Re Sheryl C. Uwasomba, 2026 CanLII 21154

Re: Sheryl C. Uwasomba

ORB File No: 7554

Hearing held on: Thursday, November 27, 2025

Place of hearing: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Pursuant to: Section 672.81(1) of the Criminal Code

Before: Alternate Chairperson: Ms. C. Finley Members: The Hon. B. Allen Dr. Y. Alatishe Dr. L. O. Lightfoot Mr. J. Cyr

Parties Appearing: Accused: Sheryl C. Uwasomba Counsel: Mr. A. Rai The person in charge of hospital: Counsel: Ms. M. Warner Attorney General of Ontario: Counsel: Mr. M. Feindel

REASONS FOR DISPOSITION

(Dated January 22, 2026)

Introduction

1. On June 4, 2019, Ms. Sheryl C. Uwasomba was found not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder on a charge of arson with reckless disregard for human life, contrary to the Criminal Code.

2. Under s. 672.81(1) of the Criminal Code, a panel of the Ontario Review Board (“the Board”) was convened on November 27, 2025, at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (“CAMH or the Hospital”) to review Ms. Uwasomba’s threat to public safety and the appropriate disposition under s. 672.54 of the Criminal Code.

3. Ms. Uwasomba’s existing disposition dated December 18, 2024, provides that she be detained at CAMH’s General Forensic Service with privileges up to residing in approved community accommodation.

4. The parties advanced a joint position that Ms. Uwasomba continues to pose a significant threat to the safety of the public and that detention at the General Forensic Service at CAMH on the existing terms and conditions including privileges up to residing in approved accommodation in the community is an appropriate disposition.

Disposition

5. For the reasons set out below the Board concludes, under s. 672.54 of the Criminal Code, that Ms. Uwasomba continues to pose a significant threat to public safety and that the necessary and appropriate disposition is detention at the General Forensic Service at CAMH with privileges up to residing in approved community housing.

Current Diagnoses

6. Ms. Uwasomba’s current diagnoses are schizoaffective disorder and cannabis use disorder in remission in a controlled environment.

The Evidence

7. The Board has before it the Hospital Report dated November 6, 2025, which contains an account of Ms. Uwasomba’s personal and psychiatric background which need not be repeated in detail here. The Board also has the oral evidence of Dr. Ipsita Ray, author of the Hospital Report.

Index Offence

8. The circumstances of the index offence are described in the Hospital Report and are summarized as follows.

9. On November 12, 2016, Sheryl Uwasomba’s mother contacted the police to report that her daughter, Sheryl Uwasomba, was missing and fled after setting a fire in their residence. The mother told the police that she had a conversation with Sheryl on November 11, 2016, about her bringing a stray cat into the residence without permission. The mother advised Sheryl that she did not want the cat in the residence; however, Sheryl stated that the cat was to keep her company.

10. The mother advised police that she believed that Sheryl was upset with her for telling her the cat was not welcome in the residence. Upon returning from work on November 11, 2016, she knew Sheryl was in the residence due to hearing her moving around and speaking to herself in her bedroom. The mother then went into her own bedroom to sleep. At approximately 1:00 pm Sheryl turned the kitchen stove on and set the property on fire while the mother was sleeping. The mother and her basement tenant were startled by a fire alarm in the residence going off and smelled smoke upon arriving on the main floor. Both parties observed smoke and a fire in the kitchen and on a stack of documents on the couch in the living room.

Criminal History

11. Ms. Uwasomba does not have a criminal record. However, she had charges in 2012, including assault, uttering threats, theft under, possession of property obtained by crime which were all stayed. She was also charged in May 2018 with possession of a dangerous weapon, public intoxication and in June 2018 with theft under, mischief under, uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm. There is no record available as to the outcomes of those charges.

Substance Use

12. Ms. Uwasomba self reports that she is a mild alcohol user. However, in 2018 she was arrested and charged with public intoxication outside of an LCBO store. She also described herself as a mild-to-moderate cannabis user.

Ms. Uwasomba’s Personal and Psychiatric History

Before the Current Reporting Year

Personal History

13. Ms. Uwasomba is currently 40 years of age. She was born in Toronto. Her highest educational achievement was attending the first term of a marketing program at Humber College where she performed as an average student. However, at age 21 she withdrew from the program with the onset of her schizoaffective disorder.

