Re: Lawyer Rand
ORB File No: 8732
Hearing held on: Friday, May 23, 2025
Place of hearing: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Pursuant to: Section and 672.47(1) of the Criminal Code
Before: Alternate Chairperson: Ms. S. Kert Members: The Hon. B. Allen Dr. P. Prendergast Dr. M. Mamak Mr. A. Bouvier
Parties Appearing: Accused: Lawyer Rand Counsel: Mr. C. Shortt
The Person in charge of Hospital: Counsel: Mr. K. Dow
Attorney General of Ontario: Counsel: Mr. M. Feindel
REASONS FOR DISPOSITION
(Dated July 8, 2025)
Introduction
On February 12, 2025 Mr. Lawyer P. Rand was found not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder on charges of mischief under $5,000, breaking and entering with intent and failure to comply with a release order contrary to the Criminal Code.
Under s. 672.47(1) of the Criminal Code a panel of the Ontario Review Board (the Board) was convened on May 23, 2025 at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH or the Hospital) to consider Mr. Rand’s threat to public safety and the appropriate disposition under s. 672.54 of the Criminal Code. This is Mr. Rand’s initial annual Board hearing.
The parties jointly agree that Mr. Rand poses a significant threat to public safety and that the least restrictive and least onerous disposition that will ensure public safety is an order detaining Mr. Rand in CAMH's Forensic Service. They also agreed that the disposition should include a substance abstention condition, testing for abstinence and a weapons prohibition.
In terms of the extent of Mr. Rand’s privileges, the Hospital takes the position that Mr. Rand should have privileges up to directly supervised passes in the community. The Crown and Mr. Rand differ with the Hospital taking the position that the privileges should extend to indirectly supervised passes in the community.
Disposition
- For the reasons set out below, the Board concludes, under s. 672.54 of the Criminal Code, that Mr. Rand continues to pose a significant threat to public safety and that the necessary and appropriate disposition, that is the least onerous and the least restrictive to mitigate risk to public safety, is an order detaining Mr. Rand within the Forensic Service at CAMH with privileges up to indirectly supervised passes in the community of the Greater Toronto Area.
The Evidence
- The Board has before it various documents including the Hospital Report dated May 11, 2025 which contains an account of Mr. Rand's personal and psychiatric background which need identification not be repeated in detail here. The Board also has the oral evidence of Dr. Juliette Dupré, the author of the Hospital Report.
Index Offences
- The circumstances of the index offences are described in the Hospital Report and two Agreed Statements of Fact and are summarized as follows:
Mischief damage to property under $5000
- On August 8, 2023 the accused, Lawyer Rand, attended the condominium building located at 10 Yonge Street in Toronto. Without apparent reason Mr. Rand pulled all of the flowers from the garden and flowerpots. He then left the area. On September 12, 2023, the police were called to attend 10 Yonge Street because Mr. Rand had returned to the area. He was investigated, arrested, read his rights to counsel and cautioned. He was transported to 52 Division.
Breaking and entering
- On December 14, 2023 Mr. Rand attended 75 Oriole Parkway. He searched the front porch and located the house keys hidden under the welcome floor mat. He used the keys to unlock the front door and enter the house. Mr. Rand proceeded up the stairs and called out, asking if anyone was home. Mr. Rand then knocked on one of the complainant’s bedroom door. The complainant woke up, opened the door and the accused passed the keys to her telling her it was in the door. The complainant took the keys and Mr. Rand asked her if he could shower and clean up in her home. The complainant said she was uncomfortable with him in the house. Another complainant woke up and went toward the other complainant's bedroom. He saw Mr. Rand and immediately yelled at him to leave. Mr. Rand saw the second complainant and began to run out the front door towards Oriole Parkway. He then boarded a TTC bus southbound on Oriole Parkway.
Failure to comply with a release order
- On February 21, 2024 Mr. Rand was arrested and charged with assault, uttering threats, possessing property, mischief under $5000, breaking and entering with intent and failing to attend court x2. He was released on a release order with several conditions including to report to the bail program within 48 hours of his release and to remain under supervision. He failed or refused without reasonable excuse to comply with his release order on several occasions. On April 19, 2024 he was arrested and transported to 53 Division.
