Ontario Review Board
Re: Christian Perron
ORB File No: 8485
Hearing held on: Thursday, January 08, 2026
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. S. Lessard Dr. G. Boulais Mr. P. Hageraats Ms. K. Brisson
Parties Appearing: Accused: Christian Perron Counsel: Ms. M. Lord Person in charge of hospital: Representative: Dr. M. Strike Attorney-General of Ontario: Counsel: Ms. M. Dufort
REASONS FOR DISPOSITION
(Dated January 19, 2026)
Introduction
On February 7, 2024, Christian Perron appeared in Court on charges of assault causing bodily harm, possession of a weapon for a purpose dangerous to the public, and breach of probation, offences contrary to the Criminal Code of Canada.
The court received expert psychiatric evidence establishing that Mr. Perron was suffering from a severe mental disorder when he committed the offences. Based on that evidence, the Court ruled Mr. Perron was not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder (“NCR”).
Mr. Perron is subject to an initial disposition of the Ontario Review Board (ORB or “the Board”) dated January 27, 2025, ordering his detention within the Secure Forensic Unit of the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre (ROMHC or “the hospital”). Mr. Perron was awarded privileges to include the possibility of living in the community in accommodation approved by the hospital.
On Thursday, January 8, 2026, the Board convened at the ROMHC to conduct his first annual review. The hearing proceeded in the French language. Mr. Perron appeared by audio-visual link from the jail in Gatineau, Quebec, where he is currently serving a sentence of imprisonment. Mr. Perron was represented by counsel, Ms. M. Lord.
Documents were filed as evidence at the hearing. These include the cumulative ROMHC hospital report, dated December 17, 2025, along with email correspondence dated January 6, 2026, from the Chief Forensic Psychiatrist at the Pierre Janet Mental Health Hospital in Gatineau, Dr. Marc-Antoine Labelle.
Mr. Michel Battah participated in today’s ORB hearing by audio-visual link. Mr. Battah is a Quebec-based probation officer and liaison agent with the Quebec equivalent to the ORB, le Tribunal Administratif du Québec - Conseil d’Examen pour Troubles Mentaux (TAQ-CETM).
Mr. Perron is now a dual status offender. On October 29, 2025, the Court in Gatineau, Quebec, sentenced him to a prison term of one year following a criminal conviction of violence. Mr. Battah has confirmed that Mr. Perron’s expected release date from prison will be in mid-June 2026.
The same Court proceeding held in Gatineau on October 29, 2025, saw Mr. Perron declared Not Criminally Responsible on a separate offence. The Court ordered his appearance before the CETM in Gatineau for the CETM to render a disposition under section 672.47(1) of The Criminal Code of Canada.
On January 6, 2026, Mr. Perron appeared before the CETM. Two orders were produced in the new Quebec-based Disposition.
a) Mr. Perron was ordered to be detained at Pierre-Janet and to not otherwise leave the Province of Quebec “…unless it is to conform to his legal conditions /ORB/treatment plan.”
b) The CETM issued a Placement Decision under section 672.68(2) of The Criminal Code. Mr. Perron was ordered to serve the current sentence in prison, as opposed to in a hospital.
Issues before the Ontario Review Board
- The issues to be considered today by the Ontario Review Board are:
a) Whether Mr. Perron presents a significant risk to the safety of the public, and, if so, to determine the necessary and appropriate disposition.
b) As requested by the ROMHC under section 672.86(1) of The Criminal Code, whether Mr. Perron should be transferred to the Province of Quebec, specifically Pierre-Janet Mental Health Hospital in Gatineau.
Positions of the Parties
The issue of significant threat was conceded by counsel acting for Mr. Perron.
Both counsel appearing for the Attorney-General and for Mr. Perron agreed that the current detention order remains necessary and appropriate. They accepted the hospital’s further recommendation that a community living privilege is no longer appropriate to manage the current level of risk and that it should be deleted.
All three parties agreed to the inter-provincial transfer request, which would see Mr. Perron assigned to the care of Pierre-Janet in Gatineau, pursuant to section 672.86(1).
For the reasons set out below, the Board adopted all aspects of the joint submission.
