Re: Barron Jenner
ORB File No: 4025
Hearing held on: Thursday, November 20, 2025
Place of hearing: Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care
Pursuant to: Section 672.81(1) of the Criminal Code
Before:
Alternate Chairperson: Mr. P. Capelle Members: Dr. R. Sheppard Dr. T. Stirpe Mr. D. D’Intino Mr. J. Cyr
Parties Appearing:
Accused: Barron Jenner Counsel: Mr. S. Gehl
The person in charge of hospital: Counsel: Ms. T. Newman
Attorney General of Ontario: Counsel: Ms. S. Curry
REASONS FOR DISPOSITION
(Dated December 22, 2025)
Introduction
1On August 4, 2011, Mr. Barron Jenner was found not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder, on a charge of mischief regarding use of property exceeding $5000, contrary to the Criminal Code of Canada (“Criminal Code”).
2Mr. Jenner is subject to a Disposition of the Ontario Review Board (the “Board”), dated November 27, 2024, which ordered that he be detained within the Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care – High Secure Provincial Forensic Programs, Penetanguishene (“Waypoint”).
3On November 20, 2025, a panel of the Ontario Review Board (“ORB”) convened in person – with the exception of Dr. Sheppard who appeared virtually - and a hearing was held at Waypoint. The purpose of the hearing was to determine if Mr. Jenner continues to represent a significant threat to the safety of the public as defined in the Criminal Code of Canada, and if so, the necessary and appropriate disposition.
4For the reasons set out below, the Board unanimously finds that Mr. Jenner meets the threshold for significant threat to the safety of the public and that the necessary and appropriate Disposition is a continuation of his current Detention Order Disposition with no changes to its terms and conditions.
Current Psychiatric Diagnoses:
5Schizophrenia; Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Index Offences:
6The facts giving rise to the index offences were set out in last year’s Reasons for Disposition and are summarized as follows:
“On May 18, 2004, at approximately 1800 hours Chatham-Kent Police were dispatched to the Thames Lea Restaurant. They were met by the owner of the restaurant who stated that Mr. Jenner had locked himself in the bathroom and was refusing to leave. He was advised that he had to leave the restaurant forthwith otherwise the owner would be contacting police. When police arrived, they advised Mr. Jenner to depart and that he was not welcome back at the restaurant for any reason. A short time later police were again called and upon arriving at the restaurant met Mr. Jenner, who was standing just inside it. Mr. Jenner was then arrested for mischief as he was obstructing and interfering with the lawful use of enjoyment and the operation of the property at Thames Lea Restaurant. He was transported to police headquarters. Police had dealt with Mr. Jenner 39 times between December 2003 and the index offence regarding trespassing issues.”
Without Prejudice Positions of the Parties:
At the commencement of the hearing, the parties were canvassed for their initial positions.
The Hospital took the position that Mr. Jenner meets the threshold for significant threat to the safety of the public and that the necessary and appropriate Disposition was a continuation of the existing Detention Order with no changes to its terms and conditions.
Counsel for the Attorney General supported the Hospital’s position.
Counsel for the accused took no position at the outset of the hearing and did not concede the presence of significant threat.
Evidence at the Hearing:
The Board had available to it the evidence and documents forming the Record, the Exhibits, and oral evidence from Dr. S. Bouskill, who is Mr. Jenner’s attending psychiatrist.
Dr. Bouskill testified by way of update to the Hospital Report that on November 18, 2025, the Consent and Capacity Board upheld her finding that Mr. Jenner was incapable of making treatment decisions.
On the issue of significant threat, Mr. Jenner continues to experience severe active symptoms of his obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and schizophrenia. He experiences ongoing paranoia – he believes others are acting to sabotage his progress through the forensic system – he misattributes environmental cues, has a low frustration tolerance leading to anger and he has superficial insight into his illness.
Dr. Bouskill explained that when Mr. Jenner’s anger is rooted in feelings of a lack of safety or that others are working against him, he often responds with verbal threats and physical gestures.
As it concerns his insight into his mental illness, Dr. Bouskill testified that Mr. Jenner’s insight into the need for medication is very superficial – he thinks he shouldn’t be taking Haldol at all and thinks that the side effects of the medication outweigh its benefits. If it were up to Mr. Jenner, he would not take the medication at all and he possesses little insight into the long-term need for him to continue with medication.
Dr. Bouskill explained that Mr. Jenner experienced a roughly three-year period of active psychosis – during two of which he was in seclusion – and this necessitated more aggressive treatment over a longer period of time than had been required in the past.
According to Dr. Bouskill, Mr. Jenner requires a high level of support to address his safety concerns and his severe symptoms of OCD, which he has little appreciation for. In the opinion of Dr. Bouskill, were Mr. Jenner no longer under the auspices of the Ontario Review Board, he would disengage from mental health services, cease taking his medication, become psychotic and would likely violently reoffend.
