Ontario Review Board
Re: Christian Perron
ORB File No: 8485
Hearing held on: Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Place of Hearing: Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre
Pursuant to: Section 672.47(1) of the Criminal Code
Before:
Alternate Chairperson: Mr. P. Hageraats
Members: Dr. S. Lessard
Dr. R. Cormier
Mr. A. Bouvier
Parties Appearing:
Accused: Christian Perron
Counsel: Ms. M. Lord
Person in charge of hospital: Representative: Dr. M. Strike
Attorney-General of Ontario: Counsel: Ms. M. Dufort
REASONS FOR DISPOSITION
(Dated March 6, 2025)
Introduction
On February 7, 2024, Christian Perron appeared in Court on charges of assault causing bodily harm, possession of a weapon for a purpose dangerous to the public, and breach of probation, offences contrary to the Criminal Code of Canada.
The court received expert psychiatric evidence establishing that Mr. Perron was suffering from a severe mental disorder when he committed the offences. Based on that evidence, the Court ruled Mr. Perron was not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder (NCR).
Rather than render a disposition, the Court required Mr. Perron to appear before the Ontario Review Board (ORB or “the Board”) for the Board to render a disposition. On Tuesday, January 14, 2025, Mr. Perron appeared before a Board panel at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre (ROMHC or “the hospital”). He was represented by counsel, Ms. M. Lord. The hearing proceeded in the French language.
At the hearing, the Board received direct testimony from the newly involved forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Melanie Strike. In addition, documents were filed in evidence, including the following:
Warrant for Committal – February 7, 2024
Release Order – February 7, 2024
CPIC – Criminal Record
Ottawa Police Charge Sheet
Court Information - October 20, 2023
Disposition Hearing Outcome – February 7, 2024
Assessment Order – Crim Resp – November 8, 2024
NCR Report, dated January 24, 2024
Hospital Report for the ORB, dated May 27, 2024
Updated Hospital Report, dated December 31, 2024
The issues to be considered by the Board are whether Mr. Perron presents a significant risk to the safety of the public, and, if so, to determine the necessary and appropriate disposition.
Positions of the Parties
- The Board was presented with a joint submission by all three parties, namely that Mr. Perron continues to present a significant threat and that, to manage the level of threat, a detention order on recommended terms and conditions is necessary and appropriate. For the reasons set out below, the Board adopted the joint submission.
Current Psychiatric Diagnoses
Schizophrenia
Substance Use Disorder: methamphetamines, cannabis
- Mr. Perron recently began treatment with psychiatric medication: Abilify Maintena 400mg, intramuscular every four weeks.
Index Offence
- The circumstances are described in the police and court documents and in the hospital report. In summary:
On October 20, 2023, Christian Perron was the subject of three separate Quebec Court of Justice probation orders requiring that he keep the peace and be of good behavior. On that date, shortly after midnight, he was involved in a physical altercation with another adult male in the Byward Market area of Ottawa. Mr. Perron used a silver foldable pocketknife to stab the victim numerous times in the upper body. The victim sustained three wounds approximately one inch in length on his right bicep, left shoulder, and the right side of the chest. Mr. Perron then fled quickly on a bicycle.
Within minutes, responding police officers located Mr. Perron near the Shepherds of Good Hope homeless shelter. As they approached Mr. Perron, he began biking away from officers and subsequently fled on foot. Upon apprehension, he was handcuffed to the rear. When Cst. Bird searched him, the silver foldable pocketknife was found concealed in Mr. Perron’s front hoodie pocket and seized.
Later, when interviewed at the Ottawa Police cell block on Elgin Street, Mr. Perron provided an inculpatory statement. He admitted to using the pocketknife to stab the male victim. He claimed he was “protecting himself” at the time.
Personal Background
Mr. Perron is 29. He is a resident of Gatineau, Quebec. His mother, Christine, lives in nearby Aylmer, Quebec. Mr. Perron is the oldest of two children. His childhood development was normal. When he was four years of age, the parents separated. At first, custody was shared between the mother and the father. After several months, the mother had full custody. Mr. Perron would see his father during the summer months.
Mr. Perron’s father, John Perron, lives east of Gatineau, in Masson-Angers, Quebec. He attended the present ORB hearing and has been trying to support his son in recent years. This has included assisting him with living expenses. John Perron also signed on as a bail surety to secure Christian Perron’s release from custody, following the NCR Court finding of February 7, 2024.
Mr. Perron started school at the age of 5. He had difficulty with concentration and attention and other learning issues. In high school, he had to repeat a grade. At age 16, he withdrew from school without finishing. He did not go on to complete his high school degree, although Mr. Perron did later attempt to take some subjects in adult high school.
Mr. Perron has been involved with psychiatric care from a young age. At age 5, he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and provided with Ritalin. At age 17, he was hospitalized for psychosis. Dr. Roger Labonté provided psychiatric care until Mr. Perron was 20.
