Re Jeremy Porter, 2025 CanLII 42629

Ontario Review Board

Re: Jeremy Porter

ORB File No: 8259

Hearing held on: Friday, April 11, 2025

Place of Hearing: Southwest Centre for Forensic Mental Health Care

Pursuant to: Sections 672.81(1) and 672.81(2.1) of the Criminal Code

Before:

Alternate Chairperson: Mr. R. Bigelow

Members: Ms. S. Clapp Dr. S. Swaminath Dr. M. Green Ms. C. Plyley

Parties Appearing:

Accused: Jeremy Porter Counsel: Mr. W. Glover

The person in charge of hospital: Counsel: Ms. J. Zamprogna

Attorney General of Ontario: Counsel: Ms. K. Dalrymple

REASONS FOR DISPOSITION AND DECISION

(Dated May 7, 2025)

Introduction

1. On March 14, 2023, Jeremy Porter was found not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder (NCR) on charges of assault with a weapon and failure to comply with a probation order (x3) contrary to the Criminal Code. He is currently subject to a disposition of the Ontario Review Board (the Board) dated April 26, 2024 ordering his detention at the Southwest Centre for Forensic Mental Health Care (the Hospital) with privileges up to and including residence in the community of Elgin County and Middlesex Counties in supervised accommodation.

2. By letter dated January 20, 2025, the Hospital advised the Board pursuant to section 672.52 (2) of the Criminal Code that Mr. Porter’s freedoms had been restricted in that his indirectly supervised pass privileges to access the hospital and grounds as well as the community had been withdrawn on December 12, 2024, after a urine drug screen returned positive for fentanyl.

3. On Friday, April 11, 2025, the Board convened a hearing to review Mr. Porter’s disposition pursuant to section 672.81(1) of the Criminal Code. Mr. Porter was present at the hearing and represented by counsel, Mr. Glover. The issues to be determined at the hearing were whether Mr. Porter continued to constitute a significant threat to the safety of the public as defined in section 672.5401 of the Criminal Code and, if so, to determine the necessary and appropriate disposition that was also the least onerous and least restrictive taking into account the factors set out in section 672.54 of the Criminal Code.

4. On consent of all of the parties, the Board also reviewed the restriction of Mr. Porter’s liberties to determine if the restriction was necessary and appropriate and the least onerous and least restrictive action option available to the hospital in all the circumstances.

Initial Positions of the Parties

5. At the commencement of the hearing the Chair noted that the current disposition provided for community living in supervised accommodation but did not include a requirement that the person in charge approve that accommodation and inquired as to whether it was the parties’ understanding that that requirement had been intended to be included in last year’s disposition. Counsel for the Hospital indicated that it was their belief that the previous Board had intended to include that term and recommended that this Board amend that term to include the requirement. Both counsel for the Attorney General and Counsel for Mr. Porter supported the change.

6. The parties were also requested to provide their initial without prejudice positions with respect to the issues before the Board. Counsel for the Hospital indicated that it was the hospital’s position that Mr. Porter continued to represent a significant threat to the public and that the necessary and appropriate disposition was a continuation of the current order with the only change to the terms and conditions being the amendment of the definition of accompanied persons in conditions 2(b) and 2(d) to read “accompanied by staff or a person or delegate approved by the person in charge”.

7. Counsel for the hospital also indicated that it was the hospital’s position that both the initial and continuing restriction of Mr. Porter’s liberties was necessary and appropriate in all the circumstances.

8. Both counsel for the Attorney General and Counsel for Mr. Porter supported the Hospital recommendation both with respect to disposition as well as the restriction of liberty.

Evidence at the hearing

9. The evidence at the hearing consisted of the Hospital Report dated February 11, 2025, and the oral evidence of Dr. Ardani, Mr. Porter’s treating psychiatrist.

Findings

10. For the Reasons that follow, the Board finds that Mr. Porter continues to represent a significant threat to the safety of the public and that the necessary and appropriate disposition is a detention order with the minor changes jointly recommended by the parties. The Board also finds that the evidence supports a finding that both the initial and continuing restriction of Mr. Porter’s liberties were necessary and appropriate.

Index Offences

11. The circumstances surrounding the index offences as summarized in last year’s Reasons for Disposition are as follows:

On October 27, 2022, at 09:37 am Police attended New Beginnings at 38 Chester Street, St. Thomas. Police spoke with the complainant Carolyn TRAVIS who reports that she was stabbed in the face with a stick by a male named Jeremy. Police reviewed video footage of the incident and identified Jeremy PORTER as his face was uncovered and plainly visible. PORTER is well-known to Police. TRAVIS provided a statement that was corroborated by video.

Police spoke with PORTER who was extremely uncooperative with the Police, refusing to surrender himself; however, Police arrested PORTER outside 38 Chester Street at 10:20 am. PORTER was searched and placed in a marked cruiser.

Background Information Regarding the Accused

12. Mr. Porter is 28 years of age and was born six weeks premature in London Ontario. He met most of his developmental milestones at the typical ages, though his speech was delayed. Mr. Porter was aggressive and showed non-compliant behaviours during childhood.

