Re: Eleanor K. Wesley
ORB File No: 8116
Hearing held on: Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Place of hearing: North Bay Regional Health Centre – North Bay Site
Pursuant to: Section 672.81(1) of the Criminal Code
Before:
Alternate Chairperson: Ms. M. Labrosse
Members Dr. W. Johnston
Dr. G. Nexhipi
Hon. E. Kruzick
Ms. D. Smith
Parties Appearing:
Accused: Eleanor K. Wesley
Counsel: Ms. N.L. Sayers
The Person in charge of Hospital: Representative: Mr. R. Holden
Counsel: Mr. P. Trenker via Zoom
Attorney General of Ontario: Counsel: Ms. M. Mazurski
REASONS FOR DISPOSITION
(Dated December 2, 2025)
Introduction
On July 19, 2022, Eleanor Wesley was found not criminally responsible (“NCR”) on charges of assault with a weapon and utter threat to cause death or bodily harm, contrary to the Criminal Code of Canada.
Ms. Wesley is currently subject to a disposition of the Ontario Review Board, dated November 4, 2024, which detains her at the Forensic Program of the North Bay Regional Health Centre – North Bay Site, with privileges up to and including to live in the community within the catchment area of North Bay Regional Health Centre – North Bay Site in 24-hour supervised accommodation.
On October 8, 2025, the Ontario Review Board (“ORB”) convened a hearing at the North Bay Regional Health Centre, herein after referred to as “the hospital” to review Ms. Wesley’s disposition, pursuant to s. 672.81(1) of the Criminal Code. Ms. Wesley was present at the hearing and represented by counsel, Ms. N. Sayers.
The issues to be determined at this hearing were whether Ms. Wesley continues to represent a significant threat to the safety of the public, and if so, to determine the necessary and appropriate disposition having regard to the factors enunciated at s. 672.54 of the Criminal Code.
At the outset of the hearing the parties were canvassed as to their initial without prejudice positions for the hearing at which time the Board was presented with a joint submission that the maintenance of the current detention order on the same terms and conditions is the necessary and appropriate disposition for Ms. Wesley at this time. The joint submission was maintained at the conclusion of the hearing.
For the reasons set out below the Board finds that Ms. Wesley continues to represent a significant threat to the safety of the public and that the maintenance of the current disposition on the same terms and conditions remains necessary and appropriate and the least onerous and least restrictive disposition for the coming year.
Index Offences
- The circumstances of the index offence are extracted from last year’s Reasons for Disposition as follows:
“On April 28, 2022, at 7:49pm the accused, Eleanor WESLEY checked in to room #205 at the Super 8 Motel located at 730 Algonquin Boulevard East in the City of Timmins. The following morning at 6:00am a guest in a neighboring room called the front desk to advise that water running could be heard for the last few hours coming from room #205. The front desk clerk on shift called WESLEY’s room to check on her wellbeing and to advise her of the complaint. WESLEY became irate and attended the front desk where she began yelling and cursing at the front desk clerk. The clerk advised WESLEY that due to her behavior she was no longer permitted to stay at the motel. The clerk stated that she could wait in the front lobby until she could be picked up at 8:00am.
At 7:00am the victim, Alexy QUIRION, attended the motel to relieve the front desk clerk and start her shift. She was advised of the incident involving WESLEY. QUIRION noticed that WESLEY was continuing to swear and complain as she was no longer able to stay at the motel. QUIRION set up a new room key for WESLEY so that she could wait in her room until she was picked up. As QUIRION offered the key, WESLEY became irate and threatened to punch her. WESLEY then took her fresh cup of hot coffee and threw it in QUIRION’s face. WESLEY then threw her empty cup at QUIRION’s head and proceeded to leave the motel. QUIRION immediately contacted the Timmins Police Service to report the incident and requested paramedics to receive medical attention for her burns.
At 08:46hrs Constable DUFOUR and constable MORIN located WESLEY in the area of Algonquin Boulevard and Mountjoy Street. After a short foot pursuit WESLEY was arrested beside 31 Algonquin Boulevard West and advised that she was being charged with Assault with a Weapon and Uttering Threats. At 08:49hrs WESLEY was read her Rights to Counsel and caution to which she provided no response. WESLEY was held in police custody pending a bail hearing.”
Background History
- Ms. Wesley’s personal, legal, and psychiatric history is set out in detail in the hospital report. Briefly summarized, Ms. Wesley is 35 years of age and was born in Kashechewan (Cree First Nation) as the second child in a sibline of eight. She often had to care for her younger siblings and continues to be close to several of them. She left school after grade 9 and has a very limited employment history. She has been receiving ODSP since she was 22.
Substance Abuse History
Ms. Wesley has a significant history of using methamphetamine and other stimulants as well as cannabis. Substance abuse increased over time. According to Timmins and District Hospital records, when Ms. Wesley “uses illicit substances, there is often an acute and chronic deterioration and intoxication-like effect, leading to aggressive and unpredictable behaviour. Once free of the substances she usually settles quickly.”
