Ontario Review Board
Re: Clinten Walker
ORB File No: 8217
Hearing held on: Tuesday, April 8, 2025
Place of hearing: Southwest Centre for Forensic Mental Health Care
Pursuant to: Section 672.81(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: Clinten Walker Counsel: Mr. J. Langlois
The person in charge of hospital: Counsel: Ms. J. Zamprogna
Attorney General of Ontario: Counsel: Mr. D. Rows
REASONS FOR DISPOSITION (Dated May 7, 2025)
Introduction
[1]. On January 16, 2023, Clinten Walker was found not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder (NCR) on charges of mischief under $5000 (x5), and fail to comply with release order all contrary to the Criminal Code. He is subject to a disposition of the Ontario Review Board (the Board) dated April 24, 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 Southwestern Ontario in accommodation approved by the person in charge.
[2]. On Tuesday, April 8, 2025, the Board convened a hearing to review Mr. Walker`s disposition pursuant to section 672.81(1) of the Criminal Code. Mr. Walker was present and represented by counsel, Mr. Langlois. The issues to be determined at the hearing were whether Mr. Walker continues to represent a significant threat to the safety of the public as defined in section 672.5401 of the Criminal Code and, if so, what was the necessary and appropriate disposition that was also the least onerous and least restrictive taking into account the factors set out in 672.54 of the Criminal Code.
Initial Positions of the Parties
[3]. At the commencement of the hearing the parties were 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. Walker continued to represent a significant threat to the public and that the necessary and appropriate disposition was a continuation of the current detention order with the only change being the addition of accompanied and indirectly supervised passes of up to one week to enter the community of Southwestern Ontario.
[4]. Counsel for the Attorney General supported the Hospital position.
[5]. Counsel for Mr. Walker submitted that the necessary and appropriate disposition would be a conditional discharge with terms prohibiting contact with two named individuals.
Evidence at the hearing
[6]. The evidence at the hearing consisted of the Hospital Report dated March 21, 2025, and the oral evidence of Dr. B. Robertson a Resident in Psychiatry working under the supervision of Dr. J. Quinn, Mr. Walker’s treating psychiatrist.
Findings
[7]. For the Reasons that follow, the Board finds that Mr. Walker continues to represent a significant threat to the safety of the public and that the necessary and appropriate disposition is a detention order with terms and conditions as recommended by the Hospital.
Index Offences
[8]. The circumstances surrounding the index offences as summarized in last year’s Reasons for Disposition are as follows:
……on April 6, 2022, Mr. Walker’s next-door neighbour, his aunt, reported he had broken windows at her residence. When police approached him and he told them he broke her windows because she deserved it, he was arrested for two counts of mischief. Further investigation revealed he had attended the residence in an irate state and, in trying to gain entry, threw a metal rack situated outside the front door onto the windshield of the vehicle of his aunt’s roommate, damaging its antenna.
Mr. Walker had attempted to gain entry to his aunt’s residence by yelling outside the residence and kicking at the front door. He threw a coffee mug through the kitchen window and a large rock through the sliding screen and door of the residence. He also broke the mailbox post and mailbox. Mr. Walker was located on the deck of his residence with a hammer and a beer can in his hand. At the time he was subject to judicial interim release conditions, one of which prohibited him from being outside his residence with alcohol in his body. Upon arrest the police noted a very strong odour of alcohol on his breath.
Background Information Regarding the Accused
[9]. Mr. Walker is currently 41 years of age. He and his two older siblings were raised by his father and his father’s common-law partner after his parents divorced when he was eight years old. He left school when he was 14 or 15 but reports that he later obtained his high school diploma by taking correspondence courses. He has held several different types of employment and also receives a disability pension. He owns his own home which is located next door to the property of his aunt, one of the complainants in the index offences.
[10]. Mr. Walker’s father reports that his son developed issues with anger after a head injury in 2006 and that he would “fly off the handle for no identified reason and could appear paranoid with concerns that someone had been in their home”. His mother reported that he had difficulty with anger dating back to childhood including starting fires at age eight.
Substance Use History
[11]. Mr. Walker began using alcohol when he was 15 or 16 and his consumption increased after his head injury in 2006, and he was drinking up to ten beers a day. He also started smoking marijuana at the age of 15 or 16 and was smoking two joints per day until his arrest with respect to the index offences.
Legal History
[12]. Mr. Walker’s CIPIC reveals the following criminal history:
- In 2006, Mr. Walker was convicted of Criminal Harassment.
- In 2007, Mr. Walker was convicted of Fail to Comply with Probation; Fail to Comply with Probation; Driving with more than 80mgs of Alcohol in Blood; Fail to Comply with Probation; and Fail to Comply with Probation.