Current Diagnosis
- Mr. Rand’s current diagnosis is schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type. He is currently prescribed an antipsychotic medication, olanzapine, and lithium for his bipolar condition.
Criminal History
- Mr. Rand has a lengthy pre-index offence criminal record from 1991 to 2012 for offences committed in Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and British Columbia. The offences include sexual assaults, assaults, uttering threats, uttering a false document and failures to comply with court orders and recognizances. Following 2012 Mr. Rand’s next encounter with the criminal justice system was some 11 years later when he committed the index offences.
Substance Use
- The record is not entirely clear as to Mr. Rand's substance use. There is a suggestion that before his detention in December 2023 he was using cannabis and had previously used cannabis when admitted to hospital. The Hospital Report quotes Mr. Rand as having said that he has had a "lifetime history of alcohol, cannabis and nicotine use".
Mr. Rand’s Personal and Psychiatric Histories
- Information about Mr. Rand’s criminal and psychiatric histories is at a premium owing to Mr. Rand’s poor memory of his background and the absence of sources of collateral information.
Before the Current Reporting Year
Personal History
Mr. Rand’s personal history was mainly gathered from self-report. There are inconsistencies, gaps and areas of his history that are difficult to comprehend which may to some extent be the result of Mr. Rand’s chaotic life circumstances and mental illness. There is concern about the reliability of his historical account.
Mr. Rand is a 50-year-old single man with two adult children with whom he has not had contact for many years. He also has a brother and sister with whom he has not had contact for decades. He was born in Detroit, Michigan and moved to Nova Scotia at age nine when his family moved there. It appears that Mr. Rand was placed in foster care homes as a young boy and was apparently adopted by his second foster parents.
According to Mr. Rand’s account he travelled to Hollywood in his late teens and then in his early twenties moved to Vancouver where he met and married a Japanese woman with whom he had two children. His son is now 23 years of age and his daughter age 27. Mr. Rand subsequently moved to Hawaii and then to Japan with his wife where they resided for seven weeks.
Mr. Rand reported that six months before the first index offence he was homeless and to be around other people he would hang out around the area of the Bedford Residence in Toronto where he had once resided.
Psychiatric History
Mr. Rand’s earliest recall of his psychiatric history is walking into a hospital in Vancouver in his twenties or thirties to seek assistance with his mental health and his unstable housing situation. He also indicated he was hospitalized in Hawaii and prescribed long-acting injections. The Hospital Report indicates that Mr. Rand was also hospitalized in Windsor, Ontario in 2014 and 2016. During those admissions he exhibited thought disorganization, pressured and nonsensical speech and delusional thinking.
Mr. Rand's first contact with CAMH as an inpatient was in 2018 when he was brought there from a homeless shelter by the police under a Mental Health Act Form 2. In the emergency department he was physically aggressive toward staff, a security guard and a nurse. He was admitted involuntarily for two months exhibiting grandiose and paranoid delusions. Mr. Rand was again admitted to CAMH for a couple of weeks in 2019 with disorganized thinking and paranoid delusions about staff at a shelter where he was residing acting physically and verbally agitated towards them.
In 2020 Mr. Rand was followed in the community by psychiatrist, Dr. Angela Ho and the community Multi-Disciplinary Access to Care and Housing (MATCH) team and a caseworker at LOFT Community Services. He disengaged with Dr. Ho and the MATCH team and in March 2023 he was encouraged to re-engage with them. However he did not see Dr. Ho after January 2023.
Mr. Rand was an inpatient at CAMH for about two weeks in September and October 2022 expressing anxiety about the prospect of being homeless. When he travelled to Windsor for a month he lost his housing at the Bedford Residence where he had resided from 2020.
