Ontario Review Board
Re: Jessy A. Misson
ORB File No: 8369/8521
Hearing held on: Monday, November 17, 2025
Place of Hearing: Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre
Pursuant to: Section 672.81(1) of the Criminal Code
Before:
Alternate Chairperson: Ms. M. Labrosse
Members: Dr. W. Komer
Dr. R. Cormier
Mr. P. Hageraats
Mr. A. Bouvier
Parties Appearing:
Accused: Jessy A. Misson
Counsel: Mr. P. Lewandowski
Person in charge of hospital: Representative: Dr. A. Sandhu
Attorney-General of Ontario: Counsel: Mr. J. Wright
REASONS FOR DISPOSITION
(Dated January 7, 2026)
Introduction
[1]. On August 14, 2023, the accused, Jessy A. Misson was found not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder (“NCR”) on charges of assault, mischief under $5,000 and fail to comply with probation (x2) contrary to the Criminal Code of Canada.
[2]. A second NCR finding was made on March 21, 2024, on charges of assault causing bodily harm and assault. Those incidents pre-date the index offences from the first finding.
[3]. Mr. Misson is currently subject to a disposition of the Ontario Review Board (“ORB”) dated November 12, 2024, and amended by way of Order dated July 17, 2025. The disposition is a detention order with permission to reside in the community in accommodation approved by the person in charge. By way of an Order dated July 17, 2025, the disposition was amended to include the permission to attend a residential treatment centre in Ontario for up to three months.
[4]. On November 17, 2025, the ORB convened a hearing at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, hereinafter referred to as the hospital, to review Mr. Misson’s disposition pursuant to s. 672.81(1) of the Criminal Code. Mr. Misson was present for his hearing and represented by counsel, Mr. P. Lewandowski. An updated hospital report dated November 6, 2025, was entered as Exhibit 1 for the hearing.
[5]. It is noted that as part of the hearing documents there were two Campbell notices from the hospital to the ORB. The first one dated August 6, 2025, and the second one dated September 2, 2025. The first Campbell notice stated that following an elopement from the Forensic Rehabilitation Unit (“FRU”), Mr. Misson returned voluntarily the next day, and his privileges were restricted in accordance with the unit policy for a period of 14 days. The second Campbell notice is dated September 2, 2025. It advises the Board that Mr. Misson was transferred from the FRU to the Forensic Assessment Unit (“FAU”) on August 28, 2025, with a resulting loss of privileges.
[6]. At the outset of the hearing, Mr. Lewandowski requested an appointment of counsel for the hearing which was granted pursuant to s. 672.5(8)(b) of the Criminal Code.
[7]. The issues for this hearing are whether Mr. Misson continues to pose a significant threat to the safety of the public, and if so, to determine the necessary and appropriate disposition for the coming year.
[8]. The parties were canvassed as to their preliminary positions at which time the Board was presented with a joint submission of all parties that Mr. Misson continues to meet the significant threat threshold and that the maintenance of the current disposition, as amended, remains necessary and appropriate. The parties maintained that joint position at the conclusion of the hearing.
[9]. For the reasons set out below, the Board finds that Mr. Misson continues to pose a significant threat to the safety of the public and that a detention order with permission to reside in the community in approved accommodation remains the necessary and appropriate and least onerous and least restrictive disposition.
Index Offences
[10]. The index offences on the two NCR findings are set out in the hospital report and can be summarized as follows:
File 8369
On May 4, 2023, B.D., a cleaner at the Shepherds of Good Hope shelter, stepped outside onto Murray Street for a cigarette break. While leaning against the north wall of the shelter, he was approached by the accused, Jessy Misson, who was walking eastbound along the sidewalk. Without warning or provocation, Misson struck B.D. forcefully on the left side of his head with his right hand while holding an object believed to be food packaging. The blow caused bleeding behind B.D.’s left ear, and his prescription glasses fell to the ground, resulting in scratches on both lenses. After the assault, Misson continued walking eastbound before turning south on King Edward Avenue and fleeing the area. B.D. attended the Queensway-Carleton Hospital for assessment and was discharged with instructions to monitor his symptoms. He later had to replace his damaged prescription glasses at a cost of approximately $600.