Current Psychiatric Diagnoses, Hospital Report, p. 19
- Schizophrenia, in partial remission
- Stimulant use disorder, amphetamine, and cocaine types, severe
- Cannabis use disorder, severe
- The treating psychiatrist at the ROMHC last prescribed Mr. Perron with the following psychiatric medications:
- Aripiprazole Maintena 400 mg intramuscular every 28 days
- Quetiapine 150 mg by mouth at bedtime
- PRN (as needed) medications, to include Olanzapine and Quetiapine
- Other medications are listed in the hospital report
Index Offence
- The circumstances are described in the police and court documents and in the hospital report. In summary:
On October 20, 2023, Christian Perron was the subject of three separate Quebec Court of Justice probation orders requiring that he keep the peace and be of good behavior. On that date, shortly after midnight, he was involved in a physical altercation with another adult male in the ByWard Market area of Ottawa.
Mr. Perron used a silver foldable pocketknife to stab the victim numerous times in the upper body. The victim sustained three wounds approximately one inch in length on his right bicep, left shoulder, and the right side of the chest.
Mr. Perron quickly fled from the scene on a bicycle.
Within minutes, responding police officers located Mr. Perron near the Shepherds of Good Hope homeless shelter. As they approached Mr. Perron, he began biking away from officers and subsequently fled on foot. Upon apprehension, he was handcuffed. When Cst. Bird searched him, the silver foldable pocketknife was found concealed in Mr. Perron’s front hoodie pocket and seized.
When interviewed soon after at the Ottawa Police cell block on Elgin Street, Mr. Perron provided an inculpatory statement. He admitted to using the pocketknife to stab the male victim. He claimed that he was “protecting himself” at the time.
Personal Background
Mr. Perron is 30 and has been a resident of Gatineau, Quebec. His mother, Christine, lives in nearby Aylmer, Quebec. Mr. Perron is the oldest of two children. His childhood development was normal. When he was four years of age, the parents separated. At first, custody was shared between the mother and the father. After several months, the mother had full custody. Mr. Perron would see his father during the summer months.
Mr. Perron’s father, John Perron, lives east of Gatineau, in Masson-Angers, Quebec. He has been trying to support his son in recent years. This has included assisting him with living expenses. John Perron had signed on as a bail surety to secure Christian Perron’s release from custody, following the Ottawa Court’s NCR finding made on February 7, 2024. Difficulties arose in the father-son relationship soon after and are described below.
Mr. Perron started school at the age of 5. He had difficulty with concentration and attention and other learning issues. In high school, he had to repeat a grade. At age 16, he withdrew from school without finishing. He did not go on to complete his high school degree, although Mr. Perron did later attempt to take some subjects in adult high school.
Mr. Perron has been involved with psychiatric care from a young age. At age 5, he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and provided with Ritalin. At age 17, he was hospitalized for psychosis. Dr. Roger Labonté provided psychiatric care until Mr. Perron was 20.
For several years, Mr. Perron has been under the care of Dr. Walid Darwich. He was diagnosed with Schizophrenia. From age 21, he was prescribed psychiatric medication, with which complied for a time, to varying degrees. Over the years, Mr. Perron had involuntary psychiatric admissions on ten to fifteen occasions to either the Gatineau hospital or the Pierre-Janet Regional Psychiatric Hospital in Hull, Quebec.
The record of past criminal offences extends from 2020, when Mr. Perron was 24, until May 2023. Numerous convictions have involved violence. These include assaults by weapon, assault, indecent acts, threatening, possession of substances and several breaches of court orders.
Mr. Perron began using cannabis at the age of 16. At age 21, he started consuming amphetamines (speed). In about 2022, he replaced this with methamphetamine (crystal meth). Methamphetamine became his drug of choice, with daily consumption at about one gram per week. By the summer of 2023, Mr. Perron was also using crack cocaine, almost daily.
Mr. Perron reported not using much alcohol. He consumed Psilocybin (magic mushrooms) on a few occasions, about two to four times yearly, until March 2023.
Course Following the NCR Finding
After his arrest for the Index Offence on October 20, 2023, Mr. Perron was incarcerated at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Center (“OCDC”). Following the February 2024 NCR court finding, Mr. Perron was released on bail. He was required to attend at the ROMHC for the purpose of undergoing a formal risk assessment with a view to having his initial ORB hearing proceed soon thereafter.
The court-ordered release document was dated February 7, 2024. It required Mr. Perron to reside in the interim at a treatment centre for substance abuse, Le Domaine Perce-Neige, in Sherbrooke, Quebec.