14. Ms. Uwasomba has never been married and has no children. She is a Canadian citizen. Since her diagnosis of schizophrenia in 2009 Ms. Uwasomba has been supported by ODSP. Previously she consistently searched for jobs but was soon terminated because of her symptom relapses.

Psychiatric History

15. Ms. Uwasomba’s first encounter with the psychiatric system was in 2009 at Brampton Civic Hospital where she was diagnosed on her first episode of psychosis. She was later diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. From 2009 to the index offence Ms. Uwasomba attended hospital emergency departments and was admitted and discharged from various hospitals due to symptoms of her psychotic condition. She presented with paranoia, agitation, aggression, and threatening behaviours as well as sleep deprivation and auditory and visual hallucinations.

16. Ms. Uwasomba reported experiencing the negative consequences of hallucinations and delusions with the use of cannabis. Before being discharged from hospitals she was prescribed various anti-psychotic medications which improved her behaviour. From 2014 she was discharged with referrals to CMHA and the SHIP ACT team. Her re-admissions were consequent upon her non-compliance with her medications.

17. From November 17, 2016, to January 5, 2017, following the index offence, Ms. Uwasomba was admitted involuntarily to Brampton Civic Hospital under a Form 47 completed by her ACT Team psychiatrist because she left her SHIP supportive housing and moved into a shelter. She was experiencing auditory hallucinations, paranoid delusions about demons harming/harassing her. She was consuming large amounts of garlic oil under the belief that it would “de-worm her.”

18. Since the index offence Ms. Uwasomba has continued with a similar trajectory of medication non-compliance and decompensation and being admitted to Brampton Civic Hospital and other hospitals.

19. Ms. Uwasomba was an inpatient from June 2019 to December 2024 at Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences (“Ontario Shores”) when she was transferred to the CAMH Women’s Secure Forensic Service.

20. At Ontario Shores Ms. Uwasomba was admitted in a decompensated state, actively psychotic, disorganized, paranoid, and religiously preoccupied. She presented throughout with intense delusions regarding being sexually assaulted by staff and co-patients without a basis for her claims. Her behaviour continued to be violent and aggressive so much so that several code whites were called because of violence and aggression towards co-patients and staff. Security staff were employed at all times to protect the other patients and staff from Ms. Uwasomba’s threatening and violent conduct and to assist in preventing abscondment which she attempted and succeeded at several times.

21. Ms. Uwasomba was persistently non-compliant with her medication. At times she refused medication or vomited after it was administrated and subsequent to these incidents, she appeared much more agitated, aggressive, and paranoid. She was incapable to consent to medication and her mother became her substitute decision maker (“SDM”) in 2019. Her mother and sister jointly took on this role in 2020. Ms. Uwasomba was placed in seclusion on several occasions. The nursing staff reported that she continued to be agitated, refused to contract to safety agreements and continued to make verbal threats towards staff and peers.

22. In January 2020, Ms. Uwasomba began utilizing off-unit privileges accompanied by two staff members. However, she assaulted a female nurse during one of these off-unit passes and she tried to abscond from the Hospital.

23. Electroconvulsive therapy (“ECT”) was proposed as a treatment and SDM consent was obtained on February 2, 2020, following a family meeting. Ms. Uwasomba was not cooperative with the pre-ECT workup recommended by the ECT team. They were able to initiate treatment, however, on February 20, 2020, and obtained the necessary preliminary blood work while she was sedated for treatment which upset Ms. Uwasomba as she believed ECT was damaging to her brain.

24. Ms. Uwasomba’s mental state improved significantly with ECT. There was a significant reduction in Ms. Uwasomba’s paranoia and other delusions and a marked reduction in her overall level of agitation and the frequency and intensity of aggressive, threatening, and assaultive behaviours. She eventually became cooperative with the ECT treatment, but she was not cooperative with her antipsychotic medication injections. She underwent 35 ECT treatments and as of the date of the Hospital Report Ms. Uwasomba’s overall mental state continued to fluctuate daily. On the whole she remained at a better baseline than she was with previous medication regimens.