File 8521
On January 6, 2023, at approximately 11:30 a.m., Jessy Misson was observed yelling, swearing, and causing a disturbance in the Kanata Centrum Shopping Centre, prompting multiple calls to Ottawa Police. While walking near the Best Buy store, Misson encountered the elderly victim, M.G., who was on his way to a work function. Without provocation, Misson struck M.G. on the left side of his head and face with a full can of carbonated soda. The impact caused M.G. to fall momentarily before he managed to get up and seek safety. Misson continued yelling and assaulting individuals in the area until police located him on an OC Transpo bus. At that time, M.G. had not yet reported the assault, and Misson was released unconditionally after being identified through his mugshot. On January 8, 2023, Constable Ritz learned of M.G.’s assault and confirmed Misson’s identity through witness statements and photographs. On March 14, 2023, during a medical follow-up, M.G. reported that he had been diagnosed with a concussion and continued to suffer from constant ringing in his right ear. Hearing tests confirmed this condition, which significantly impacted his daily life. Based on these findings, police laid additional charges, including Assault Causing Bodily Harm.
Background History
[11]. Mr. Misson’s personal, legal and psychiatric history is set out in detail in the hospital report. Briefly summarized, Mr. Misson is presently 33 years of age and was born in Leduc, Alberta.
[12]. Mr. Misson reported that his father is deceased. His mother, Corinna is 62 years old and lives in Golden, BC. He last had contact with her about 4 months prior to the index offences. He has 2 sisters and a brother who reportedly live in Lethbridge, Alberta. He has not been close to his family since the age of 16 years. His mother is a member of the Cree First Nation.
[13]. Mr. Misson began school at about the age of 4 years and did not like it. He was not a sociable child and had no friends. He had difficulty with his studies but was not assessed with any learning disorder. Mr. Misson received suspensions related to truancy and disruptive behaviours. He was expelled in grade 11 for truancy and did not pursue any further education.
[14]. Mr. Misson said that he worked as a roofer for about 10 years for different companies. He last worked approximately a year before the index offences.
Criminal History
[15]. Mr. Misson has a lengthy criminal record that spans between 2011 to 2022 and includes over 50 convictions, the details of which are in the hospital report.
Psychiatric History
[16]. Mr. Misson said that he began to suffer from depression from the age of 5 years. Since the age of 16 years, he has been continually depressed. He would avoid people, sleep a lot, and experienced suicidal thoughts. There were no episodes of elevated mood. He has also suffered from chronic anxiety and panic attacks since elementary school and was never treated for it.
[17]. Mr. Misson first began experiencing auditory hallucinations from about the age of 10 years and this has persisted over the years. While in jail, he felt that inmates were talking about him, conspiring against him, and wanted to kill him. On occasions, the voices told him he was God, that they wanted to kill him and hated him. They did not tell him to hurt others but told him to kill himself. The voices continued but attenuated after starting medication.
[18]. Mr. Mission’s current diagnoses are:
Schizophrenia
Stimulant Use Disorder (methamphetamine sub-type)
Cannabis Use Disorder
Evidence at the Hearing
[19]. The hospital’s evidence was presented through its report dated November 6, 2025, and through the oral testimony of Dr. A. Sandhu, who has been Mr. Misson’s attending psychiatrist since his admission to the hospital in December of 2023.
[20]. Mr. Misson has remained in hospital over the course of the past year and had a restriction of liberty and annual hearing on October 16, 2024, at which time he also had the initial hearing on the second NCR finding.
[21]. Dr. Sandhu stated that Mr. Misson has had some indirectly supervised community privileges over the past year, however his continued struggles with substances have led to the hospital having to restrict his privileges due to several instances of drug use and elopement from the hospital.
[22]. On January 13, 2025, Mr. Misson was transferred to the Forensic Rehabilitation Unit “FRU” and later progressed to having Level 3/indirectly supervised access to hospital grounds which he began to use regularly. He also acquired a laptop and was attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings virtually. Mr. Misson progressed to having indirectly supervised community access, and at that time, the hospital was focusing on a discharge to the Lebreton Transitional Residence.
