Re: Wesam El Asala
ORB File No: 8352
Hearing held on: Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Place of hearing: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health 1001 Queen Street West, Toronto
Pursuant to: Section 672.81(1) of the Criminal Code
Before: Alternate Chairperson: Mr. C. Fraser Members: Dr. W. Johnston Dr. H. Moulden Ms. C. Murray Mr. J. Cyr
Parties Appearing: Accused: Wesam El Asala Counsel: Ms. U. Kancharla (via Zoom)
The Person in charge of Hospital: Representative: Dr. S. Chatterjee
Attorney General of Ontario: Counsel: Ms. V. Culp
REASONS FOR DISPOSITION
(Dated April 10, 2025)
On June 26, 2023, Wesam El Asala was found not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder (“NCR”) on charges of attempt murder (x3), criminal harassment (x3), and weapons dangerous, all contrary to the Criminal Code of Canada (the “Criminal Code”).
On February 26, 2025, a panel of the Ontario Review Board (“Board” or “panel”) convened to review Mr. El Asala’s current Disposition pursuant to s. 672.81(1) of the Criminal Code. At the time of the hearing, Mr. El Asala was ordered detained at the Forensic Service of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (“CAMH” or “the hospital”), with privileges up to and including entering the community of the Greater Toronto Area escorted by staff.
Mr. El Asala was present for his hearing. He was represented by counsel, Ms. Uma Kancharla, throughout the proceedings.
A Hospital Report dated November 18, 2024, was entered as Exhibit 1. An Order of the Ontario Court of Justice dated September 5, 2023, is entered as Exhibit 2.
The issues to be determined are whether Mr. El Asala continues to represent a significant threat to the safety of the public, and if so, the necessary and appropriate Disposition to manage that risk having regard to the criteria set out in s. 672.54 of the Criminal Code.
For the reasons set out below and based on the evidence and opinions before us, the Board found that Mr. El Asala continues to represent a significant threat to the safety of the public. The Board finds that a Detention Disposition at the Forensic Service of CAMH is the necessary and appropriate Order having regard to the safety of the public, which is the paramount concern, and also having regard to Mr. El Asala’s mental health, reintegration into society, and his other needs.
At the commencement of the hearing, the parties were canvassed for their without prejudice positions. The hospital took the position that Mr. El Asala continues to represent a significant threat to the safety of the public and the necessary and appropriate Disposition is a continuation of the current Detention Disposition on the same terms as last year with the addition of community living in approved accommodation.
Counsel for the Attorney General, Ms. Culp, at the outset of the hearing, agreed with the position of the hospital but wished to reserve their position regarding community living until hearing all evidence. At the conclusion of the hearing, counsel for the Attorney General supported the recommendation of the hospital for community living to be included in the Disposition.
Counsel for Mr. El Asala, Ms. Uma Kancharla, conceded significant threat and agreed with the hospital’s recommendations. She also wished to raise the issue of supervised access to Mr. El Asala’s youngest child.
The Hospital Report sets out the details of the index offence, which were contained in an Agreed Statement of Fact placed in the record before Justice Martins, which is briefly summarized as follows:
The complainant and Mr. El Asala were married in June 2009 and resided together at the time of the index offences. On March 7th, 2022, police received a 911 call indicating that “a man who is completely naked just stabbed his wife there is lots of blood on his hands he is hitting her in the face and hitting her in the head with a hammer.” Police attended and located the female victim in the driveway with extensive injuries to her face and head. She had numerous stab wounds around her body. Mr. El Asala was found coming out of his residence, wearing only a t-shirt and underwear, holding their uninjured two-year-old son. Mr. El Asala was verbally non-responsive to police. He had a stab wound to his leg.
The eleven-year-old son was found with a neighbour. He was bleeding and had stab wounds to his back and arms. The female complainant was rushed to hospital in critical condition with multiple injuries. The older son was transported to hospital with stab/slash wounds to his back and arms and a collapsed right lung. A neighbour who tried to intervene was threatened by the accused. In the course of the incident, Mr. El Asala was stabbed in the leg by his older son. Mr. El Asala was arrested, taken to hospital, and held on a Form 1.
