Ontario Review Board
Re: Ross Dowden
ORB File No: 7976
Hearing held on: Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Place of Hearing: Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre
Pursuant to: Section 672.81(1) of the Criminal Code
Before:
Alternate Chairperson: Mr. G. Beasley
Members: Dr. S. Lessard
Dr. R. Cormier
Mr. D. Sandor
Mr. A. Bernardo
Parties Appearing:
Accused: Ross Dowden
Counsel: Mr. M. Davies
Person in charge of the hospital: Representative Dr. J. Gojer
Attorney-General of Ontario: Counsel: Ms. M. Dufort
REASONS FOR DISPOSITION
(Dated July 8, 2025)
Introduction
On December 1, 2021, the accused, Ross Dowden, was found not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder on charges of Uttering a threat to cause bodily harm and death, and Harassment by engaging in threatening conduct, all contrary to the Criminal Code of Canada. Mr. Dowden is subject to a disposition of the Ontario Review Board dated April 8, 2024, which discharges him on certain terms and conditions.
On April 15th, 2025, the Ontario Review Board convened at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, hereinafter referred to as the hospital, to conduct Mr. Dowden’s annual review hearing pursuant to s. 672.81(1) of the Criminal Code. Mr. Dowden attended his hearing and was represented by his counsel, Mr. Michael Davies. Also in attendance were Mr. Dowden’s parents. A hospital report dated March 19th, 2025, was marked as Exhibit 1.
The issues for this hearing are whether Mr. Dowden represents a significant threat to the safety of the public and, if so, to determine the disposition that is necessary and appropriate in the circumstances.
For the reasons set out below, the Board finds that Mr. Dowden no longer represents a significant threat to the public and should be granted an absolute discharge.
Index Offences
- The circumstances of the index offences can be summarized as follows:
“On Friday, July 26, 2019, police received "a harassment and mental health call" from the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. Mr. Dowden's father, Blair, had called the Royal to report his son's concerning behaviour. The voicemail left indicated that Dr. Isabelle Ares was in danger from his son Ross, an ROH patient. Ross had apparently made threats towards "the doctor who he is infatuated with". Blair stated in the voicemail that Ross's behaviour was escalating and Ross had posted pornographic photos of himself on Ares' Facebook account. Dr. Ares was on holiday at this time.
Police met with the manager at the Royal who played the voicemail but indicated that he could not provide any medical information about Ross due to confidentiality reasons.
On July 27, 2019, police had contact with Dr. Ares and spoke with her at length. She had seen the messages on Facebook for the first time that day. She reported that she had received over 1000 messages from Ross Dowden between March 23, 2019, and July 26, 2019. She stated that most were left within the last two weeks and it began as friendly but the more intoxicated he appears to be the angrier and more sexually explicit the messages became."
Personal History
Mr. Dowden’s background history is set out in detail in the hospital report (Exhibit 1). Briefly summarized, Mr. Dowden is presently 39 years of age and is the oldest in a sibline of three. He has twin siblings. He met his development milestones at appropriate times. He experienced a delay in language and worked with a speech therapist from ages 2-5. He had a psychoeducational assessment in grade 3. Results indicated significant visuomotor learning disabilities, anxiety, and possible ADHD. This prompted the family to move him to the Turnbull School where he attended from grades 3-8. They noted that Ross tended to be solitary throughout his childhood and did not seem to relate well to other children.
Mr. Dowden was described as not being very interested or involved in sports, creative activities, or music. He was mostly interested in television and video games. He did not exhibit aggression, oppositional behaviour, or other behavioural issues. He completed high school and the Police Foundation Program at Algonquin College. He initially worked at a call center, and later in a bank until he was put on stress leave in 2010. He was subsequently laid off and has not worked since.
At age 21, Mr. Dowden moved out to live with his girlfriend Jenny, who also had issues with depression and anxiety. This was his only significant intimate relationship. It lasted for ten years and, according to his parents, ended mostly because of Ross's use of alcohol and cannabis.
Criminal History
- Mr. Dowden has no prior criminal record.
Psychiatric History
Mr. Dowden had a psychoeducational assessment in grade 3 which indicated significant visuomotor learning disabilities, anxiety and possible ADHD. A pre-high school educational assessment produced similar results.