[23]. In the first week of April, Mr. Misson was exercising a community pass and did not return in time, leading to the issuance of a Form 49 by the on-call physician. Mr. Misson eloped from the hospital from April 5th to 10th, 2025 and was returned by police after he was found at the Rideau Shopping Centre. He disclosed having consumed cannabis, alcohol, fentanyl and crack cocaine. Mr. Misson remained on the FRU, but his privileges were withheld for a period of time. He was noted to be withdrawn and seclusive and became increasingly guarded with his addictions’ worker.
[24]. Mr. Misson had a further episode of elopement from the hospital on July 21, 2025, returning of his own volition the next day and disclosing that he had used cannabis and slept outdoors. Mr. Misson expressed remorse in relation to these ongoing breaches of his disposition.
[25]. On August 23, 2025, Mr. Misson returned late from hospital grounds access and was found to have slurred speech. Cannabis and alcohol were detected with a rapid urine screen. At that time, a decision was made to transfer Mr. Misson to the Forensic Assessment Unit (“FAU”) after Mr. Misson was found to have hidden a cannabis vaporizer on the Unit and found to have used cannabis while on the Unit. He was transferred on August 28, 2025, and has remained on the FAU since then.
[26]. Mr. Misson disclosed that he was experiencing some residual symptoms in the form of whispers and feeling that people were talking about him. As a result, a decision was made to change his antipsychotic medication from long-acting injectable Invega to long-acting injectable Zuclopenthixol. Mr. Misson appears to have tolerated the adjustment of medication well and his residual symptoms have been resolved.
[27]. Dr. Sandhu advised that the hospital had been considering a residential treatment program outside of Ottawa which led to the request to amend the disposition to include permission to attend a residential treatment program in Ontario. The hospital sought this amendment out of an abundance of caution as it was unclear whether the disposition could be adequately respected with Mr. Misson not having constant oversight from the forensic treatment team during the residential treatment program.
[28]. Mr. Misson has continued to work with the addiction services of the hospital and regularly meets with his addiction counsellor, in addition to working with an occupational therapist and having 1:1 counselling with the social worker/psychotherapist Levia Chan.
[29]. Mr. Misson is currently on a waitlist for Serenity House, a 9-week residential program in Ottawa with transitional housing available upon completion of the residential treatment. Transitional housing is available to graduates of the residential program for up to a year, and according to Dr. Sandhu, it would be considered as approved housing if Mr. Misson is willing to consider it.
[30]. The hospital just found out last week that Mr. Misson is quite high on the waitlist and that there are only six other people ahead of him such that he could be admitted to this program within the next six to eight weeks. The plan would be to send Mr. Misson directly to the program from the FAU, thereby avoiding any concerns with community access and temptation to use substances.
[31]. In response to questions posed to him by counsel for the Attorney General, Mr. Wright, Dr. Sandhu responded as follows:
(a) Mr. Misson experiences ongoing symptoms of anxiety and trauma and grief which make him at higher risk of relapses. These factors are mostly internal; however, Mr. Misson has also had some external emotional stressors, such as having had contact with an ex-girlfriend prior to relapsing drug use. The treatment team is working with Mr. Misson to assist him in learning to better regulate his emotions, as they cause him to seek out drugs. Mr. Misson has also experienced trauma and grief from the loss of his father, and he continues to work on these issues with the members of his treatment team.
(b) Dr. Sandhu confirmed that with the switch to the Zuclopenthixol LAI, the treatment team believes that they have optimized treatment. Mr. Misson has acknowledged not being as internally preoccupied as he was.
(c) Dr. Sandhu confirmed that the hospital has utilized a Form 49 on two occasions over the past year to deal with Mr. Misson’s elopements and drug relapses and that the detention order continues to be needed in order to manage ongoing risk given that Mr. Misson is still in an acute phase of substance abuse disorder and his anxiety, grief and trauma.
(d) Dr. Sandhu confirmed that Serenity House has 24-hour staff on site but acknowledged that the hospital is still finding out the proposed parameters of Mr. Misson’s admission and how to ensure ongoing monitoring of him by the forensic treatment team during that time.