From February 2023 to December 2023 Mr. Rand attended various hospitals other than CAMH, most often voluntarily in acute states of psychosis experiencing auditory hallucinations, sleeplessness, sometimes screaming and agitated and expressing paranoid beliefs about the staff. Predominant in his mind during those visits was his state of homelessness. He sought to be admitted to hospital or to be allowed to shelter in the hospitals. He was prescribed antipsychotic and mood stabilizing medications and was at times discharged to shelters.
Mr. Rand was jailed at the Toronto South Detention Centre (TSDC) where he was assessed by CAMH on two occasions during the period December 19, 2023 to January 10, 2024. He was irritable, anxious and labile during questioning. He spoke in a disorganized and illogical manner. He expressed mistrust and paranoid beliefs about TSDC staff and correctional officers. His presentation was marked by the grandiose delusions that he would meet the president at CAMH and that he was a “famous” and the “most wanted” rapper.
On January 11, 2024, after being found unfit to stand trial, Mr. Rand was admitted to the CAMH Forensic Assessment Triage Unit (FATU) on a Treatment Order. He was placed in locked seclusion exhibiting significant agitation and reluctance to respond to verbal de-escalation. With the administration of antipsychotic and mood stabilizing medications Mr. Rand became suitable for discharge from seclusion on January 14, 2024 and was found fit two days later.
From May 1, 2024 to June 19, 2024 Mr. Rand was again re-admitted to FATU after again being found unfit to stand trial. He refused a psychiatric assessment and had not taken medication while in TSDC. He presented as disorganized and irritable. He was experiencing grandiose delusions and auditory hallucinations involving the voices of celebrities commanding him to wake up in the morning and damage the unit. Mr. Rand's mental status improved with antipsychotic and mood stabilizing medications. On June 19, 2024 Mr. Rand was returned to court, found fit to stand trial and remanded to TSDC.
During an assessment on August 1, 2024 Mr. Rand did not exhibit any overt psychotic or delusional symptoms and attended court that day. During an August 22, 2024 assessment Mr. Rand did not report overt symptoms of psychosis or delusions. He was accepting of the antipsychotic and mood stabilizing medications.
CAMH Forensic Assessment Triage Unit - March 11, 2025 to Present
Being Mr. Rand’s first Board hearing and given his very recent admission to CAMH Forensic Services, the clinical team has been somewhat limited in its ability to assess Mr. Rand’s current and ongoing mental status.
On February 12, 2025 Mr. Rand was found not criminally responsible and was detained at TSDC until March 11, 2025 when he was transferred to the FATU where he remains until the present. He presented as calm and cooperative during assessment. He reported auditory hallucinations, displayed grandiosity and had limited insight. Mr. Rand was prescribed olanzapine and lithium for his schizoaffective disorder.
The following factors indicate Mr. Rand’s progress while in the FATU: he is capable of consenting to psychiatric treatment; he has been compliant with his medications; at his request his dosage of olanzapine was increased to address his ongoing auditory hallucinations; he accepts that his medications were prescribed for mood swings and that they are helpful to him; he has endorsed that “more than likely” cannabis would worsen his auditory hallucinations and mood lability; he has expressed no violent ideation or intent; he started attending forensic systems and recreational programming at the end of March 2025; he has indicated a desire to take responsibility for his future; and he has expressed an openness to work with those who help him.
On the less positive side, Mr. Rand has continued to endorse auditory hallucinations but is vague about their content; he has reported feeling angered and fearful about his auditory hallucinations; his affect has been labile moving between jovial to irritable; his thought processes have been disorganized; and his insight into his risk for violence, if he stops the medications, is superficial as he believes he would be “pretty safe without meds”.
The Hospital Report at p. 21 describes Mr. Rand’s status during a mental status examination in May 2025:
Mr. Rand presented with fair grooming and hygiene. He was calm and cooperative. There were no abnormal motor movements. His speech was normal in rate and rhythm; his answers tended to be brief and he could be guarded and vague when responding to questions about his internal experiences. His affect ranged from jovial to irritable. His thought process was generally linear, though it could sometimes become tangential. There were some grandiose ideas, but no paranoid delusions. There was no violent or suicidal ideation, intent, or plan. Mr. Rand reported auditory hallucinations. His insight into his mental illness was superficial, and his judgment was reasonable. His cognition appeared grossly intact.