13. Both of Mr. Porter’s parents are deceased. His father passed away in 2020 and his mother passed away in September 2022, in her early 60s, likely from suicide. The couple lived together in a common-law relationship and separated when Mr. Porter was approximately 1.5 years old, due to the father’s abusive behaviours. His mother had been an educational assistant for individuals requiring assisted living. She had not worked for approximately the last ten years of her life, as a result of multiple physical health problems.

14. The Children’s Aid Society (“CAS”) had significant involvement in Mr. Porter’s life from the age of ten. By the age of 12, Mr. Porter had been living in and out of two different group homes.

15. Between the ages of 12 and 16, he was mostly living in group homes, or with foster families, under the care of CAS. At the age of 16, he returned to his family home and lived with his mother for less than a year. Thereafter, he lived a transient lifestyle, intermittently living with family members, intimate partners, and being of no fixed address. He also had multiple incarcerations and served significant jail time.

16. Mr. Porter attended school from junior kindergarten to high school in St. Thomas, Ontario. He had both behavioural and learning challenges. However, when he was assessed with multiple psychological testing tools no intellectual disabilities were noted. He was able to read and write but struggled with mathematics. During high school, he continued to struggle with learning difficulties and dropped out during Grade 11.

17. Mr. Porter worked in several general labour jobs including roofing, bricklaying and plumbing up until 2010 when he began receiving Ontario Disability Support payments.

18. Mr. Porter has a teenaged daughter and son from two different relationships. Both are in the custody and care of their respective mothers.

Substance Use History

19. The Hospital Report summarizes Mr. Porter’s substance use history as follows:

Mr. Porter began smoking cannabis when he was ten. He smoked cannabis daily until he was incarcerated in 2018. He mentioned that he started smoking cannabis after being released from jail in October 2022. His last use was on the day of the index offence (October 27, 2022).

Mr. Porter started drinking alcohol when he was approximately 15, initially consuming mostly beer. His use of alcohol escalated rapidly, and he mentioned that he suffered from alcohol use disorder for about 5 years, up to the age of 20.

During his adolescent years, Mr. Porter used the hallucinogen psilocybin (magic mushroom) between the ages of 16 and 19, and the designer hallucinogen/stimulant MDMA (ecstasy) from the ages of 16 to 23. His cocaine use started when he was 18 and lasted for about 8 years. He started using crystal methamphetamine at the age of 24, and his last use was approximately two weeks before the index offence.

Legal History

20. Mr. Porter has a criminal record stretching from 2009 until the Index Offences in 2022. It includes numerous assaults, the most serious being an Assault Causing Bodily Harm for which he received the equivalent of 182 days in jail in 2022. In 2018, a sentence of 365 days was imposed for unlawfully being in a dwelling house and assaulting a peace officer (two counts). His record also contains numerous offences of failing to comply with various court orders and many property offences.

Psychiatric History

21. Mr. Porter has a lengthy psychiatric history. At the age of eight, he was diagnosed with ADHD. He also received different diagnoses including Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder before the age of 18. He attended a program for children with special needs in London for anger management in his early adolescent years.

22. As an adult Mr. Porter had multiple hospital admissions due to mental health problems, beginning at the age of 18. His first admission was due to a suicide attempt in 2004 when he was 18 and overdosed on his mother’s medications. Between 2004 and 2007, he had approximately ten admissions and was diagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder, conduct disorder, multiple substance use disorders, including cannabis, opioids, and alcohol, ADHD, and antisocial personality disorder. During this period, he endorsed many psychiatric symptoms, including, but not limited to, psychotic symptoms. He also endorsed hallucinations and delusions, which were attributed to substance use. Between 2006 and 2012, he was followed up by the Canadian Mental Health Association and the outpatient clinic of St. Thomas Psychiatric Hospital. He was generally compliant with his medications, and his mental health showed improvement.

23. Mr. Porter had no documented contact with mental health professionals between 2012 and 2018. From August 2018 to August 2020, he was diagnosed with and received treatment for schizoaffective disorder (depressive type). During this period, he was hospitalized in the Secure Treatment Unit of Royal Ottawa Health Care Group. He was discharged from the hospital to the care of an Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team.

24. In October 2020, Mr. Porter was admitted to Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care pursuant to an NCR Assessment Order. He was experiencing psychotic symptoms which were diagnosed as a substance-induced psychotic disorder, unspecified schizophrenia spectrum disorder and unspecified psychotic disorder. It was noted that his psychotic symptoms occurred in the context of substance use, although an underlying psychotic disorder remained a diagnostic consideration.

Current Diagnosis

25. Mr. Porter’s current diagnoses are:

• Schizophrenia
• Multiple Substance Use Disorders
• Antisocial Personality Disorder

Evidence of Dr. Ardani

26. Dr. Ardani indicated that he was Mr. Porter’s attending physician and had read and adopted the contents of the Hospital report. The most notable events of the reporting year were positive urine drug screens. Mr. Porter started to exercise indirectly supervised community passes on September 1, 2024. On December 1, 2024, a drug screen returned positive for cannabis and urine drug screens on December 11, 15, 17and 20 returned positive for fentanyl. The drug screen on December 20 also returned positive for methamphetamine. He also noted that fentanyl only remains detectable in a urine drug screen for three days and therefore Mr. Porter must have used on more than one occasion. Staff also noticed some signs of decompensation around the same time as the positive urine screens.

