Ontario Review Board
Re: Adam Kochanski
ORB File No: 7173
Hearing held on: Monday June 10, 2025
Place of Hearing: St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton
Pursuant to: Section 672.81(1) of the Criminal Code
Before:
Alternate Chairperson: Mr. R. Bigelow
Members: Ms. L. Maunder Dr. P. Darby Dr. G. Stones Mr. A. Mete
Parties Appearing:
Accused: Adam Kochanski Counsel: Mr. R. Browne (by video)
The Person in Charge of Hospital: Counsel: Ms. L. Barney
Attorney General of Ontario: Counsel: Mr. B. Adsett
REASONS FOR DISPOSITION (Dated July 23, 2025)
Introduction
On July 6, 2017, Adam Kochanski was found not criminally responsible (NCR) on charges of arson – reckless disregard for human life, arson – damage to property, forcible entry and mischief under $5000 all contrary to the Criminal Code. He is currently subject to a disposition of the Ontario Review Board (the Board) dated June 17, 2024, ordering that he be discharged subject to conditions.
On Tuesday, June 10, 2025, the Board convened a hearing at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton to review Mr. Kochanski’s disposition pursuant to 672.81(1) of the Criminal Code. Mr. Kochanski was present and represented by counsel, Mr. Browne who appeared by video due to a recent injury. The issues to be determined at the hearing were whether Mr. Kochanski continued 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
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. Kochanski no longer constituted a significant threat to the safety of the public and therefore is entitled to be discharged absolutely.
Counsel for the Attorney General indicated that he wished to reserve his position pending hearing the evidence.
Counsel for Mr. Kochanski supported the Hospital recommendation.
Evidence at the hearing
- The evidence at the hearing consisted of the Hospital Report dated June 3, 2025, and the oral evidence of Dr. Naidoo, Mr. Kochanski’s treating psychiatrist.
Findings:
- For the Reasons that follow, the Board finds that Mr. Kochanski no longer represents a significant threat to the safety of the public and therefore was entitled to be discharged absolutely.
Index Offences:
- The circumstances surrounding the index offences as summarized in last year’s Reasons for Disposition are as follows:
On the night of February 22, 2017, Mr. Kochanski started a fire in the bedroom closet of his unit in a house on Wellington Street where he resided. The upstairs tenant awoke to smoke and flames, and fled just before the house was engulfed by fire. Firefighters arrived and extinguished the fire. Mr. Kochanski could not be found. The fire caused the death of two cats living in the upstairs unit, serious emotional and material harm, and put people's lives at risk.
Just hours later, on February 23, Mr. Kochanski broke into a private family home several kilometers away, leading a frightened mother and two children to barricade themselves in a room. When the police came, they found him lying in a bathtub there.
Upon his admission to hospital right after his arrest, Mr. Kochanski was floridly psychotic, with disorganized thought and behaviour, paranoid delusions, and auditory and visual hallucinations. By Mr. Kochanski's own account, he was feeling severely depressed and suicidal, and having paranormal, spiritual, depressive and delusional thoughts that he was being chased by Satan and that his life force was waning and he would die, which made him intensely fearful. Mr. Kochanski later recounted, calling it hard to explain, that he broke the windows in his unit to free himself of demons there, and that made the place cold. He lit a sock to start a fire to keep warm, and received a message from God to burn the house down. He went to bed and woke up seeing smoke.
He became afraid and a voice told him to leave. Feeling he was running away from Satan, he went a distance, and broke into a house on God's command, using a hammer to break the window and shears to clear the broken glass from the frame. A voice told him he was dead and he was awaiting the angels, and he got into the bathtub to be safe.
Mr. Kochanski said that he had had this type of experience several times before, but never to this intensity. He had set fires before, and had been "studying fire", but it had not got out of control. He said he was not using illicit substances at the time and was following his methadone maintenance treatment.
Background Information Regarding the Accused:
Mr. Kochanski is currently 40 years of age and was born in Italy. His family immigrated to Saskatoon when he was one year old, but he grew up in the Kitchener area. He has two older brothers both of whom have had mental health related issues.
Mr. Kochanski began to have difficulties in high school because “my mental problems kept getting in the way” and left school one credit short of obtaining his grade 12 diploma. He has admitted to a history of stealing lighters and chocolate bars, “torturing insects” and having “set a lot of fires” beginning at the age of 10.
