinement and mischief under $5000, all contrary to the Criminal Code of Canada. He is currently subject to a Disposition dated March 14, 2024, detaining him on the general forensic unit of Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences (“Ontario Shores”) with privileges up to and including to live in the community in the Greater Toronto Area or Durham County, in approved accommodation. That Disposition was issued at an early hearing scheduled solely to deal with a transfer request from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (“CAMH”) General Forensic Unit to the Ontario Shores general forensic unit. This transfer request was granted as noted above.
Index Offences
- The details of the index offences are excerpted from the Hospital Report, Exhibit 1, as follows:
“Mr. Dadi and victim #1 have been involved in a romantic type relationship for approximately a year. They have no children in common and reside at separate addresses. On May 27, 2021, victim #1 attended 701-91 Cosburn Avenue, which is the Mr. Dadi’s home address. It is reported that Mr. Dadi wanted to have sex with victim #1, however she refused and ended up sleeping on the sofa. On May 28, 2021, victim#1 attempted to leave the apartment however Mr. Dadi refused to let her leave. At approximately 8:00 PM Mr. Dadi was upset and left his apartment with a knife in his hand.
Mr. Dadi and victim #2, resided in the same building and had interacted in the past. One interaction involved victim #2 calling police to report that she believed Mr. Dadi lit cat litter outside her apartment door. Mr. Dadi was listed as a Person of Interest in the occurrence. No charges were laid due to a lack of witnesses or video evidence.
On Friday May 28, 2021 at approximately 8:00 PM, Mr. Dadi was inside apartment 701- 91 Cosburn Avenue, in the City of Toronto. Mr. Dadi was in the possession of a knife and proceeded to leave the apartment and make his way to apartment 801 in the same building. The accused began to bang on the apartment door, causing damages to the door.
Victim #2 was inside the apartment 801 and looked out the peep hole and observed Mr. Dadi in the hallway. Mr. Dadi yelled, “Open the fucking door.” Fearing for her safety victim #2 called “911” to report the incident. Officers responded and observed Mr. Dadi in the hallway of the 8th floor holding a knife in his hand. Officers told the accused to drop the knife at which point he proceeded to the stairwell and made his way back to apartment 701.
Once inside apartment 701, Mr. Dadi said to victim #1, “I’m not going to leave alive and neither are you”. This was told to the victim while Mr. Dadi had the knife in his hand. Fearing for her safety the victim attempted to leave the apartment at which point Mr. Dadi pushed her onto the sofa. Victim#1 stood up and Mr. Dadi once again pushed her back onto the sofa refusing to let victim#1 leave the apartment. In total victim#1 was pushed 5 times onto the sofa as she was trying to leave the apartment. During this interaction Mr. Dadi was holding a knife in his hand.
Officers were standing outside apartment 701 and heard victim #1 screaming inside the apartment. Fearing for the victim’s safety officers forced the door and made their way into the apartment. Mr. Dadi was observed standing between the door and victim#1, preventing her from leaving. Officers observed that the accused was holding a knife in his right hand, the knife was observed to be approximately 6 to 7 inches long, with a black blade and a dark coloured handle. The knife was described being a hunting knife. Officers made several demands to Mr. Dadi to put the knife down. During this time Mr. Dadi was transferring the knife from his left hand to his right hand. During the entire interaction with officers Mr. Dadi had the knife in an upward manner in front of his chest and he was facing officers. Fearing for their safety officers deployed the less lethal shotgun providing officers the opportunity to safely arrest Mr. Dadi.
Mr. Dadi was arrested, advised of the reason for the arrest and provided with his rights to counsel. Mr. Dadi was transported to 55 Division, where he was held pending a show cause hearing.
It is noted that the damages included 6 punctures to the victim #2’s apartment door that appeared to have been made by the point of the knife.”
Position of the Parties
- At the outset of the hearing, the parties were canvassed as to their initial positions. Ms. Szabo, counsel for the hospital, indicated the hospital’s position is that Mr. Dadi remains a significant threat to the safety of the public and that a conditional discharge with conditions set out in the Hospital Report is that which is necessary and appropriate. Ms. MacDonald, counsel for the Crown, indicated her support for the hospital position. Mr. Rai, counsel to Mr. Dadi, indicated that his instructions are to join the hospital position. The defence is not contesting the issue of significant threat.
Background
Full details of Mr. Dadi’s personal and psychiatric background are set out in in the Hospital Report, Exhibit 1, and need not be repeated. Briefly summarized, he is presently 31 years of age. Mr. Dadi has no criminal record. Mr. Dadi has a good academic background and some college education.