27. Due to the positive drug screen on December 11, Mr. Porter’s indirectly supervised passes were withdrawn and not reinstated until February 10, 2024, after he completed a concurrent disorders program. However as of the date of the hearing he had not received any indirectly supervised passes into the community but the treatment team would be reviewing those passes at the weekly review in the following week.

28. Dr. Ardani noted that in last year’s reasons for disposition the Board had noted that the treatment team was considering adding to Mr. Porter’s diagnoses ADHD and mild cognitive deficits. Dr. Ardani agreed that a diagnosis of ADHD should be added but indicated that he would only add “query mild cognitive deficits” as he believed that many of the cognitive deficits were likely subsequent to psychosis and that optimizing medications may reduce or eliminate evidence of cognitive deficits.

29. Dr. Ardani indicated that the decompensation noted around the time of the positive drug screens could be due to either his illness or substance use or both. However, Mr. Porter has shown more stability recently after a change in medication but it remained to be seen whether those improvements will continue in the long term.

30. Dr. Ardani noted that Mr. Porter had a history of nonadherence to medication, required supervision in order to ensure medication adherence and that substance use factored into the index offences. Mr. Porter has historically been unable to maintain abstinence and although Mr. Porter was agreeable to treatment for substance use, he was not actively seeking it.

31. Dr. Ardani indicated that the results of the recent HCR 20 reported in the Hospital Report remained valid. Dr. Ardani adopted the summary of the reasons for believing Mr. Porter continued to represent a significant threat contained at page 55 of the Hospital Report, and noted that Mr. Porter’s insight into the index offences and his potential for violence was limited. Should Mr. Porter return to the use of substances or fail to adhere to recommended treatment, he would likely decompensate with a return of persecutory delusions resulting in a belief that he was required to act out in his defence.

32. Dr. Ardani indicated that the plan for the coming year was to first stabilize Mr. Porter’s mental state, enrol him in a residential substance abuse program followed by his transfer to the Hospital’s rehabilitation apartment for a period of time prior to considering discharge into the community. They may start the process for community living this year but it is unlikely that he will be placed anywhere given the long process, and the need to address his substance use issues. Mr. Porter’s sister has expressed an interest in becoming an Approved Person, and that is being explored.

Analysis and Conclusion, Significant Threat

33. Although the issue of significant threat was not contested at the hearing, the Board nevertheless makes an independent finding that Mr. Porter does represent a significant threat to the safety of the public. He suffers from a major mental illness, schizophrenia and continues to experience symptoms of that illness. He has also been diagnosed with multiple substance use disorders, antisocial personality disorder and ADHD. He has a lengthy criminal record including numerous convictions for aggressive behaviour as well as breaches of court orders.

34. Mr. Porter also has a history of failing to adhere to recommended treatment and demonstrates an inability to abstain from the use of substances as clearly shown by his recent positive drug screens. His insight into his illness, the need for treatment and his potential for acting out aggressively is limited. Absent the supervision of the Board, it is likely that he would cease medication and return to the use of substances resulting in decompensation and a significant increase in his risk to the public.

Analysis and Conclusion, Necessary and Appropriate Disposition

35. The Board finds that the evidence also amply supports the joint submission that the necessary and appropriate disposition is a continuation of the current detention order with the minor changes to the terms and conditions as jointly recommended by the parties. Given Mr. Porter’s history of nonadherence to medication, his fragile mental state, and use of multiple substances, close supervision is required when he is discharged into the community to ensure medication adherence, abstinence from substances and to monitor any early signs of decompensation prior to meeting the prerequisites to hospital admission of the Mental Health Act. Therefore, the Hospital clearly requires the authority to approve accommodation in order to ensure that level of supervision.

Analysis and Conclusion, Restriction of Liberties

36. The Board also finds that both the initial and continuing restriction of Mr. Porter’s liberties was necessary and appropriate which was not contested at the hearing. Mr. Porter tested positive for cannabis on December 1, 2024, and for fentanyl on December 11, 2024. He further tested positive for fentanyl on December 15, 17 and 20 clearly indicating more than one use. Over the same time period, he suffered a level of decompensation which may be related to his illness, substance use or both.

37. Mr. Porter has a history of acting out aggressively and the evidence is that both substance use and symptoms of his mental illness are related to his aggression. The circumstances surrounding the restriction of his liberties clearly establish that his risk to the community had risen to an unacceptable level and a restriction of his liberty was necessary in order to manage that risk. The continuing restriction of his liberties was also justified in order to allow him to involve himself in programming and to allow the Hospital to adjust medications to assist in treatment of his mental illness.

DATED this 7th day of May 2025, at the City of Toronto, in the Toronto Region.

Robert Bigelow Alternate Chairperson

Office of the Registrar Ontario Review Board