Substance Use History
- Mr. Kochanski began abusing substances in approximately 2004 and his substances of choice included morphine, Dilaudid, codeine, oxycodone, marijuana and hydrocodone. He began using methadone maintenance treatment in 2005 but since then has had a number of relapses to the use of opioids.
Legal History:
- Mr. Kochanski has several police contacts prior to the index offences one of which resulted in him being subject to a weapons prohibition (the substantive charge is unknown).
Psychiatric History
- Last year’s reasons for disposition summarized Mr. Kochanski’s psychiatric history as follows:
Mr. Kochanski has a psychiatric history that includes multiple suicide attempts. His first was at age 17. He had many brief admissions to hospital in the context of bizarre behaviour and being taken to ER departments by police. There was frequently noted concurrent drug use contributing to the behaviour. There is a significant depressive mood component to his illness which has featured prominently in his psychiatric history. Details of this history are set out in the Hospital Report at pages 12-15.
Current Diagnosis
- Mr. Kochanski’s current diagnoses are Schizoaffective Disorder and Opioid Use Disorder, in sustained remission.
Recent History
On February 8, 2019, Mr. Kochanski was discharged from hospital to live in the community of Hamilton at Baldwin House a CMHA supervised residence and remained there until January 27, 2021, when he was apprehended by police after attempting to flee the residence and was readmitted to Hospital. He had been nonadherent with his prescribed medications and presented with symptoms of mania and psychosis including auditory and visual hallucinations, was observed to be responding to internal stimuli, his thought process was tangential, and he presented with grandiose and bizarre delusions. Once treatment was reinitiated the symptoms dissipated, and he was discharged back to Baldwin House on April 15, 2021.
Mr. Kochanski continued to reside at Baldwin House and abide by the rules of the home as well as the terms of his disposition without incident until September 2023 when a housing worker contacted his case manager with concerns about Mr. Kochanski’s behaviour. His case manager asked him to present himself at hospital for assessment and he attended at the outpatient clinic. He was assessed by Dr. Naidoo who noted that his behaviour was potentially representing hypomania. Dr. Naidoo recommended an increase of his monthly injection of Invega Sustenna from 75 mg to 100 mg and Mr. Kochanski agreed and he returned to his residence. Subsequent to the change in medication his mental health has remained stable.
Evidence of Dr. Y. Naidoo
Dr. Naidoo indicated that he had been Mr. Kochanski’s attending psychiatrist since 2021 and had read and adopted the contents of the Hospital Report. He noted that Mr. Kochanski has maintained his residence, has indicated that he wants to remain there, and the residence is content with his remaining there even if no longer under the jurisdiction of the Board. He has made friends at the residence and has maintained a good relationship with his mother. He has also been cooperative with the treatment team and was last admitted to hospital 2021 and remained in hospital voluntarily until the treatment team recommended his discharge.
Dr. Naidoo stated that over the reporting year there had been no changes to Mr. Kochanski’s medication and that he had displayed good insight into his illness as well as his need for medication and the impact of substances on his mental health. He also continued to see Dr. Brasch, a psychiatrist specializing in addictions, who prescribes methadone which Mr. Kochanski picks up once per week to take home where it is stored in his lockbox in a basement fridge and self administers it daily.
Dr. Naidoo advised that the Hamilton Program for Schizophrenia had accepted Mr. Kochanski on to their caseload and that he had completed the intake process. Mr. Kochanski also completed Goodwill Team’s Employment Readiness Program, but was unable to follow through with volunteer work following the program due to the lack of available positions.
Final Positions of the Parties
- At the conclusion of the hearing counsel for the Attorney General indicated that having heard the evidence he was satisfied that it supported a conclusion that Mr. Kochanski no longer represented a significant threat to the safety of the public and joined the other parties in submitting that the necessary and appropriate disposition was an absolute discharge.
Analysis and Conclusion, Significant Threat:
- The Board is satisfied that the evidence amply supports the joint submission that Mr. Kochanski no longer represents a significant threat to the safety of the public and is therefor entitled to be discharged absolutely. He has now been in the community without readmission since April 2021 and shows good insight into his illness, the need for treatment as well as the impact of substances on his mental health. He is now connected to a non-forensic mental health support team. He has a stable residence, and his future plans are realistic and will likely lead to even greater stability.
DATED this 23rd day of July 2025, at the City of Toronto, in the Toronto Region.
Robert Bigelow
Alternate Chairperson
Office of the Registrar
Ontario Review Board