Mr. Dadi was released on bail following the index offence which took place on May 28, 2021 but rearrested 11 days later. He was again released on bail in October 2021 and found not criminally responsible in August 2022. He had periods of homelessness. Following his NCR finding, Mr. Dadi was hospitalized at CAMH and transferred to Ontario Shores Forensic Program on March 14, 2025.
Mr. Dadi's diagnoses set out in the Hospital Report include unspecified schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorder, cannabis use disorder severe, in remission, and maladaptive personality traits. Dr. Pallandi queries the diagnoses, as set out in the evidence below.
Mr. Dadi began cannabis use in grade 9 and was using daily by the age of 20. He has a criminal record that includes his receiving a suspended sentence in 2021 following convictions for uttering death threats and possession of a weapons for a dangerous purpose during which he pushed his father and his sister and threatened to kill his sister while pointing a knife at her.
He has suffered symptoms of his mental illness since September 2020 with hospital admissions beginning in November 2020.
The Hospital Report notes that in November 2020, Mr. Dadi's father obtained a Form 2 for Mr. Dadi’s assessment in hospital. Mr. Dadi had been using more cannabis since the COVID epidemic when he had lost his job. He was discharged from hospital with diagnoses of cannabis abuse and cannabis induced mood disorder query. It is reported that following hospitalizations he has refused treatment and follow-up. He stopped using cannabis but his delusions did not stop and so he resumed its use. While at CAMH he had positive urine screens for cannabis but he denied smoking and said that this was possibly due to his being with friends who were smoking in their music studio.
While at CAMH he was not willing to have the team speak to his family. He requested during his tenure there to change doctors, to Dr. Benassi.
Mr. Dadi had a successful year in 2024 at CAMH, working 40 hours per week on community passes. He had hoped that his care would stay at CAMH even after he moved to his family home in Durham but the Board at the recent hearing issued his transfer to Ontario Shores. He has not been prescribed any antipsychotic at CAMH or following his discharge to the community. He was discharged to reside in his parents’ home in Durham in February 2025 and is now employed doing renovation work.
His transfer to Dr. Pallandi’s care has been quite recent. The Hospital Report noted that Mr. Dadi did not believe the accuracy of his mental health diagnoses and there are none specifically identified at the moment. All of his urine screens have been negative.
Dr. Pallandi gave evidence that Mr. Dadi had been under the care of Dr. Pearce and transferred to Dr. Pallandi eight weeks before the hearing. As a result, he does not know him very well. Mr. Dadi has been doing quite well. He transitioned well to Durham. He has been working part time. Dr. Pallandi said that in some circumstances, due to the recency of their contact, he might have opined that a detention order was necessary but balancing this with the facts that Mr. Dadi is doing well, that his urines have all been negative from substance use and that his abstinence from cannabis is the main factor regarding his risk, he feels that a conditional discharge is that which is at present necessary and appropriate. Mr. Dadi has engaged in no misconduct in the community and the transition to his family residence has appeared to have gone well.
There remains diagnostic uncertainty with respect to Mr. Dadi. It is uncertain at this time if his psychosis was all due to cannabis use or is there a mental disorder independent of that. It will require a greater passage of time and more continued abstinence from drug use to see if symptoms of a mental disorder resume. At this point Mr. Dadi is not experiencing any symptoms of psychosis. He has been abstaining from the use of marijuana and he is not prescribed any medication. Dr. Pallandi indicated that Mr. Dadi’s expressed attitudes towards ongoing abstinence from cannabis are that he says he feels better and plans to abstain but that he may, at some point in the future, return to its use. The extent of Mr. Dadi's marijuana use when he was most symptomatic was quite substantial.
Dr. Pallandi expressly hopes that Mr. Dadi's engagement with the treatment team will improve as we get to know him. He noted that in the Hospital Report that it was opined that if Mr. Dadi were to use cannabis he would deteriorate while subject to a conditional discharge and was not thought likely to be willing to return to hospital voluntarily. Dr. Pallandi testified that he does not know whether or not Mr. Dadi would do so. He confirmed that Mr. Dadi's last cannabis use was in 2022 though he did have some positive urine tests while at CAMH.
Mr. Dadi has not to date been willing to permit the treatment team to speak with his family with whom he is now residing. Dr. Pallandi indicated he does not know why Mr. Dadi is not willing to do so but it was encouraging that Mr. Dadi's mother was present at the hearing. No complaints from the family had been received. Ultimately, Mr. Dadi hopes at some point in the future to live independently.
The treatment team's plan for the upcoming year are to obtain more information from the family, survey that Mr. Dadi has not returned to cannabis use and provide clinical oversight to determine the diagnosis of whether he has a primary major mental illness, observing whether this becomes evident while he is not taking any medication. Mr. Dadi is living in the community, since February 2025, with his father, sister and mother. He meets with the Forensic Outpatient Service team weekly and has met twice on a monthly basis with Dr. Pallandi.