Mr. El Asala’s current psychiatric diagnoses include Schizoaffective Disorder (bipolar type), Cannabis Use Disorder (in sustained remission in a controlled environment), and Antisocial Personality Disorder.
The Hospital Report contains extensive information regarding Mr. El Asala’s background and history, the entirety of which need not be repeated here in detail. However, the following particulars are noteworthy:
a. Mr. El Asala is a 50-year-old man who immigrated to Canada in 2016. He completed a college program in construction and plumbing in Toronto. He worked for three construction companies in the Toronto area from 2016 to 2019 after which he founded his own home renovation company with a business partner.
b. Mr. El Asala admitted to routinely skipping school for several years during his mid-teens about three times per week to smoke cannabis. He beat up two people during his teens. He set fires in a wooded area near his house with other boys. He engaged in animal cruelty by shooting animals with a BB gun. He was suspended from high school after making a bomb and firing it in the school bathroom.
c. Mr. El Asala continued consuming cannabis until the index offences, though he reports he stopped about a week prior to the index offences.
d. Mr. El Asala’s psychiatric history includes meeting with a psychiatrist when he was in Grade 7 due to skipping classes and seeing a psychiatrist at age 18 in Syria because he got in trouble at school for being truant and smoking cannabis. He had his first auditory hallucination at 25 years of age after consuming two or three beers. He experienced his next auditory hallucination in July 2021 after consuming cannabis. After falling ill with COVID in December 2021, Mr. El Asala again experienced auditory hallucinations. Approximately one to two months prior to the index offences, he began hearing the voices of politicians including Vladimir Putin and Lebanese politician, Hassan Nasrallah.
e. Mr. El Asala does not have a prior criminal record in Canada. However, he reports being in jail for eight months in Abu Dhabi for consuming cannabis.
f. Mr. El Asala is capable of consenting to his psychiatric treatment.
g. Mr. El Asala’s brother, Anas, was made an approved person. He has made use of multiple Approved Person passes on hospital grounds.
h. Mr. El Asala was transferred from the Forensic Assessment and Triage Unit (ATU) to General Forensic Unit B on December 14, 2023. Since this transfer, his mental state has remained stable and there has been no evidence of psychosis or a mood episode. There have been no instances of aggression, agitation, or need for seclusion.
i. Mr. El Asala requested to discontinue buspirone given sustained improvement of his mood. The buspirone was tapered and discontinued completely in June 2024.
j. Mr. El Asala raised concerns about his paliperidone long-acting injection and requested the dose be lowered due to complaints of bilateral arm shaking when doing push-ups and bilateral knee soreness. The doctor advised him that he was already on a low dose and these symptoms were not consistent with side-effects of the medication. If his dose were lowered further, Mr. El Asala did not think it was likely that he would experience auditory hallucinations. Ultimately, he was switched from Paliperidone Sustenna 75mg every 4 weeks to Paliperidone Trinza injection (263mg) every 12 weeks.
k. Mr. El Asala utilizes his passes regularly without concern and has reached the maximum passes possible under his current Disposition (escorted community passes).
l. Mr. El Asala has a high level of engagement in programming but has difficulty identifying himself as having a history of problematic cannabis use. Mr. El Asala’s insight remains underdeveloped.
The Board had available to it the evidence and documents forming the Record including Exhibits, the Hospital Report, and oral evidence of Dr. Chatterjee who is Mr. El Asala’s psychiatrist and author of the Hospital Report.
At the hearing, Dr. Chatterjee testified that Mr. El Asala has remained mentally stable during the reporting year and he has engaged in all activities and programs offered. He is currently attending on-unit substance use relapse programming. All of his urine drug screens have been negative for illicit substances. He has stated that he does not wish to return to substance use since it would go against his religious beliefs. He has remained compliant with his long-acting injectable medication.
Dr. Chatterjee testified that Mr. El Asala’s insight into the nature of his illness is still developing. Mr. El Asala expresses a conviction to remain abstinent of substances. However, he questions the need for taking medication long term. Because his insight into the need for medications is developing, he is at risk of stopping his medications and suffering a decompensation in his mental illness. In a decompensated psychotic state, his risk of violence to the public increases.