[32]. In response to questions posed to him by members of the hearing panel, Dr. Sandhu confirmed that Mr. Misson’s medications, including Suboxone, will continue to be administered to him while he is at Serenity House. Dr. Sandhu expects that he will continue to see Mr. Misson either in person or virtually, likely every two weeks, and will determine whether Mr. Misson is able to use public transportation to attend the hospital, depending on the requirements of the Serenity House program with respect to community access and transportation to the hospital.
[33]. The hospital’s risk assessment is found on pages 42 and 43 of the hospital report and is summarized by Dr. Sandhu as follows:
“It is my opinion, based on my assessment of Mr. Mison’s violence risk that he continues to represent a significant risk to the safety of the public.
It is my opinion that necessary and appropriate way to manage Mr. Misson’s violence risk over the next year is the continuation of a Detention Order with permission to reside in the community in an accommodation approved by the person in charge of the hospital.
Mr. Misson’s violence risk, with a history of recent substance use relapses requires the ability of a Form 49 to detain him to the forensic units at the ROH. His current treatment year, coupled with historic restrictions of his liberties in the context of efforts to reintegrate Mr. Misson into the community indicates that this risk cannot be managed via the mental health act.
The detention order will be necessary to keep Mr. Misson in hospital to adequately address his various violence risk factors, such as substance use and mental health symptoms. Mr. Misson has recently left hospital on unauthorized leave and has necessitated a Form 49 to be used to bring him back into the hospital’s care. Mr. Misson’s treatment team will endeavour to address his risk factors such as relapse prevention strategies with the encouragement of residential addictions treatment. I would recommend his new disposition allow Mr. Misson to reside at an addictions treatment facility for up to ninety days with the possibility of second stage housing thereafter.”
[34]. No other evidence was presented.
Analysis and Conclusion
[35]. Having considered all of the evidence tendered at the hearing, and the submissions of the parties, the Board finds that Mr. Misson continues to pose a significant threat to the safety of the public as defined in s. 672.5401 of the Criminal Code of Canada, and as further defined in Winko v. British Columbia (Forensic Psychiatric Institute), 1999 CanLII 694 (SCC), [1999] 2 S.C.R. 625.
[36]. According to R. v. Winko, a significant threat to the safety of the public means a real risk of physical or psychological harm to members of the public that is serious in the sense of going beyond the mere trivial or annoying. The conduct giving rise to the harm must be criminal in nature.
[37]. Our finding that Mr. Misson continues to pose a significant threat to the safety of the public is based on the fact that the index offences, namely violent assaults on random individuals, occurred in the context of untreated schizophrenia, compounded by a severe substance use disorder which persists to this day. Though Mr. Misson’s mental condition is notably better than it was at the time of the index offences, he has experienced residual symptoms from time to time over the course of the past year and has had several relapses into drug use during periods of elopement from hospital, necessitating the exercise of the warrant to return him to hospital.
[38]. Mr. Misson’s substance use disorder is currently a barrier to progress in his rehabilitation. It was intended that he go to the Lebreton transitional residence, but this will not succeed if he continues to use drugs. The hospital now seeks for him to engage in a more rigorous residential treatment program, and he will have this opportunity with the proposed Serenity House program. Serenity House can also provide transitional housing for up to a year, which would help Mr. Misson solidify the gains that he makes during the 9-week residential program, if he is able to complete it successfully. Mr. Misson’s current level of motivation is cause for optimism.
[39]. A detention order continues to be needed to manage the risk at this time. A conditional discharge would not be adequate because the hospital continues to need the ability to swiftly admit Mr. Misson to hospital if needed, given his ongoing fragility, and to retain the ability to approve accommodation. Mr. Misson could be a candidate for transitional housing, following completion of the Serenity House program.
[40]. We have taken into consideration the factors at section 672.54 of the Criminal Code of Canada, namely the protection of the public, which is the paramount consideration, the mental condition of the accused, his reintegration into society and his other needs in coming to the unanimous finding that that a detention order, on the same terms and conditions, remains the necessary and appropriate, and the least onerous and least restrictive disposition in all of the circumstances.
DATED this 7th day of January 2026, at the City of Toronto, in the Toronto Region.
Ms. M. Labrosse
Alternate Chairperson
Office of the Registrar
Ontario Review Board