Dr. Pallandi was asked how the maladaptive personality traits, noted in the Hospital Report, influence Mr. Dadi’s risk. Dr. Pallandi noted there had been psychometric testing at CAMH and there was no evidence of psychopathology. However, his PCL-R score noted in the Hospital Report at 52 % is quite elevated. This percentage would likely translate to being in the high teens on the normal scoring out of 40. He noted that this is well above the population norm and that is in part where the potential diagnosis of maladaptive personality disorder comes from. There were further some indicators from his conduct at CAMH of a potentially more antisocial criminal mindset but there is no personality disorder diagnosis. The elevated PCL-R and some behavioural factors impact his risk in the community. Mr. Dadi, however, has been cooperative and agreeable so if there are any personality disorder attributes, they have not been seen. These are avenues that the treatment team must explore and learn more about.
Most of Mr. Dadi’s past problem conduct appears to be due to his substance use. Clearly, cannabis is a major trigger to his developing psychosis. Dr. Pallandi testified that Mr. Dadi recognized that he feels better not using cannabis and is remaining abstinent. He is now at this point completely stable with no psychotic symptoms. When Dr. Pallandi was asked Mr. Dadi’s expressed reasons for his willingness to remain abstinent Dr. Pallandi indicated that Mr. Dadi acknowledges that he was in a bad way when using and that it impacted his family, his getting a criminal charge and overall, functioning poorly. Dr. Pallandi does not have a good understanding at this point as to what Mr. Dadi’s future insight is into the risks of resuming cannabis use having regard to his having said to Dr. Slongway that he may in the future return to its use. This has not been explored yet with the treatment team. In light of the fact that Mr. Dadi has abstained from any cannabis use for a lengthy period of time, all his urine screens are negative, he has stable housing and no symptoms of a mental disorder, Dr. Pallandi stated it is his view that a detention order is not necessary for the protection of the public. He supports the conditional discharge as set out.
Dr. Pallandi was asked whether if Mr. Dadi had a positive urine screen would they bring him into hospital due to noncompliance or wait and see if any symptoms of a mental disorder resumed. He indicated that the team would investigate and question what clinical effect the use had on Mr. Dadi, if any, before taking any steps. It was in the context of heavy use that he had auditory hallucinations and paranoia, disordered thought, a loss of insight and ultimately the aggression of the index offence. It is unknown at this point whether Mr. Dadi has an underlying vulnerability to become psychotic in the absence of substance use. He opined that the Mental Health Act would not be able to be utilized to return him to hospital in the event of his resumption of substance use. There remains a diagnostic uncertainty. Dr. Pallandi is unable to say whether this is a substance induced disorder. It is possible that he independently suffers from a major mental illness that was exacerbated by substance use. The fact that Mr. Dadi was re-arrested while on release initially points to some past management issues in the community. He had also in the past refused treatment and follow up. Mr. Dadi has not been prescribed any medication during his tenure with the Review Board.
Mr. Dadi testified before the Board. He indicated that November of 2022 was the time of his last positive screen for cannabis use and he has not used since. He expressed that his reason for this is that it was stressed to him that THC was a catalyst for his offending behaviour. He indicated that he has lost a lot of time due to his hospitalization and the offence that he committed. He does not want to repeat that. He testified that he wants to be there for his friends and his family. In the absence of substance use, life for him is more positive. When he expressed to Dr. Slongway that he might reconsider substance use down the road, what he meant was this might be when he got into his elder years such as his 70s or 80s. He is sure he does not want the issues that took place leading up to the index offence to happen again. He does not want to put anyone through this again or put anyone in danger. When asked if he would return to hospital voluntarily if requested to by his treatment team, he indicated that he would and gave the reason that he does not want to put his family through anything again.
Mr. Dadi responded to questions indicating that his friends know what he is dealing with and they are very protective of him, ensuring that he does not use any substance. He says that this makes him appreciate the people that he has in his life. When asked what might happen if he used THC in the future, he expressed that it might result in him having auditory hallucinations which was a big part of what had taken place in the past. He said he does not want them again and does not want to experience those again. He said his ignorance at the time was a big part of it. He did not know at the time that he was hallucinating. He said that now that he understands this, if he picked up signs he could discuss it with his clinician etc., as well as signs of any symptoms.
Mr. Dadi was asked directly why he will not let the treatment team speak to his parents. He expressed that his parents had to sacrifice a lot; that they work very hard. They are open to communicate with the hospital but it is Mr. Dadi who has closed the door because he feels it inconveniences them and they have already been helping enough. His family have said that they will notify someone if they see any evidence of a resumption of symptoms of his mental disorder. He is currently working doing home renovations in the GTA. When it was put to Mr. Dadi that it might only be a phone call that his parents have with the team, he again reiterated that while they are open to it but he does not want to impact their schedules and it is his decision to not allow contact between the team and his family for those reasons.