Mr. Perron was required to not leave that address and to follow the routine and discipline of the facility at all times. The bail order further required that, Mr. Perron could only leave if accompanied by their personnel or as authorized by Perce-Neige.
In addition to further bail terms regarding weapons, substances, and having to stay away from the victim, Mr. Perron was ordered to follow all directions provided to him by Dr. Bourget and her designates at the ROMHC, including to attend at meetings and assessments, as required.
To guarantee Mr. Perron’s compliance with release conditions, his father, John Perron, presented himself as a surety by signing a non-cash bond in the amount of $1500.
As required by the bail order, Mr. Perron did get himself to the treatment facility in Sherbrooke. However, he only stayed for a very short time before leaving without authorization. In April 2024, he was arrested in the Province of Quebec, facing new charges, for which he spent more time in jail.
By May 21, 2024, neither Dr. Bourget nor Mr. Perron’s counsel, Ms. Lord, had had any contact with Mr. Perron. He was in breach of the court’s release terms in several respects.
Mr. Perron failed to appear at his initial ORB hearing set for June 13, 2024. A pattern of non-appearances repeated itself on subsequent dates through the months of August and September 2024. Neither the ROMHC nor Dr. Bourget received any information from Christian Perron as to his whereabouts or intentions. When Dr. Bourget eventually reached the father, John Perron, he assured Dr. Bourget that he would inform the hospital should his son’s whereabouts become known.
It was later learned that for the many months leading to Mr. Perron’s re-arrest on December 19, 2024, he had been living on his own in an apartment in Gatineau. This was with the knowledge and financial assistance of John Perron and in contravention of the Ottawa Court-ordered terms of bail release dated February 7, 2024.
John Perron reported that he gave his son money in 2024 for rent and groceries, only to later discover that Christian Perron had instead spent it on drugs.
Following Mr. Perron’s arrest in December 2024, the father went to clean his son’s apartment. He discovered what he believed to be crystal meth and a bong. The apartment was in disorder and infested with cockroaches.
Mr. Perron remained in custody at the OCDC from December 2024 pending his appearance at the initial ORB hearing held on January 14, 2025. The hospital social worker, Steve Su, had started to engage with Mr. Perron by visiting him at the Ottawa jail.
In the same time frame, Mr. Su arranged with Mr. Perron’s mother for Mr. Perron to receive a first dose of long-acting psychiatric medication.
Mr. Perron started to express some hope about changing his future, sharing that he no longer wanted to continue smoking hard drugs because they did not make him feel good. He admitted to having consumed hard drugs, crystal meth and crack at about once or twice weekly and that he had been smoking cannabis daily.
He described having earned income as a gay escort, receiving up to one thousand dollars for each date.
In late December 2024, the father, John Perron, provided further information, including mention of past concerning sexual behaviours, some of which arose in public. John Perron described his son as very unpredictable. When psychotic, he would be physically aggressive toward the father, even to the point of striking his father on two occasions. John Perron added that when his son is not well, he generally goes to his mother’s home in Aylmer.
In late 2023, when Dr. Bourget had originally assessed Mr. Perron regarding criminal responsibility, he denied having any psychiatric symptoms, or experiencing any voices or delusional thoughts. He claimed hard drugs were not affecting him and that he was feeling perfectly normal.
In further discussions in late 2024 with Mr. Su, the social worker, Mr. Perron denied experiencing any side effects from his newly prescribed psychiatric medication.
In her final assessment report to the Court, dated December 31, 2024, and in which Mr. Perron did not participate, Dr. Bourget noted that Mr. Perron’s mother, Christine, had advised of being exasperated following her many efforts over the years to help her son. She was accepting of the present situation and hoped things would change with a new treatment regime about to start under the ORB mandate.
Dr. Bourget wrote that Christian Perron presented a significant threat to the safety of the public. In her opinion, Dr. Bourget felt that Mr. Perron remained at high risk to reoffend. She informed the Board that a detention order would be needed before she could provide a more complete formal risk assessment.
The Initial ORB Hearing held on January 14, 2025
- The Board heard from Dr. Bourget’s colleague, Dr. Strike, that Mr. Perron was greatly in need of ongoing psychiatric treatment, including with prescribed medication. Mr. Perron also required intensive involvement in addictions treatment.