That being said, Dr. Bouskill emphasized that Mr. Jenner has made significant gains in the last twelve months, which the treatment team attributes to the medication. While Mr. Jenner has a very superficial understanding of the importance of his medication, he does appreciate that Haldol in particular has decreased his self-harming behaviours.
Dr. Bouskill further testified that Mr. Jenner was recently found incapable of making treatment decisions in relation to antidepressants which gives her hope that Mr. Jenner’s OCD symptoms can now be treated by reducing his obsessive and more rigid thoughts. She opined that it is difficult for Mr. Jenner to develop his autonomy when his thought process is preoccupied with his obsessions.
In response to questions from Mr. Gehl, Dr. Bouskill testified that Mr. Jenner is far more functional now with Haldol than he was prior to the introduction of that medication. She confirmed that Mr. Jenner has been at Waypoint for ten years and on Haldol for twenty years.
Dr. Bouskill opined that there is an acute risk of mental status decompensation if a change in medication were to occur and this is a concern because even with his current medication regime in place, Mr. Jenner has been violent in the Hospital and his mistrust of others is rather indiscriminate. She explained that Mr. Jenner has had a variable response to other medications in the past.
In response to a suggestion from Mr. Gehl that Mr. Jenner is only violent in the Hospital because of the environment and that he would not be violent if he was not in Hospital, Dr. Bouskill disagreed and made it clear that there is a correlation between Mr. Jenner’s violence toward others and his mental illness: when he is unwell and untreated, he is aggressive and violent and when he is adequately treated, he is less aggressive and less likely to be violent.
When asked by Mr. Gehl why Mr. Jenner needs to be at a high-secure facility like Waypoint and not somewhere else, Dr. Bouskill highlighted the prolonged period of instability Mr. Jenner has previously experienced, which in the past required lengthy periods of seclusion, and that Mr. Jenner requires significant external support from staff in order to move him back to the level of privileges he had previously achieved. She opined that if Mr. Jenner were moved to a medium security facility, they would not be equipped to meet these needs, and he would not likely enjoy the degree of privileges that he has now at Waypoint.
In response to questions from the Panel, Dr. Bouskill testified that Mr. Jenner does not present a risk of sexual violence toward others, his occasional comments of sexual violence notwithstanding, and that the greater risk to others is really of physical and psychological harm.
Dr. Bouskill further testified that when individuals such as Mr. Jenner are floridly psychotic for long periods of time - as he was during the aforementioned three-year period - it becomes more and more difficult for physicians to get that individual back to their mental status baseline. The longer and more frequent the patient is floridly psychotic (and untreated or inadequately treated), the higher the risk that the schizophrenia can become treatment resistant.
As Dr. Bouskill herself stated:
… And I think that's one of the main difficulties and concerns from our perspective in terms of Mr. Jenner's capacity, he very much disagrees. He does not appreciate that risk, and not only the length of time that he would be unwell, but we know that any period of acute psychosis can be damaging to the brain on a neurological level. People are at higher risk of not responding to the same medication that they had before, meaning that they end up being sicker for longer with every subsequent episode.
- Dr. Bouskill explained that Mr. Jenner had not been treated with Clozapine because at this juncture, his illness is not deemed to be treatment resistant. As she explained, the medication is working but Mr. Jenner has struggled with compliance and that historically he has had difficulty complying with oral medications (clozapine is an oral medication) in particular.
Analysis and Conclusions
Having heard and considered the entirety of the evidence as well as the submissions from the parties, the Board finds that Mr. Jenner does meet the threshold for significant threat to the safety of the public and finds that a continuation of the existing Detention Order Disposition is the least onerous and least restrictive, necessary, and appropriate Disposition in the circumstances.
A significant threat to the safety of the public cannot be speculative. It must entail a real risk of serious physical or psychological harm arising from conduct that is both serious and criminal in nature.
In determining whether Mr. Jenner represents a significant threat to the safety of the public, the Board has carefully analyzed the evidence as it relates to the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Winko, 1999 CanLII 694 (SCC), [1999] 2 S.C.R. 625 and the definition of the term in s. 672.5401 of the Criminal Code.
Mr. Jenner suffers from a psychotic disorder which is treated by his current medication regime and the structure and supports of the forensic mental health system. However, as set out in the testimony of Dr. Bouskill, Mr. Jenner continues to experience positive symptoms of his psychotic illness in spite of his medication compliance and that his progress is further complicated by his severe OCD.
Dr. Bouskill was clear that Mr. Jenner requires a high level of support in the forensic setting and even with that high degree of support and a seemingly effective medication, he remains prone to verbal aggression and low frustration tolerance.
Mr. Jenner has little insight into his illness and the long-term need for medication, and that lack of insight coupled with his severe OCD has negatively affected his progress through the forensic system.