Submissions
Ms. Szabo, on behalf of the hospital, submitted it is the hospital’s position that Mr. Dadi remains a significant threat to the safety of the public. The index offence took place recently in 2021 and the offence itself was quite concerning involving a weapon as well as Mr. Dadi’s behaviour when confronted by the police. It is only recently that Ontario Shores has assumed care of Mr. Dadi so the treatment team does not know him well. In part this may be due to a lack of transparency by Mr. Dadi but either way the team needs to get to know him better and build a rapport. It is not known when he might allow the team to speak with his parents. There remains diagnostic uncertainty and the team will try to determine this over the course of the upcoming year. She noted with respect to the risk of his resuming any cannabis use, that Mr. Dadi did test positive while he was under a Board disposition and knowing that its use was prohibited. Cannabis use is the most salient risk factor but in that he has not tested positive since 2022, it is the hospital position that a detention order is not required at this time and recommends the conditional discharge as set out.
Ms. MacDonald, on behalf of the Crown, agreed with the hospital position on disposition. She noted her concern that Mr. Dadi at the time of experiencing the symptoms of a mental disorder thought that cannabis played a role so he stopped using for a period of up to two weeks. However, since the symptoms continued despite stopping he then resumed his cannabis use. She submitted that this reflects a history of when he had trouble staying away from cannabis. She submitted that these are early days with Mr. Dadi’s treatment at Ontario Shores and that there is a lot of information that the doctors need to find out to assess, including what is going on in the family home. She said that at this point these factors support a finding of significant threat to the safety of the public and it is hoped that there will be a great deal more information available by the time of next year's hearing.
Mr. Rai, on behalf of Mr. Dadi, submitted his client has transitioned well, that he has not used any cannabis and has clarified what he meant when he spoke about future use. He noted that his client has indicated that he would return to hospital if requested to do so. At this point he wants to continue on his positive trajectory. He submitted that the least onerous and least restrictive disposition is the conditional discharge being proposed.
Analysis and Conclusion
The Board accepted the evidence of Dr. Pallandi and that set out in the Hospital Report. In reliance on the evidence and in consideration of the joint position of the parties the Board unanimously came to conclusion that at this time the evidence supports that Mr. Dadi is a significant threat to the safety of the public. In part that is due to the fact that these are very early days with respect to his treatment at Ontario Shores and investigation is needed to determine the issues of mental disorder and diagnoses. It is a concerning factor that Mr. Dadi will not permit the team to speak with his parents, despite the reason that he gave for this. It is hoped that that might change over the course of the year once he becomes more familiar with the treatment team and his knowledge of proceeding through the Ontario Review Board system.
It is clear that Mr. Dadi engaged in very substantial cannabis use leading up to the index offence and that he engaged in very serious actions involving aggression and a weapon. He has now had three years under Review Board supervision wherein he has shown no symptoms of a mental disorder and has not been prescribed any psychotropic medication. He is at this time living safely at the home of his family and enjoys his family support as well as that of good friends. Based on the lack of certainty that must be established with respect to his diagnosis and in light of all the background factors the Board does find unanimously that the conditional discharge proposed by the parties is that which is necessary and appropriate as well as least onerous and least restrictive.
The terms of the discharge will include:
i) that Mr. Dadi report to a person in charge of Ontario Shores or his or her designate not less than once per week;
ii) that he reside at 1316 Langley Circle, Oshawa, Ontario;
iii) that he abstain absolutely from the non-medical use of alcohol or drugs or any other intoxicants and submit samples of his urine and/or breath for the purpose of analyzing whether he has ingested alcohol, drugs or any other intoxicants;
iv) Mr. Dadi is also ordered to refrain from having in his possession any firearm or being in the company of any person possessing a firearm or other offensive weapon, other than a peace officer;
v) he is also ordered to refrain from contact or communication, direct or indirect with Lori Hargraves and Manal Awad;
vi) Mr. Dadi is required to advise the person in charge of the hospital in advance of any absence of his residence of 24 hours or more;
vii) keep the peace and be of good behaviour; and
viii) should Mr. Dadi be arrested, then pursuant to s. 672.92(1) of the Criminal Code he is to be delivered to Ontario Shores for a breach or an anticipated breach of the terms of this disposition.
- We make this disposition in consideration of the primary factor of protection of public safety, Mr. Dadi’s mental condition, his reintegration into the community and his other needs.
DATED this 27^th^ day of November 2025, at the City of Toronto, in the Toronto Region.
Ms. C. Fromstein Alternate Chairperson
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Office of the Registrar Ontario Review Board