25. Ms. Uwasomba continued to engage in violent and aggressive conduct throughout 2020. A code white was called, and she was placed in locked seclusion for aggression against nursing staff. She threatened violence against nurses and threatened to kill and fight a male co-patient. Staff accompanied passes were ceased following an assault on staff and an attempt to abscond.

26. An expansive multidisciplinary team was involved in the planning and implementation of Ms. Uwasomba’s care plan which involved a psychologist, a behavioural therapist, a recreational therapist, an occupational therapist, a social worker, security, and nursing staff as well as consultation with a psychiatrist and social worker from the eating disorders unit and input from the staff and medical director of ECT.

27. With her antipsychotic medication adjustments there were at times improvements in her mental status. To her credit she began to actively participate in CBT (“Cognitive Behavioural Therapy”). She was open to trying new skills to cope with her anger and aggression. However, Ms. Uwasomba continued to have delusions about co-patients and staff sexually assaulting her and stealing from her. She would still become agitated and aggressive, sometimes culminating in assaultive behaviour.

28. On the positive side Ms. Uwasomba remained in regular contact with her siblings and they visited her in hospital occasionally. By 2022 she continued to spend a substantial amount of time reading books and using the computer to study. Ms. Uwasomba was often discussing ideas for inventions to create clean air and healthy environments. Throughout 2022 and 2023 however she continued to be preoccupied with claims that she was being raped. With adjustments to her antipsychotic medication there were some improvements but there were vacillations in her mental status. She continued to have periods of non-compliance with her medications and treatment modalities. Her aggressive and vulgar verbal aggression continued, and she was at times placed in seclusion.

29. In Ms. Uwasomba’s favour in 2023 she utilized accompanied privileges in the hospital/grounds 132 times. Ms. Uwasomba enjoyed going to the business office, gift shop and cafeteria. She utilized accompanied community privileges nine times with no concerns during the outings. She also attended medical appointments 12 times without issue.

30. There was some progress during the reporting year 2023 and 2024.

31. Ms. Uwasomba made improvements in the following areas: she participated in unit activities such as grounds walks and gym programs as well as community outings; she expressed less paranoia about being raped, and there were no remarkable incidents since December 2023 when Ms. Uwasomba punched a male co-patient because of a delusion about rape; she reported that she felt the loxapine medication was helpful with quieting the voices; she did not report any violent ideation; she tended to her activities of daily living appropriately and without prompting; she slept well throughout the night and maintained a healthy sleep/wake cycle; and she was generally pleasant with the staff and cooperative with the medication for her mental illness.

32. But Ms. Uwasomba still experiences some of the negative factors: she has poor insight into her mental and physical illness; she has numerous delusions about her skin lesions and her autoimmune disease; she often voices somatic delusions that ants and bugs are in her ears; she experiences auditory hallucinations daily of communications from her ex-boyfriend calling her names; and she voices paranoia about males entering her room and raping her. Ms. Uwasomba also voiced safety concerns about being the only female on her unit at Ontario Shores.

The Current Reporting Period – December 2024 to November 2025

33. For this entire reporting period, since her transfer from Ontario Shores on December 19, 2024, Ms. Uwasomba has been an inpatient at the Women’s Secure Forensic Unit (“WSFU”) at CAMH under the care of Dr. Ipsita Ray.

34. Ms. Uwasomba has continued to progress during the current reporting year in the following ways: there have been no breaches of the terms of the Board disposition; she has attained level 4 staff accompanied passes to the community; there have been no incidents of absconding from the Hospital or misuse of privileges during this review period; she has enrolled in the Culturally Adapted Cognitive Behaviour Therapy “(CA-CBT”) program; and she will be starting individual therapy sessions with a therapist from FORCAT (“Forensic Consultation and Assessment Team”).

35. The negative factors have continued to be features of her mental status. Her mental state has fluctuated considerably in line with variations in her engagement in programming; she has continued to endorse persecutory and referential delusions about her boyfriend, contending that she was being sexually assaulted in her sleep, attributing these experiences to “black magic,” and believing her boyfriend could invade her thoughts despite his physical absence; she has demonstrated limited insight into the nature of these psychotic experiences; she has remained largely seclusive in her room; she has declined clozapine and informed the nursing team of her decision to discontinue it altogether, attributing her medical conditions to taking clozapine; and she has demonstrated limited insight into her condition in that her beliefs are shaped by fixed delusional ideas.