Course in Treatment under the Royal Ottawa MHC, January 14, 2025, to January 8, 2026
Mr. Perron remained in custody at the OCDC following the January 2025 ORB hearing. He received psychiatric care at the jail from forensic psychiatrist Dr. J. Hwang. Medication changes were helpful to address paranoid thinking related to peers in jail. At the OCDC, although he was described as lacking insight into the psychotic nature of his symptoms, Mr. Perron was psychiatrically stable: he followed rules and did not present aggression or management issues.
On July 10, 2025, upon admission to the ROMHC from jail, Mr. Perron was calm and appropriate. He felt safe and said the aripiprazole long-acting injectable was ‘really helping.’ Throughout his time on the Forensic Assessment Unit (“FAU”), Mr. Perron remained psychiatrically well, with no evidence of psychotic episodes or major mood episode. There was no sexually inappropriate behaviour.
On July 30, 2025, Dr. Labelle assessed Mr. Perron for criminal responsibility regarding more than one set of Quebec charges. At a September 11, 2025, court appearance in Gatineau, he was found NCR for some, but not all of, his charges.
Mr. Perron consistently expressed his preference for a transfer to the Pierre-Janet Hospital in Gatineau, rather than having to remain at the ROMHC. Gatineau was his hometown. He could be closer to family and have better access to his culture and services in the French language.
Mr. Perron continued to be treated with long-acting injectable antipsychotic medication, which he tolerated well. He was consistently adherent to his injectable and oral antipsychotic medication. On August 11, 2025, he was placed on a waitlist for transfer to the less secure Forensic Rehabilitation Unit (“FRU”).
On August 23, 2025, while on a staff-escorted walk to hospital grounds, Mr. Perron absconded. Three days later, he called the ward to say he was staying nearby with an ex-girlfriend. On August 28, he returned to hospital on his own and was placed back on the more secure FAU.
During the five-day AWOL, as Mr. Perron reported, he smoked quantities of methamphetamine, crack cocaine and cannabis. He also ingested GHB, DMT and beer. He reported having had unprotected sex, and requested STI testing, which was negative.
On September 8, 2025, while still on the FAU, Mr. Perron refused for several hours to provide a urine sample for toxicology testing. He eventually did provide a sample. It tested positive for cocaine, as was the case for three other patients on the same unit. Mr. Perron was very guarded and refused to discuss what had happened.
Mr. Perron attended hospital group programming in addition to individual addictions counselling. On October 2, he agreed to begin a trial of medications to reduce cravings.
A week later, on October 10, 2025, Mr. Perron once again absconded.
It was later learned that Mr. Perron had stayed with a friend in Gatineau and smoked methamphetamine and crack cocaine daily. His sex drive increased because of this substance use. He masturbated in public. Mr. Perron attributes his illegal sex acts to his methamphetamine addiction.
While AWOL from the ROMHC, Mr. Perron missed receiving his long-acting aripiprazole injection that was due on October 15.
On October 24, 2025, the Gatineau Police apprehended Mr. Perron. He was incarcerated at the Hull Detention Centre in Gatineau, where, to date, he remains in custody.
At court in Gatineau, at least according to Mr. Perron’s verbal report to Dr. Strike - she was given no further documentation - he pleaded guilty to offences from 2023: luring a minor and Break and Enter. He was sentenced to 1 year in jail and 3 years probation.
As noted above in these Reasons at paragraph 8, the Quebec Court made a separate finding. On October 29, 2025, regarding other offences, Mr. Perron was declared not criminally responsible.
Following the Quebec Court’s NCR finding made on October 29, 2025, Mr. Perron is now prohibited from having any contact with his father. This relates to his having assaulted and made threats to the father in 2023.
Evidence at the ORB Hearing held on January 8, 2026
Additional information came through the direct testimony of Dr. Melanie Strike, forensic psychiatrist at the ROMHC. She provided psychiatric care to Mr. Perron from July 25 to October 10, 2025, and is the author of the hospital report.
Dr. Strike and Dr. Labelle at Pierre-Janet have been exchanging information while Mr. Perron remains in custody at the Hull Detention Centre. She expects Dr. Labelle will be assuming care of Mr. Perron and that she will not be involved unless Mr. Perron returns to the ROMHC.
Dr. Strike and the ROMHC have sent out formal letters, recommending that Mr. Perron’s care be transferred to Quebec.
Dr. Strike provided a Risk Assessment based on her recent use of the HCR-20 v.3 structured clinical judgment instrument. In her opinion, Mr. Perron presents a high risk of future violence. At present, the violence risk is too high to allow for community living over the coming year.