Dr. Chatterjee recommends community living as she believes he will be ready for community living within this year. Mr. El Asala currently has level three privileges. This is the outer edge of privileges permitted under his current Disposition. He will need to progress successfully through level eight privileges to have community living. Dr. Chatterjee stated that Mr. El Asala’s risk in the community can be managed because he is receiving a long-acting injectable antipsychotic medication.
In response to questions of counsel for the Attorney General, Dr. Chatterjee testified that Mr. El Asala will require supportive housing when he is discharged to the community. His mental state will need to be monitored once discharged to approved housing.
Dr. Chatterjee testified that a Conditional Discharge is not appropriate this year. A Detention Order will be necessary to approve Mr. El Asala’s housing. On a Detention Order, in the event that Mr. El Asala becomes non-compliant with medication, the hospital would be able to bring him back to hospital prior to decompensation in his mental health.
Dr. Chatterjee testified that Mr. El Asala’s brother attempted to facilitate communication between Mr. El Asala and the children. He attempted to have his brother bring the children to the hospital to visit him. Dr. Chatterjee expressed a degree of confusion over how the hospital found out about this. However, when the hospital found out about it, they put a stop to it. Mr. El Asala was advised by CAMH that communications were not permitted, even through family, without the written consent of his estranged wife (Ruba Siddiq) and approval of the treatment team and person in charge. Mr. El Asala agreed. The CAMH social worker indicates that Ms. Siddiq wants Mr. El Asala to have no more than an exchange of videos with the children (Aram and Fares). She consented that videos be exchanged through Mr. El Asala’s brother in London, Ontario. The hospital approved this communication after confirming with Mr. El Asala that the parameters of contact are controlled by Ms. Siddiq and are revocable. Videos have been exchanged over the past three weeks. The hospital did not review the content of Mr. El Asala’s videos. Dr. Chatterjee likened the review of videos to listening to patients’ phone calls, which they don’t do.
In response to questions of the Board, Dr. Chatterjee testified that she is not aware that the Children’s Aid Society (“CAS”) or Office of the Children’s Lawyer is involved with the children. She was uncertain if there are family court proceedings. Dr. Chatterjee said that forensic services would defer to any family court orders or recommendations of CAS regarding Mr. El Asala’s contact or communications with the children.
Dr. Chatterjee testified that the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder needs to be better supported with information other than Ms. Siddiq’s information. There has been no evidence in the hospital of symptoms of this diagnosis. However, she feels that given Mr. El Asala’s impulsivity, job changes, and attitudes, there is enough evidence to give him the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder.
In oral submissions, the hospital maintained their initial position. The hospital advised that reporting would be required no less than once per week in the event of community living. After hearing all evidence, counsel for the Attorney General agreed with the position of the hospital and also requested that, should Mr. El Asala have community living this year, it be in supervised accommodations in order to manage his risk in the community. Counsel for Mr. El Asala maintained her initial position and advised that Mr. El Asala’s preference would be accommodations that are not supervised.
Upon the commencement of deliberations of the Board, it was recognized that it was necessary to have knowledge of any family court proceeding or CAS proceedings to ensure that there is consistency with court orders on the issue of contact and communication with the children and Ms. Saddiq. None of the parties were apprised of this information. Therefore, the Board requested that the parties provide copies of any family court orders and the status, if any, of CAS proceedings by March 12, 2025. In addition, the panel requested that the parties provide submissions regarding a radius of restriction on Mr. El Asala to the victims’ place of work, worship, residence, or school if he is living in the community.
Ms. Culp provided the Board with the Order of Justice S.V. Khemani of the Ontario Court of Justice, entered as Exhibit 2. This is an enforceable Final Restraining Order, Without Exception, which orders that Mr. El Asala “shall not” contact or communicate directly or indirectly with Ruba Siddiq, Fares El-Asala, or Aram El-Asala. He also shall not come within 300 metres of anywhere Ruba Siddiq, Fares El-Asala, or Aram El-Asala are known to be, nor 99-3098 Eglinton Avenue (W), Mississauga, Ontario. Mr. El Asala requires leave of the Ontario Court of Justice to bring any motions to vary this order. There is another court order dated March 31, 2023, which none of the parties have provided.
On written submissions regarding the panel’s follow-up enquiries, the parties submitted that the Disposition Order relating to contact with the victims should mirror the Ontario Court of Justice Restraining Order regarding no-contact and radius restrictions.