- In 2008, Mr. Walker was convicted of Fail to Comply with Probation; Criminal Harassment; and Fail to Comply with Probation x2.
- In 2009, Mr. Walker was convicted of Mischief Under $5000.
- Mr. Walker was found Not Criminally Responsible in 2009 for Criminal Harassment and Fail to Comply Probation regarding repeated unwanted contact with a former girlfriend. He later received an Absolute Discharge from the Ontario Review Board on June 12, 2012.
- In 2018, Mr. Walker was convicted of Driving while Ability Impaired.
Psychiatric History
[13]. Mr. Walker’s first admission to hospital with respect to mental health related issues was in May 2009 when he was admitted to hospital under the provisions of the Mental Health Act after breaking windows at his mother’s apartment and believing that strangers were wanting to break into his home after he had been consuming alcohol. Discharge diagnosis was noted to be “psychosis disorder due to medical condition” and “acquired brain injury.”
[14]. In June 2009 Mr. Walker was again admitted to hospital for a court ordered NCR assessment on charges of criminal harassment and breach of probation for which he was eventually found NCR. On admission he was noted to be angry, irritable, suspicious and paranoid and initially required seclusion. During the admission he developed a belief that he had a special connection to a female nurse and was experiencing delusional perceptions. Cognitive testing revealed that:
Mr. Walker presents with a fairly strict area of deficit in terms of his ability to more broadly analyze, abstract, to draw interference and to enable himself to draw reasonable conclusions from visually presented information.
[15]. With treatment his symptoms diminished, and he was discharged with diagnoses of atypical psychosis, substance abuse disorder (cannabis and alcohol), closed head injury and antisocial personality disorder. Mr. Walker was granted an absolute discharge on June 12, 2012, and his care was transferred to a community psychiatrist.
[16]. Mr. Walker was admitted to hospital in January 2020 after presenting himself to hospital and reporting suicidal ideas. It was noted that he had been prescribed risperidone for the last nine years, but had been noncompliant. He was treated with aripiprazole and risperidone and discharged with diagnoses of adjustment disorder with depressive reaction, history of cannabis abuse disorder with substance induced acute psychotic episode, and autism spectrum disorder.
[17]. His next admission to hospital was subsequent to the index offences. He was first admitted to the Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care and was transferred to Southwest on August 8, 2023. Mr. Walker absconded from Waypoint in July 2023 and used alcohol. Mr. Walker absconded from Southwest in August 2023 during a compassionate visit to see his dying sister. Mr. Walker was returned to the hospital three days later.
Current Diagnosis
[18]. The Hospital report lists Mr. Walker’s current diagnoses as:
- Schizophrenia
- Alcohol Use Disorder (in remission in a controlled setting)
- Cannabis Use Disorder (in remission in a controlled setting)
- Antisocial Personality Traits
- Acquired Brain Injury (by history)
Restriction of Liberty
[19]. On January 1 2025 the Hospital became aware that about ½ dozen patients had been using crystal methamphetamine on the unit on New Year’s Eve. Many of those patients were low functioning and did not have community access so the Hospital made serious efforts to uncover the source of the methamphetamine. A search of Mr. Walker’s room was conducted, and drug paraphernalia was uncovered including bottles of urine, a large amount of cash and a significant quantity of controlled substances. When confronted with the results Mr. Walker was evasive and would neither confirm nor deny his involvement. As a result, his privileges were reduced to zero on January 2, 2025, and remained at that level until February 3, 2025, when he was able to work his way back up to level VII privileges. On March 11, 2025, a restriction of liberty hearing was held and the Board determined that both the initial and continuing restriction of Mr. Walker’s liberties was necessary and appropriate.
Evidence of Dr. Robertson
[20]. Dr. Robertson indicated that he had been involved in Mr. Walker’s care since his arrival at the hospital in November 2024. He had read and adopted the contents of the Hospital Report. He advised that Mr. Walker was currently living in the independent apartment in the hospital designed to determine if individuals have the skills necessary for living independently outside of the hospital and overall is doing well since his move there.
[21]. Dr. Robertson stated that Mr. Walker showed partial insight into his illness and that he could name his symptoms but couldn’t really provide details and describes his illness as a “mild case of schizophrenia.” Although he denied auditory hallucinations, evidence from staff is to the contrary. His PCL-R is just below the cut off for a diagnosis of psychopathy but his factor 2 (social deviance) suggests the possibility of a personality disorder component in his presentation. He also scored high on the VRAG. However, he does not meet the criteria for an actual personality disorder but does display antisocial personality traits.