Ms. Wesley also reports that she was also addicted to alcohol but that she had stopped after she relocated from Kapuskasing to Timmins.
Legal History
- Ms. Wesley’s criminal record dates back to 2014 and contains numerous convictions for breaches of court orders, minor property offences, mischief, assault, uttering threats, assault police and assault with a weapon. The full particulars of her criminal record are set out at pages 4-5 of the hospital report.
Psychiatric History
- The Assessment of criminal responsibility filed with the court at the NCR hearing stated:
Ms. Wesley has a long history of contact with mental health services. Ms. Wesley has received a number of psychiatric diagnoses including Schizophrenia, Substance Use Disorder, Substance Induced Psychosis, and Personality Disorder. Ms. Wesley is suspected to have Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder associated with an unspecified Intellectual Disability. Ms. Wesley’s significant early life adversity associated with emotional and behavioral de-regulation, including neglect, socio-economic deprivation, and being a victim of human trafficking, indicates a high likelihood of underlying Complex Trauma.
Ms. Wesley’s first contact with mental health services was when she was 16 and between 2014 and the date of the Index Offence there have been 20 admissions to hospital, generally of short duration.
Ms. Wesley’s current diagnoses are:
Schizophrenia
Substance Use Disorder, in remission in a controlled environment
Substance Induced Psychosis
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder associated with Mild Intellectual Disability
Evidence at the Hearing
The Hospital’s evidence was presented through its report and through the oral testimony of Dr. G. Munro who has been Ms. Wesley’s treating psychiatrist since March of 2024.
Dr. Munro testified that Ms. Wesley continues to be involved in the specialized program of Hummingbird Lodge which focuses on rehabilitation for women that have experienced serious trauma issues. Dr. Munro explained that the program is a triphasic model for treatment of trauma and provided some detail as to the three phases of that program. Ms. Wesley has a customized and individualized version of that program to address her cognitive and special needs.
Dr. Munro stated that Ms. Wesley is participating in many activities at Hummingbird Lodge and that there is emphasis placed on helping her establish community connections and understanding the ORB system. Ms. Wesley participates in a variety of activities including a breakfast club and compassion yoga, and she has been highly engaged in cultural activities that are available to her on the unit and through this program.
Dr. Munro described Ms. Wesley as “a pleasure to work with.” She is polite and cooperative, has not presented with any behavioural management issues, has been abstinent from substance use, and uses her privileges appropriately.
The plan for Ms. Wesley is to complete her transition to a supervised group home in Cobalt, Ontario, which is located 150 kilometres north of North Bay. Ms. Wesley’s preference was to find a location closer to Timmins where her family resides which is closer to her community of Kashechewan. Dr. Munro explained that Ms. Wesley visited some group homes in Timmins but was deemed to not be a fit for what was available there.
The group home in Cobalt has provisionally accepted Ms. Wesley but this acceptance is pending the approval of Developmental Services Ontario (“DSO”). Ms. Wesley visited the home during the summer and liked it, and the treatment team is working hard to finalize this transition. DSO must formally present Ms. Wesley’s profile to the residence and the residence must formally accept her. The hospital social worker, Ms. Erin Johns, explained this to the panel during the hearing and advised that she is following up with the group home and DSO approximately every two weeks. This process typically does take time given the limited turnover for these beds which tend to be long-term placements.
Dr. Munro explained that the treatment team’s work will not end once Ms. Wesley is transferred to the home in Cobalt as they will continue to look for another suitable bed in Timmins where Ms. Wesley ultimately would like to be. Dr. Munro described the placement in Cobalt as somewhat of a stepping stone to her ultimate goal of being closer to Timmins. Once Ms. Wesley becomes an outpatient, she will continue to be visited by members of her treatment team at her residence at least once per month and Dr. Munro will continue to be her attending psychiatrist.
Dr. Munro explained that Ms. Wesley had been utilizing her Passport Funding to attend outings from the hospital with a Passport worker, however this was discontinued for a period of time because the Passport worker who was taking patients out on these outings left the program, and it took some time to replace them. In the interim, Ms. Wesley had already decided that she no longer wished to participate in these activities.
In response to questions posed to her by counsel for the Attorney General, Ms. Mazurski, Dr. Munro confirmed that both the Cobalt home and potential homes in Timmins would fall within the catchment area of the North Bay Regional Hospital.
In response to questions posed to her by counsel for Ms. Wesley, Ms. Sayers, Dr. Munro stated that it was difficult to estimate how long the process might take for DSO approval and the final acceptance by the group home, but she hopes that it is a question of weeks or months and not years. Dr. Munro also confirmed that all the beds in this home are DSO beds and that the co-patients would be people who likely have intellectual disabilities.