Analysis and Conclusions
Significant Threat
Having heard and considered the entirety of the evidence as well as the submissions from the parties, the Board finds that Mr. El Asala remains a significant threat to the safety of the public. Significant threat was not contested at this hearing. Nonetheless, the Board makes an independent finding of significant threat.
Mr. El Asala’s risk to the public stems from his diagnoses of Schizoaffective Disorder (bipolar type), Antisocial Personality Disorder, and Cannabis Use Disorder. Although Mr. El Asala is compliant with treatment, his insight into his illness and the need for medication long term is developing.
Mr. El Asala carried out violent index offences, including violence to his own child and wife, while actively psychotic. The attacks had the potential to be lethal. Although he has no residual psychotic symptoms while on medication, if he becomes non-compliant with medication, engages in substance use, and/or encounters stresses, he is likely to experience a re-emergence of his manic and psychotic symptoms. Mr. El Asala requires further psychoeducation on the risk of relapse should he discontinue his medication.
Despite the Disposition prohibiting Mr. El Asala from having contact or communication, direct or indirect, with the victims, contact was facilitated without the involvement of the hospital through a family member. The Disposition is clear in this regard, and although Mr. El Asala agreed to not contact his family in this manner once the hospital found out about the breach of his Disposition, the Board has great concern that Mr. El Asala knowingly contravened the terms and deceitfully attempted to make contact with the children.
Mr. El Asala breached the Ontario Court of Justice Restraining Order. The Board assumes that this Order was served on Mr. El Asala, since Ms. Siddiq’s legal counsel was ordered to arrange service. The Board is very concerned that Mr. El Asala breached the Restraining Order despite knowing about it.
It is worth noting at this juncture, it is shocking that, despite knowing that Mr. El Asala had contravened the terms of the Disposition regarding contact with the children, the hospital did not review the contents of the videos that Mr. El Asala sent to victims, which included children. These videos are not comparable to phone calls made by patients. These are videos that would be seen by vulnerable victims and, as such, require close monitoring. This is a moot point at this time given the Board’s Disposition that term 4(d) will mirror the wording of the Ontario Court of Justice Restraining Order. However, we hope the hospital considers this and takes appropriate action in the future.
Necessary and Appropriate Disposition
In light of the Board’s finding of significant risk, it is charged with shaping a Disposition for the coming year.
The Board accepts Dr. Chatterjee’s evidence, and the joint submission, that Mr. El Asala’s risk for violence is manageable with a community living provision. Dr. Chatterjee foresees that community living is achievable this coming reporting year. A Detention Order is necessary to ensure that the hospital is able to approve his housing.
We concur that Mr. El Asala should have approved accommodations with reporting not less than once per week when living in the community. He has violated his Disposition Order regarding contact with the victims, which creates serious concern to the Board should he be living in the community. To manage his risk to the public in the least onerous and least restrictive way, Mr. El Asala requires approved housing to monitor his mental state, ensure compliance with medications, report any substance use, provide structure, and monitor his compliance with the Disposition Order including the “no contact” provisions.
The Board considered the written submissions of the parties regarding the radius restriction of Mr. El Asala to the victims. The Board finds that clause 4(d) of the Disposition must mirror the terms in the Restraining Order including the radius restriction. Any inconsistency between the Ontario Court of Justice Restraining Order and the Disposition Order is not appropriate. Therefore, 4(d) shall be amended to read exactly as per paragraph 1 of the Ontario Court of Justice Order, which is a Final Restraining Order Without Exception. For clarity, Mr. El Asala shall not contact Ms. Saddiq or the children, directly or indirectly, at any time.
Though not addressed at the hearing, the Board finds that there is no air of reality to a Conditional Discharge in the coming year.
The panel congratulates Mr. El Asala for remaining abstinent of substances this year. This is a big step in his recovery and is to be commended.
The Board finds that the necessary and appropriate, least onerous and least restrictive Disposition is a Detention Order within the Forensic Service at CAMH, with terms as set out in our formal Disposition including community living in approved accommodations with reporting not less than once per week.
DATED this 10^th^ day of April, 2025, at the City of Toronto, in the Toronto Region.
Ms. C. Murray Legal Member
__________________
Office of the Registrar Ontario Review Board