The Panel finds that there was uncontradicted evidence on the record that supports the position of the Hospital that even while treated with antipsychotic medication in a highly secure and supportive setting, Mr. Jenner remains prone to verbal aggression and in the prior reporting year acts of physical violence as well.
The following passage from last year’s Reasons illustrates not only the significant threat to the safety of the public Mr. Jenner poses, but also demonstrates the significant improvement in his overall mental health in the past year:
As set out in the Hospital Report, prior to the commencement of Haldol, Mr. Jenner was causing significant injuries to himself. He was not eating. He was paralyzed by the symptoms of his psychosis and of his OCD. When his illnesses were at their greatest intensity, he was unable to come out of seclusion, because of his assaultive behaviour and threats.
There were a significant number of assaults on staff in the last reporting period. Mr. Jenner still becomes very angry, and threatening, with staff on a regular basis. However, since the beginning of his Haldol treatment, he has been able to maintain much better behavioural control. The frequency, and intensity, of his angry outbursts, threats and assaults have decreased.
Mr. Jenner has been able to come out of seclusion on a daily basis, and the duration of these periods of relief has been increasing. For the first time in years, Mr. Jenner has been able to attend the Pit Shop, and the canteen, with staff. He has also been able to leave the unit with staff, which has not happened in years.
While Mr. Jenner’s progress has been slower than what the team had hoped for, they have seen significant improvements in his mental state and behaviour. He appears to be less paralyzed by his symptoms of psychosis and OCD. He is more amenable to speaking with different staff members, and he is developing positive relationships with members beyond the team lead. He is also showing much greater cognitive flexibility. Recently, Mr. Jenner has demonstrated the ability to listen to what she has to say, and to wait for her to stop speaking, even if he does not agree with her.
- At the hearing, Mr. Gehl suggested that Mr. Jenner is only violent because of his environment and, therefore, if he was to be discharged into the community, these behaviours would disappear. The Panel does not accept this argument because it fails to recognize the mental stability associated with Mr. Jenner’s compliance with an oral antipsychotic within a forensic hospital milieu. The concerning circumstances that arose when Mr. Jenner discontinued his oral medication regime are described in the following excerpt from page 117 of the Hospital Report:
When Mr. Jenner stopped his Seroquel regimen he declined significantly. In a report from October 2023, Dr. Muraven referenced Mr. Jenner having assaulted five people and having attempted to assault eight more during the previous year. In January of 2024 he assaulted three staff members who required emergency care. He made frequent, detailed threats to kill and mutilate staff, particularly women, on a regular basis. Mr. Jenner also engaged in self-harm behaviours of increasing intensity causing significant injury, often head-banging or hitting himself in the face. Mr. Jenner broke his collar bone, and fractured his nose, and lacerated his forehead requiring stitches in addition to inflicting multiple head injuries on himself. Mr. Jenner's emotional dysregulation and thought disorder was so severe that on several occasions, after engaging in serious self-harm, he protested medical assessment or intervention, including transfer to the general hospital, against medical advice. Dr. Muraven noted that on one occasion it had taken five staff 20 minutes to intervene for his safety. Mr. Jenner also lost weight (20lbs) due to decreased intake driven by OCD related body dysmorphia as well as beliefs that his food was being poisoned. Within a five month period his body mass index decreased to a level similar to those with severe eating disorders.
The Panel was also swayed by the evidence of Dr. Bouskill concerning the long-term effects of being unmedicated or inadequately treated on persons with psychotic disorders: the longer they remain unmedicated or inadequately treated, the harder it is to get them back to their mental status baseline. Over time and with further periods of inadequate treatment, permanent damage to the brain can result and schizophrenia can become treatment resistant.
Given that Mr. Jenner has been in the forensic system for over three decades – the last ten years at Waypoint – the Panel finds that it is highly likely that, were Mr. Jenner not under the auspices of the Board, that he would disengage from treatment and coupled with his superficial insight, cease taking his medications, become unwell and commit acts of physical violence against others.
Mr. Gehl’s submission that his client’s risk is attributable to Mr. Jenner’s ongoing detention at Waypoint is not supported by the evidence. At page 116 of the Hospital Report, Mr. Jenner’s risk of recidivism was rated as “moderate/high in the current, well supported environment, and would be high should he be granted a transfer to a lower secure facility.”
In consideration of all the evidence, the submissions of the parties, the wishes of Mr. Jenner and the criteria set forth in s. 672.54, the paramount consideration being the safety of the public, in addition to the mental condition of Mr. Jenner, his reintegration into society and his other needs, the Panel finds that a continuation of the existing Detention Order Disposition with no changes to its terms and conditions is the necessary and appropriate Disposition.
DATED this 22nd day of December 2025, at the City of Toronto, in the Region of Toronto.
Mr. D. D’Intino Legal Member
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Office of the Registrar Ontario Review Board