Mr. Dowden’s parents noted that he had become very depressed in high school and thought that this could have coincided with his commencement of alcohol use. He was seen by a social worker to work on issues related to his depression and cannabis use.
In mid-to late 2018, Mr. Dowden’s family became increasingly concerned about his alcohol use, depression, and isolation. They encouraged him to attend the Substance Use and Concurrent Disorders program (SUCD) at the hospital. While he was in the program, they noted that he believed that some of the hospital patients and staff were "gang members and cocaine dealers who were out to get him". He also developed persecutory delusions about his younger brother. Although he quit drinking, his delusions and paranoia increased. He believed that his father was a cocaine dealer and a pedophile, that he was being followed, and that his brother and his sister's husband were conspiring to kill him in order to increase their inheritance. One day in March 2019 when he was drinking, he began to yell, scream, and throw things off the balcony of his apartment resulting in police involvement. He thought that his electronics had been hacked and that he was being monitored.
Mr. Dowden’s current diagnosis is Schizophrenia.
Evidence at the hearing
The hospital’s evidence was presented through its report as well as through the oral testimony of Dr. Julian Gojer. This evidence is summarized below.
Turing to the hospital report, Dr. Gojer summarized Mr. Dowden’s progress as follows:
“Mr. Dowden has had a phenomenal year. He has learned to cope with the auditory hallucinations with[sp] having to call his parents. He established a very good working relationship with Ms. Levia Chan and has learnt many psychotherapeutic tools in the realm of CBT Psychosis to cope with psychotic symptoms. Mr. Dowden has not had or expressed any violent or aggressive symptoms since the index offense. He has excellent insight into his past offending and understands that his actions were related to psychotic symptoms. He has stabilized on Clozapine and his ADHD medication. Over the year, he has evolved into a healthier young man who is now even showing appropriate emotional responding. Mr. Dowden’s Schizophrenia is in partial remission. His remission is to the extent that he has been able to live independently, prepare his meals, clean his room and take care of his activities of daily living. He has a friend who he socializes. He goes for walks, socializes with his family, and enjoys his free time on his own. His hallucinations have never advised him to harm anyone but he would get distressed by them in the past. Since engaging in therapy he has learned to disconnect from them. Mr. Dowden never misses and appointment. He is always on time. He enjoys his visits with me and his case conferences are attended by his parents. Both parents are deeply invested in their son. They are a very strong safety net. He is open and shares his thoughts, feelings and symptoms with them. Given a long history since his index offenses of no thoughts or psychotic symptoms of harm towards the victim or any person, his significant improvement in his mental state and a relative stability in partial remission, and good insight into his psychotic symptoms, compliance with treatment and follow up and expected long term follow up with psychiatric services, I do not see him as posing a risk to the community.”
- In addition to Dr. Gojer’s update, the hospital report contains an update from Ms. Levia Chan, psychotherapist, which concludes that:
“Mr. Dowden is always punctual, polite, calm, quiet, appropriate, respectful, and cooperative. He is more relaxed and shows more smiles after the reduction of medications. Though he speaks softly, he elaborates more. His eye contact and concentration are good for a one-hour session. He shows motivation to learn and practise skills and has made positive changes. He complies with the weekly homework. His insights into his own illness has improved. He has shown better self-esteem and is more positive about his life/future than before. There was no inappropriate acts or aggression shown during therapy sessions. His overall affect was euthymic, calm, and stable. He showed anxiety and fear when he started using distracting skills and challenging the voices. Those emotions subsided with his consistent practice of skills. Repetition and consistency are required to reinforce the use of skills. He reported that he has not had any self-harm, suicidal or homicidal ideation and plan, substance use during this reporting period.”
Dr. Gojer’s oral testimony can be summed up as follows.
Mr. Dowden had a long history of schizophrenia with an associated aneurism that had to be repaired. He was not sure if that contributed to the etiology, but initial operation took place in 2019, and in 2021 he was found NCR.
Since 2019, Mr. Dowden has expressed no behaviours that could be a risk, but chronic auditory hallucinations and suicidal thoughts persisted.