Oral Evidence of Dr. Juliette Dupré
Dr. Dupré testified at the hearing that she has been Mr. Rand’s attending physician since his detention in FATU. She indicated there are no updates to Mr. Rand’s circumstances since the preparation of the Hospital Report.
Dr. Dupré confirmed the clinical team’s assessment that Mr. Rand has been mentally stable. There have been no aggressive incidents, locked seclusions or Code Whites while in the FATU. She reiterated observations from the Hospital Report that, despite adherence to his medications and abstinence from substances, Mr. Rand continues to experience ongoing psychosis involving auditory hallucinations, grandiose delusions and disorganized thought patterns. Dr. Dupré emphasized that this being his first hearing, it is early days for the team to devise a plan for Mr. Rand’s progress.
Dr. Dupré testified that the team is currently seeking to optimize Mr. Rand’s medication with the goal of finding a medication regime more responsive to Mr. Rand’s up to now treatment-resistant symptoms. During the last few months Mr. Rand’s antipsychotic medication was switched from paliperidone to olanzapine. Optimization has not yet been achieved with olanzapine since thus far significant improvement in Mr. Rand’s mental status has not been observed.
Mr. Rand is medication-capable. Dr. Dupré testified that if olanzapine is unsuccessful, after consultation with Mr. Rand and with his consent, clozapine will be prescribed. In answer to a Crown query, Dr. Dupré confirmed that Mr. Rand's right to refuse medications was discussed with him.
Dr. Dupré stated that Mr. Rand has declined to complete psychological testing. She explained that he gets upset when attempts are made to have in-depth conversations with him which presents barriers to assessing his status and is a pitfall to his progress through the privilege system. Dr. Dupré expressed hope that, with the successful optimization of his medication, completion of the psychological assessment can be pursued.
Crown counsel raised a question about significant threat in the context of the index offences being comparatively low on the range of seriousness. Counsel sought clarification on whether the team’s significant risk finding is based on the index offences or a global view of Mr. Rand’s criminal history. Dr. Dupré testified that significant risk in this case is based on a global perspective.
Crown counsel also queried, given the fact of Mr. Rand’s cooperativeness with staff, his compliance with medication and the rules, and the absence of abscondments, whether despite his lack of engagement, it is possible in the upcoming year for Mr. Rand to achieve unaccompanied passes to the community.
Dr. Dupré responded that it is possible but unlikely. She explained that even when compliant, Mr. Rand remains impulsive and disorganized in his thinking. Combining those factors with the lack of information about Mr. Rand's history of substance use, it was Dr. Duprés's opinion that in those factors lies the risk.
Crown counsel also asked whether a pathway exists for Mr. Rand to return to community living in the future and whether short-term unaccompanied passes could put Mr. Rand on a trajectory to achieving that goal. Dr. Dupré accepted this as a possibility.
Counsel for Mr. Rand questioned why the risk of abscondment with unaccompanied community passes would be a concern given that he is now under treatment, has not expressed aggression or a desire to abscond and has a history of self-reporting to hospitals most often for help with housing. Dr. Dupré responded that at this juncture Mr. Rand continues to exhibit symptoms of psychosis so there is a need to first assess any improvement in his symptoms once his medication has been optimized before unaccompanied passes can be allowed.
The Board raised the point that Mr. Rand has had a long period of illness which was thought to suggest there has been a lengthy period of instability in his history. Dr. Dupré responded that it is not possible to determine with any precision the extent of Mr. Rand’s periods of instability. This in the doctor’s opinion is owing to significant gaps in Mr. Rand’s history given that he is a poor historian, collateral information is absent and he resided outside of Ontario and Canada for extended periods.
The Board directed attention to an added positive factor, that Mr. Rand has not had any encounters with the criminal justice system from 2012 to 2023 when he committed the index offences. The query was whether Dr. Dupré could see any reason why in the upcoming review year Mr. Rand could not be transferred to a general forensic unit. Dr. Dupré agreed that such a transfer could be possible in the upcoming year.