With respect to questions posed to her by members of the panel, Dr. Munro confirmed that Ms. Wesley continues to struggle with a vision problem, blepharospasm, which causes her distress and affects her participation in outings from the hospital. Ms. Wesley had been treated with Botox, which is believed to have helped, though not in the opinion of Ms. Wesley. She is content to continue with the treatments. Unfortunately, there is currently no one at the hospital who is authorized by OHIP to administer these treatments under OHIP coverage. The hospital is looking for other ways to fund the treatments which cost $250 per treatment. Dr. Munro also stated that the hospital is looking into other potential causes for the blepharospasm such as possible side effects of medication though nothing has been determined so far.
Dr. Munro confirmed that Ms. Wesley has a fairly complex medication regimen to manage her diabetes and that she receives nursing support to manage it. It is Dr. Munro’s understanding that such nursing support will also be available for her when she is at the group home.
Dr. Munro believes that given that all of the beds in the Cobalt group home are DSO beds, it is unlikely that anyone else will be approved for the bed, which has essentially been set aside for Ms. Wesley.
Finally, Dr. Munro confirmed that Ms. Wesley is using her privileges including indirectly supervised hospital and grounds privileges and that though the hospital would support her in starting to utilize indirectly supervised community privileges, Ms. Wesley is reticent to do that because of her medical issues which she is concerned might cause complications for her when she is out of the hospital. Because of these concerns, Ms. Wesley has not yet expressed much interest in utilizing indirectly supervised community passes.
The Hospital Risk Assessment and Risk Summary are summarized at page 39 of the Hospital Report as follows:
Pre-Board discussions took place on August 7, 2025. The clinical team responsible for Ms. Wesley’s care agreed that she continues to pose a significant risk to the safety of the public, which must be of paramount consideration.
It remains Ms. Wesley’s treatment team unanimously agrees that she needs ongoing, vigilant monitoring and intervention within a controlled hospital environment. While she continues to make steady progress, she is still in the early stages of addressing her severe trauma from sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. Ms. Wesley needs consistent encouragement to participate in treatment and programming. Reducing restrictions now is very likely to cause her to disengage from treatment and mental health support. Given her history of substance use, without ongoing assistance, she is at high risk of relapsing into illicit drug use, which could significantly worsen her mental health.
Ms. Wesley is expected to transfer into a Community Living home in Cobalt in the near future. The Forensic Outreach Team will continue to work closely with Wesley during the transition. While doing so, it will be imperative that the Person in Charge maintain the authority to grant privileges as appropriate and to monitor her ability to manage in her new environment successfully. The team believes this transfer is vital to the continued progress of Ms. Wesley’s treatment.
- No other evidence was presented.
Analysis and Conclusion
Having considered all of the evidence presented at the hearing, and the joint submission of the parties, the Board finds that Ms. Wesley continues to meet the threshold of significant threat to the safety of the public as set out in s. 672.5401 of the Criminal Code of Canada and as further defined in Winko v. British Columbia (Forensic Psychiatric Institute), 1999 CanLII 694 (SCC), [1999] 2 SCR 625.
According to R. v. Winko, a significant threat to the safety of the public means a real risk of physical or psychological harm to members of the public that is serious in the sense of going beyond the merely trivial or annoying. The conduct giving rise to the harm must be criminal in nature. Further, it is noted that evidence to determine whether an individual is a significant threat to the safety of the public can include the past and expected course of the NCR accused’s treatment, if any, the present state of the NCR’s accused’s medical condition, the NCR accused’s own plan for the future, the support services existing for the NCR accused in the community, as well as other items.
Our finding that Ms. Wesley continues to pose a significant threat to the safety of the public is based on the fact that she suffers from a serious and persistent major mental illness and when she has been unwell, Ms. Wesley experiences psychotic symptoms that have included visual and auditory command hallucinations, paranoia, and thought disorder. She has displayed anger and hostility and has been threatening, intimidating and aggressive. Ms. Wesley has a long history of non-compliance with treatment, and her situation has been compounded by an extensive history of substance abuse and low cognitive functioning. We are satisfied that without an ORB disposition, Ms. Wesley would likely relapse into substance use, discontinue medication, and decompensate to the point where her paranoia and aggressive behaviour will lead her to reoffend.
Ms. Wesley has been engaged in the Hummingbird Lodge Program for Women and she is doing very well. A residence in Cobalt, Ontario has been identified for her and the DSO approval process must be completed which may take several months. It is important for Ms. Wesley that this be expedited, if possible, as she is ready for discharge, provided that it is to accommodation that provides her with adequate supports for her cognitive and complex medical needs.
We agree with the joint submission of the parties that the maintenance of the detention order, on the same terms and conditions remains necessary and appropriate and is the least onerous and least restrictive disposition. In coming to this conclusion, we have considered the four factors set out at s. 672.54 of the Criminal Code, mainly the protection of the public, which is the paramount consideration, the mental condition of the accused, her reintegration into society and her other needs.
DATED this 2nd day of December 2025, at the City of Toronto, in the Toronto Region.
Ms. Michèle Labrosse
Alternate Chairperson
Office of the Registrar
Ontario Review Board