For several years, Mr. Perron has been under the care of Dr. Walid Darwich. He was diagnosed with Schizophrenia. From age 21, he was prescribed psychiatric medication, with which he has complied, to varying degrees. Over the years, Mr. Perron has had involuntary psychiatric admissions on ten to fifteen occasions to either the Gatineau hospital or the Pierre-Janet psychiatric hospital in Hull, Quebec.
The record of criminal offences extends from 2020, when Mr. Perron was 24, until May 2023. Numerous convictions have involved violence. These include assaults by weapon, assault, indecent acts, threatening, possession of substances and several breaches of court orders.
Mr. Perron began using cannabis at the age of 16. At age 21, he started consuming amphetamines (speed). In about 2022, he replaced this with methamphetamine (crystal meth). Methamphetamine became his drug of choice, with daily consumption at about one gram per week. By the summer of 2023, Mr. Perron was using crack cocaine almost daily.
Mr. Perron reports not using much alcohol. He consumed Psilocybin (magic mushrooms) on a few occasions, about two to four times yearly, until March 2023.
Course Following the NCR Finding
After his arrest on October 20, 2023, Mr. Perron was incarcerated at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Center (OCDC). Following the February 2024 NCR court finding, Mr. Perron was released on bail. The court-ordered release document, dated February 7, 2024, required that he reside at a treatment centre for substance abuse, Le Domaine Perce-Neige, in Sherbrooke, Quebec.
Mr. Perron was required to not leave that address and to follow the routine and discipline of the facility at all times. The bail order further required that, Mr. Perron could only leave if accompanied by their personnel or as authorized by Perce-Neige.
In addition to other bail terms regarding weapons, substances, and having to stay away from the victim, Mr. Perron was ordered to follow all directions provided to him by the ROMHC, including to attend at meetings and assessments, as required.
To guarantee Mr. Perron’s compliance with release conditions, his father, John Perron, presented himself as a surety, signing a non-cash bond in the amount of $1500.
As required by his bail order, Mr. Perron was able to get himself to the treatment facility in Sherbrooke. However, he only stayed for a very short time before leaving without authorization. By April 2024, he was arrested in the Province of Quebec, facing new charges, for which he spent more time in jail.
By May 21, 2024, neither Dr. Bourget nor Mr. Perron’s counsel, Ms. Lord, had had any contact with Mr. Perron. He was in breach of the court’s release terms in several respects.
Mr. Perron failed to appear at his initial ORB hearing set for June 13, 2024. A pattern of non-appearances repeated itself on subsequent dates through the months of August and September 2024. Neither the ROMHC nor Dr. Bourget received any information from Christian Perron as to his whereabouts or intentions. When Dr. Bourget eventually reached the father, John Perron, he assured Dr. Bourget that he would inform the hospital should his son’s whereabouts become known to him.
It was later learned that for the many months leading to Mr. Perron’s arrest on December 19, 2024, he had been living on his own in an apartment in Gatineau. This was with the knowledge and financial assistance of John Perron and in contravention of the Ottawa court-ordered terms of bail release dated February 7, 2024.
John Perron reported that when he gave his son money in 2024 for rent and groceries, Christian Perron instead spent it on drugs.
Following Mr. Perron’s arrest in December 2024, the father went to clean out his son’s apartment. He discovered what he believed to be crystal meth and a bong. The apartment was in disorder and infested with cockroaches.
Mr. Perron remains in custody at the OCDC. The hospital social worker, Steve Su, has started the process of engaging with Mr. Perron by visiting him at the jail.
Mr. Su was also successful at arranging with Mr. Perron’s mother for Mr. Perron to receive a first dose of long-acting psychiatric medication shortly before Mr. Perron’s re-incarceration in December 2024.
Mr. Perron has started to express some hope about changing his future, sharing that he no longer wants to continue smoking hard drugs because they did not make him feel good. He admitted to having consumed hard drugs, crystal meth and crack at about once or twice weekly and that he was still smoking cannabis daily. He had been earning income as a gay escort and reported receiving up to one thousand dollars for each date.
The father, John Perron has shared some information about his son, including mention of past concerning sexual behaviours, even in public. John Perron described his son as very unpredictable. When psychotic he would be physically aggressive towards the father, to the point of striking John Perron on two occasions. John Perron added that when his son is not well, he generally goes to his mother’s home in Aylmer. John Perron described the mother in uncomplimentary terms, claiming she is an alcoholic and a drug user.
When Dr. Bourget assessed him in late 2023 regarding criminal responsibility, Mr. Perron denied having any psychiatric symptoms, nor experiencing any voices or delusional thoughts. He explained that hard drugs have not affected him and that he feels perfectly normal. In his more recent discussions with Mr. Su, the social worker, Mr. Perron denied experiencing any side effects from the newly prescribed psychiatric medication.