The Parties’ Positions
All parties agree on significant threat and the appropriate disposition, that Mr. Rand remains a significant threat to public safety and that the least onerous and least restrictive disposition, that is necessary and appropriate in the circumstances, is a detention order detaining Mr. Rand within the CAMH Forensic Service.
The Hospital’s view on privileges is that Mr. Rand’s should receive directly supervised passes in the community. The Crown agreed with Mr. Rand’s view that the positive factors in Mr. Rand’s progress support a disposition allowing indirectly supervised passes in the community, there being some evidence to suggest that he could achieve that level of privileges over the course of the year, the focus being on the side of less restriction.
The Board’s Determination
Based on the evidence before us the Board unanimously accepts the opinion, as stated in the Hospital Report, that Mr. Rand remains a significant threat to public safety within the criteria outlined in Winko and as defined in s. 672.5401 of the Criminal Code. The Board considered the criteria, as set out in s. 672.54, namely, the paramount criterion of the safety of the public and Mr. Rand’s community re-integration, his mental condition and his other needs.
The Board agrees with the Crown and Mr. Rand’s joint position that the least onerous and least restrictive disposition in the circumstances is a detention order in CAMH Forensic Service with privileges up to indirectly supervised passes in the community of the Greater Toronto area.
The Board arrives at its decision for the following reasons.
The Board’s recognizes that there is a dearth of current and historical information at this point, Mr. Rand being a poor historian residing outside Ontario and Canada for extended periods of time and being observed by the Hospital for only a few months while in the FATU. This has restricted the clinical team’s projection of what Mr. Rand's future path forward will look like.
The clinical team has observed both positive and negative indicators of Mr. Rand’s status in FATU following the not criminally responsible finding on February 12, 2025. The Board finds that the positive factors are sufficient to support indirectly supervised passes in the community.
Mr. Rand has demonstrated the capacity to consent to treatment. He has been cooperative with staff and is medication and rule-compliant. He has not had any encounters with the criminal justice system for some 11 years before the index offences in 2023. Mr. Rand has not expressed a desire to abscond or any cravings for substances. He accepts the likelihood of the negative impact of cannabis on his mental health and has expressed no violent ideation and recently began attending forensic systems and recreational programming.
Also in Mr. Rand’s favour is that while in the FATU, on his own initiative, he requested an increase in his olanzapine acknowledging his ongoing psychotic symptoms and he accepts the benefits of his medication to his mental health. And importantly he has expressed a desire to take responsibility for his future and to cooperate with those who help him.
The Board acknowledges that Mr. Rand continues to endorse auditory hallucinations and is vague about their content. He has lingering mood lability, thought disorganization and superficial insight into his illness believing he would be safe not taking his medications. Mr. Rand has also resisted in-depth discussion during psychological assessment resulting in the assessment being incomplete. However the Board finds that the positive factors are sufficient to weigh more favourably toward indirectly supervised passes in the community.
The Board wishes to acknowledge Mr. Rand’s significant progress, the long road he has travelled over the years out of homeless and a chaotic lifestyle to a positive desire to cooperate with his treatment providers and to take responsibility for his future. This is truly praiseworthy. The Board urges Mr. Rand to keep up the good work during the upcoming year.
In keeping with the Criminal Code’s s. 672.5401 criteria, a detention order addresses the paramount criterion of protecting the safety of the public while indirectly supervised passes allow Mr. Rand to eventually achieve integration into the community.
In conclusion, the Board finds under s. 672.54 of the Criminal Code, that Mr. Rand remains a significant threat to public safety and that currently the necessary and appropriate disposition, that is the least onerous and the least restrictive to mitigate risk to public safety, is a detention order with privileges up to indirectly supervised passes in the community.
DATED this 8th day of July, 2025, at the City of Toronto, in the Toronto Region.
Hon. B. Allen Legal Member
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Office of the Registrar Ontario Review Board