[22]. Dr. Robertson noted that Mr. Walker often engages in positive impression management, and says what he thinks the team wants to hear. It is therefore very difficult to determine the authenticity of his statements. He also reiterated that the incident with methamphetamine use on the unit was very recent and Mr. Wlaker was not forthcoming at that time.
[23]. Dr. Robertson stated that Mr. Walker had minimal involvement in programming until recently and it was believed the change was connected to his upcoming Board hearing. However, he had completed a concurrent disorders program and the intake for the Thames Valley Addictions Program.
[24]. Dr. Robertson stated that although Mr. Walker indicates that he doesn’t want to use substances, he has minimal insight into the effect of substances on his mental health and is quite vulnerable to relapse.
[25]. Mr. Walker has the personal support of his father, his aunt, and Mr. Langlois. Dr. Robertson stated that the process for Mr. Walker’s father and aunt to potentially become Approved Persons was currently underway.
[26]. Dr. Robinson indicated that Mr. Walker has no professional supports outside of the hospital and in his opinion, if granted a conditional discharge, his risk to the community would be significant. He noted that Mr. Walker’s home which he wishes to return to is a significant distance from the hospital and because of that distance supervision would be difficult.
[27]. In response to questions from panel members Dr. Robertson noted that Mr. Walker’s current medication regime was considered to be effective and that the main focus of the treatment team at the moment was substance use and antisocial personality traits. Mr. Walker clearly wished to return to his own residence when discharged and the team is prepared to try to work towards that. However, should the team not approve that residence, a contingency plan would be to discharge him to a supervised residence in the community. In either scenario the additional passes that are being recommended will enable Mr. Walker to gradually commence his reintegration into the community.
[28]. In response to questions from Mr. Langlois, Dr. Robertson stated that he did not believe that a no contact order with certain people who Mr. Langlois felt were “bad influences” (whom Dr. Robertson had never heard of) would be sufficient to mitigate Mr. Walker’s risk in the community. He stated that Mr. Walker requires internal motivation not to use as opposed to externalization of responsibility. He also did not think that attendance at AA meetings and random drug testing was sufficient at this time.
Analysis and Conclusion, Significant Threat:
[29]. Although the issue of significant threat was not contested at the hearing, the Board nevertheless makes an independent finding that Mr. Walker does represent a significant threat to the safety of the public. He suffers from a major mental illness, schizophrenia, as well as having further diagnoses of antisocial personality traits, and cannabis and alcohol use disorder. In the months leading up to the hearing, he was found to have used methamphetamine, likely distributed methamphetamine and engaged in deception in an attempt to hide his use from the treatment team by storing urine. Although his insight into his mental illness, index offences and future risk of violence has developed somewhat there are concerns that his efforts to engage in positive impression management are clouding the treatment team’s ability to truly assess his insight.
[30]. Absent supervision of the Board, there is a significant likelihood that Mr. Walker would return to the use of substances and fail to adhere to treatment and consequential return of psychotic symptoms similar to those he experienced at the time of the index offences resulting in a significant increase of risk to the community. The panel noted that this occurred following Mr. Walker’s prior Absolute Discharge from the Board in 2012, and unfortunately he committed further offences.
Analysis and Conclusion, Necessary and Appropriate Disposition:
[31]. The Board finds that the evidence also amply supports that the necessary and appropriate disposition is a continuation of the current detention order with the changes recommended by the Hospital and supported by the Attorney General. There is no air of reality to consideration of a conditional discharge. Mr. Walker has a long history of mental illness including a prior finding of NCR as well as a history of nonadherence to treatment and substance use and a recent return to the use of methamphetamine. Although he has a residence he could return to, the treatment team’s initial review of that residence raises issues as to its appropriateness in particular as it is directly next door to the residence of his aunt and her roommate both victims of the index offences and, given its location, the limited supervision currently available there.
[32]. The Mental Health Act has previously been shown to be ineffective in managing Mr. Walker’s risk and a detention order is required in order to ensure that Mr. Walker could be returned to hospital prior to meeting the criteria for detention under the civil mental health system.
[33]. While the panel had some concerns about granting indirectly supervised passes to Mr. Walker for one week (as a result of his abscondments from hospital, and recent drug use and deception) we accepted the evidence of Dr. Robertson that these passes will be used gradually and cautiously in an effort to see if Mr. Walker may be able to live in his home when he is ready for community living.
DATED this 7^th^ day of May 2025, at the City of Toronto, in the Toronto Region.
Robert Bigelow Alternate Chairperson
____________________________
Office of the Registrar Ontario Review Board