In her last report dated December 31, 2024, Dr. Bourget notes that Mr. Perron’s mother, Christine, reports being exasperated by her many efforts over the years to help her son. She is accepting of the present situation and hopes things will change with a new treatment regime about to start under the ORB mandate.
Dr. Bourget concludes her report, advising that Christian Perron presents a significant threat to the safety of the public. In Dr. Bourget’s opinion, Mr. Perron remains at high risk to reoffend. In her recommendation to the Board, Dr. Bourget advises that a detention order is required to provide a more complete formal risk assessment.
Evidence at the Hearing
The Board also received direct expert testimony from Dr. Melanie Strike, Forensic Psychiatrist with the ROMHC. Dr. Strike is not the author of the hospital report. However, she had reviewed all the materials, including the hospital reports. She provided further explanations to the Board while responding to questions.
Dr. Strike adopted the various findings made by Dr. Bourget in the hospital reports. Dr. Strike believes Mr. Perron is very much in need of ongoing psychiatric treatment, including with current medication being prescribed. Just as importantly, Mr. Perron will need intensive involvement in addictions treatment. Dr. Strike is open to the idea that Mr. Perron be permitted to attend a formal residential treatment facility for substance abuse, while bound by formal terms of an ORB detention order.
The Board heard additional testimony from the hospital social worker, Mr. Su. As noted above, Mr. Su’s involvement with the patient is quite recent. Mr. Su was able to shed some light, albeit limited, on Mr. Perron’s activities after the patient had absconded from the Sherbrooke treatment facility in early 2024.
Dr. Strike and Mr. Su are coming up with a treatment plan that will see the hospital social worker provide ongoing assistance. For now, the hospital is trying to locate a forensic bed at the ROMHC.
Before the evidence concluded, suggestions were made about the possibility of having Mr. Perron hospitalized, not at the ROMHC, but, instead, at the Brockville Mental Health Centre (BMHC). It was thought it might be quicker to locate a free bed in Brockville rather than at Ottawa. Dr. Strike also noted the possibility of placement at a local group home in Ottawa that would offer 24-7 supervision.
The parties called no further evidence.
Submissions of the Parties
- As noted above, the Board received a joint submission, that Mr. Perron does present a significant threat to the safety of the public, requiring a formal detention order under the mandate of the ORB.
Conclusions and Disposition
Based on the undisputed evidence, and supported by the appropriate joint submission, the Board had no difficulty concluding that Mr. Christian Perron currently presents a significant threat to public safety. This is based on the long-standing diagnosis of severe mental disorder. Mr. Perron’s Schizophrenia has not been adequately treated over the years. It has led to his involvement in serious violent offences, as shown by the index offence and the prior history of repeated violence to others.
Mr. Perron’s psychiatric treatment has been complicated by an unceasing pattern of drug consumption involving dangerous hard drugs. Despite the Court’s well-intentioned effort to assist Mr. Perron at having him attend residential treatment following the last court date in Ottawa, Mr. Perron saw fit to disengage from the treatment program which had been carefully arranged for him in Sherbrooke and which he desperately needed. Following events in Quebec in the Spring of 2024, Mr. Perron went about on his own frolic for more than half a year, before being finally apprehended by police and mental health authorities.
As noted by both Dr. Strike and Dr. Bourget, Mr. Perron’s trajectory has been quite difficult, to say the least. His long-standing mental illness will require careful reassessment of his psychiatric needs in terms of renewed pharmacological intervention. Drug seeking behaviours, in which he has displayed both alacrity and commitment, need to be strictly controlled. This is in addition to the obvious need that he begin intensive treatment for a most concerning substance use disorder.
Mr. Perron very easily meets the threshold of significant risk. Based on the evidence, this panel assesses his current risk to reoffend as medium to high. Given the combination of factors, it is not realistic to consider any form of disposition other than a detention order. This panel does not see it as realistic for Mr. Perron, in the coming twelve months, to progress to the stage where he would qualify for independent living in the community.
In that light, Mr. Perron is presently not a suitable candidate for release to any treatment facility, short of a secure forensic hospital unit. That said, in the less likely - but conceivably possible - event that Mr. Perron’s trajectory may evolve to the point of his showing dramatic improvement, we are prepared to include a term involving community living, but only in accommodation which is to be approved by the hospital. While we do not anticipate this will likely develop, it may offer Mr. Perron some encouragement and hope, spurring him to make his very best efforts to comply fully with treatment and the hospital’s other recommendations.
For these reasons, having regard to the primary consideration of public safety, and balancing the patient’s mental condition, his reintegration, and other needs, a detention order is provided. Terms and conditions are set out in the formal disposition.
We thank the parties and counsel for their assistance.
DATED this 6^th^ day of March 2025, at the City of Toronto, in the Toronto Region.
Mr. P. Hageraats
Alternate Chairperson
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Office of the Registrar
Ontario Review Board