In discussion with counsel and the panel, it was suggested that Mr. Battah, the Quebec probation officer, could assist Dr. Strike and her colleagues at the ROMHC by keeping them informed about Mr. Perron’s whereabouts. In the same discussion, Mr. Battah advised all present that he will be maintaining regular contact with Mr. Perron.
In discussion with Dr. Strike, counsel for both the Attorney-General and for Mr. Perron agreed that the community living privilege, clause 2(h), should be removed from the current ORB disposition.
In its place, all three parties jointly proposed a term to grant the ROMHC discretionary power to have Mr. Perron reside at the Pierre-Janet Mental Health Hospital in Gatineau, until such time as an inter-provincial transfer is effected.
The parties presented no further evidence.
Submissions of the Parties
- The parties confirmed their joint submission on all points, as outlined above. Together, they wished to focus on having Mr. Perron’s supervision and psychiatric care assumed by the Quebec correctional and mental health authorities pending a hoped-for interprovincial transfer to the Pierre-Janet Mental Health Hospital in Gatineau.
Conclusions and Disposition
Based on the undisputed evidence, and supported by the appropriate joint submission, the Board had no difficulty concluding that Mr. Christian Perron currently presents a significant threat to public safety. This is based on the long-standing diagnosis of severe mental disorder and his chronic disordered criminal behaviour. Mr. Perron’s Schizophrenia has not been adequately treated for years. It has led to his involvement in serious violent offences, as shown by the index offence along with the prior and now fresh history of repeated serious violence to others.
Mr. Perron’s most recent course at the ROMHC in the summer and fall of 2025 saw him abscond twice. He quickly went on to use dangerous illicit drugs and commit offences of violence. We agree with the hospital and Dr. Strike and find that the present risk of future violence has risen to an even higher degree than a year ago.
As was stated in last year’s Reasons, Mr. Perron’s psychiatric treatment has been complicated by an unrelenting pattern of drug consumption involving dangerous hard drugs, abscondments and jail terms. Despite the Ontario Court’s well-intentioned effort to assist Mr. Perron at having him attend residential treatment in early 2024, Mr. Perron saw fit to disengage from the treatment program which had been carefully arranged for him in Sherbrooke and which he desperately needed. Following events in Quebec in the Spring of 2024, Mr. Perron went about his own frolic for several months, before being finally apprehended by police and mental health authorities in late 2024.
Mr. Perron’s trajectory has been quite difficult and chaotic, to say the least. His long-standing mental illness will require careful reassessment of his psychiatric needs in terms of renewed pharmacological intervention. Drug seeking behaviours, in which he has displayed both alacrity and commitment, need to be strictly controlled. This is in addition to his longstanding need for intensive treatment for severe substance use disorders.
For the coming year, once Mr. Perron completes the current jail sentence in Hull, QC, he will need to be detained in a secure forensic setting. Considering the safety of the public, it is not realistic to consider any community living privileges in the near term.
Mr. Perron would like an interprovincial transfer. All parties agree, including Dr. Labelle of the Pierre-Janet Mental Health Hospital in Gatineau, Quebec. They have confirmed they are prepared to receive him into their care. Indeed, this only makes sense now that Mr. Perron has come under the jurisdiction of the CETM-TAQ.
Mr. Perron has made little to no progress while under the Ontario Review Board. It can only be hoped he will become more amenable to treatment under the supervision and with the supports of the correctional and mental health facilities in his home province.
For these reasons, having regard to the primary consideration of public safety, and balancing the patient’s mental condition, his reintegration, and other needs:
a) Mr. Perron is ordered to be detained at the ROMHC.
b) Most of last year’s terms and conditions shall continue to apply as seen in the renewed disposition.
c) The community living privilege, clause 2(h), is removed.
d) The ROMHC is awarded discretionary authority to have Mr. Perron reside at the Pierre-Janet Mental Health Hospital upon completion of any prison sentence being served.
e) The Board recommends that Mr. Perron be transferred to the Province of Quebec, as authorized under section 672.86(1) of The Criminal Code of Canada.
- We thank the parties and counsel for their assistance.
DATED this 19th day of January 2026, at the City of Toronto, in the Toronto Region.
Mr. P. Hageraats Alternate Chairperson
Office of the Registrar Ontario Review Board