The victim of the index offence was a psychologist working at the Hospital who left nine months later. Mr. Dowden has expressed no perseveration regarding her.
There are no historic charges outstanding for Mr. Dowden.
Dr. Gojer indicated that Mr. Dowden had demonstrated some control over the auditory hallucinations while on clozapine.
Mr. Dowden was placed into the community a year ago with a friend of his. Since then, he has demonstrated positive social interactions within the community and established good rapport with others.
Over the last year, Mr. Dowden has engaged with a psychotherapist, with positive results.
On two occasions, Dr. Gojer repeated that at last year’s hearing, he had strongly considered recommending an absolute discharge, but with the movement into the community and the engagement with the psychotherapist, he wanted to “consolidate the gains” and move to a recommendation in the 2025 hearing with a full and substantive case for making such a recommendation.
Dr. Gojer indicated that Mr. Dowden has learned to deflect the hallucinations, and slight changes to his medication have helped him focus to an even greater extent on these defensive control mechanisms.
Mr. Dowden appears to be no longer bothered with the hallucinations, and no longer slips into suicidal ideation as a result. Mr. Dowden’s illness, while not fully in remission, is “optimally controlled”.
Mr. Dowden has demonstrated good insight into the need to continue his medication.
Since being placed in the community, Mr. Dowden comes to the hospital two or three times a month to use the gym.
Mr. Dowden has enjoyed the strong support of his family. He frequently goes home for dinners. Dr. Gojer indicated that due to these strong supports, Mr. Dowden’s family will ensure that he keeps his appointments, although he reiterated that Mr. Dowden’s responsibility in this matter is well documented.
In summary of his oral evidence, Dr. Gojer offered important insight into Mr. Dowden’s social and emotional progress, as well as the development of strong empathetic qualities. Mr. Dowden has begun smiling, reacting positively to social interaction, and making a concerted effort to show this emotion on a spontaneous level, which the hospital and staff had not seen before.
Mr. Dowden is volunteering at the hospital, is considering employment, and even thinking of pursuing a romantic relationship.
No other evidence was presented by Dr. Gojer.
During questions, Ms. Dufort pursued lines of questioning related to whether Mr. Gojer would continue to be Mr. Dowden’s treating psychiatrist indefinitely, to which Dr. Gojer answered in the positive. Ms. Dufort also sought reassurances from Dr. Gojer as to confidence of continued medication use, to which he had a high confidence of adherence. Finally, as the potentiality of working with a CMHA case worker had been mentioned in the hospital report, Ms. Dufort inquired as to whether Mr. Dowden was willing to engage and work with them. Dr. Gojer indicated that while no direct connection had been made, CMHA had agreed to take on Mr. Dowden, and that a connection would be made over the next year.
Mr. Davies’ line of questioning served to reiterate the positive progress Mr. Dowden had made since his last ORB hearing.
There were no questions from the Panel.
Submissions
- Dr. Gojer, on behalf of the hospital, submitted that Mr. Dowden was no longer a significant threat to the community and should be granted an Absolute Discharge. Ms. Dufort agreed that the risk posed by Mr. Dowden did not meet the threshold of significant threat, and Mr. Davies joined in this submission.
Conclusion and Disposition
- The panel carefully considered the evidence of Dr. Gojer at the hearing along with the contents of the Hospital Report. As set out above on page 39 of the report:
“Given a long history since his index offenses of no thoughts or psychotic symptoms of harm towards the victim or any person, his significant improvement in his mental state and a relative stability in partial remission, and good insight into his psychotic symptoms, compliance with treatment and follow up and expected long term follow up with psychiatric services, I do not see him as posing a risk to the community.”
- Having considered all of the evidence presented at the hearing, and the joint submission of the parties, the Board deliberated and made the following determination: that it finds that Mr. Dowden no longer poses a significant threat to the safety of the public as set out in s. 672.5401 of the Criminal Code of Canada and as further defined in the Winko decision and we therefore grant him an absolute discharge. This decision was communicated orally to Mr. Dowden prior to the adjournment of the hearing.
DATED this 8th day of July 2025, at the City of Toronto, in the Toronto Region.
Mr. A. Bernardo Public Member
Office of the Registrar
Ontario Review Board