36. Following a discontinuation of clozapine Ms. Uwasomba’s medical status quickly deteriorated. She became increasingly irritable, argumentative, and disorganized in her thought processes. She expressed paranoid and persecutory delusions directed toward staff and endorsed auditory hallucinations that were more intense and frequent than previously reported. She was irritable, impulsive, and not open to instruction. She was placed in locked seclusion in March 2025. Clozapine was restarted on April 9, 2025.

37. During the period of July 2025 to October 2025, Ms. Uwasomba’s residual psychotic symptoms persisted. However, there were no incidents of aggression nor any reason to resort to locked seclusion to manage her care. Her preoccupation with “bugs in her ear” continues which she describes as a sensation of bugs crawling inside her right ear. She claims her auditory hallucinations are rooted in her belief that they were caused by her brother put “ball bearings” in her ears when she was a child.

Oral Evidence of Dr. Ipsita Ray

38. Dr. Ipsita Ray testified at the hearing and indicated that she has been involved in Mr. Uwasomba’s case for about one year. She indicated that there were two material updates in Ms. Uwasomba’s case since the Hospital Report was prepared on November 6, 2025.

39. A point of progress Dr. Ray pointed to was the fact that Ms. Uwasomba has advanced in her privilege level to indirectly supervised passes on the Hospital grounds for programming. She is now able to go on her own to the gym and participate in Therapeutic Neighbourhood programs.

40. Dr. Ray also testified about a November 16th incident, that she believes demonstrates improvements in Ms. Uwasomba’s behavioural restraint, during a stressful encounter with a co-patient. The co-patient apparently believed Ms. Uwasomba was in too close proximity to her and asked Ms. Uwasomba to move away and then she punched Ms. Uwasomba in the face. To Ms. Uwasomba’s credit she only pushed the co-patient away without resorting to a fully aggressive reaction. Neither of the women were injured and while they remain in the same unit, both are now closely managed.

41. Ms. Uwasomba is currently still placed in a women’s secure forensic unit. In terms of the treatment team’s immediate future plans for Ms. Uwasomba, Dr. Ray indicated that Ms. Uwasomba is now in a position to be transitioned to a women’s general forensic unit. She is currently on a wait list and the team is waiting for a bed to become available.

42. Dr. Ray also spoke about the circumstances around medication compliance and dosage levels as it relates to optimization. The doctor referred to the period from February 23, 2025, to April 9, 2025, when Ms. Uwasomba refused to take clozapine on her delusional belief that it was responsible for some of her conditions. She rapidly experienced heightened paranoia and delusional deterioration. Mr. Uwasomba agreed in April to return to clozapine at a dose lower than had been prescribed before she refused it in February. Dr. Ray made the favourable point that Ms. Uwasomba agreed to increase the dosage on October 6th, albeit, at a dosage lower than the original dosage of 600 mg. As of April 25th, Ms. Uwasomba was not agreeable to the 600 mg dosage. Dr. Ray’s conclusion from this development is that there is scope going forward to optimize her clozapine.

43. Dr. Ray also addressed a further advancement in Ms. Uwasomba’s case. In the past two months she has shown more motivation to get involved in therapeutic programming. She has begun to attend Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (“CBT”) group sessions which she has consistently attended.

The Parties’ Positions

44. As noted earlier, the parties’ joint position is that Ms. Uwasomba remains a significant threat to public safety and that detention at the General Forensic Service at CAMH with the provision for approved community housing is necessary and appropriate to manage Ms. Uwasomba’s threat to the safety of the public.

The Board’s Conclusion

45. While mindful of the parties’ joint position the Board is required to come to an independent determination.

46. Based on the evidence before us, the Board unanimously accepts the opinion, as stated in the Hospital Report, that Ms. Uwasomba remains a significant threat to public safety within the criteria outlined in Winko v British Columbia, 1999 CanLII 694 (SCC), [1999] 2 SCR 625, 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 Ms. Uwasomba’s community re-integration, her mental condition, and her other needs.

47. We accept, in accordance with s. 672.54 of the Criminal Code, that the least onerous and least restrictive disposition, that is necessary and appropriate in the circumstances is detention at the General Forensic Service at CAMH on the same terms as the existing disposition.

48. The Board arrives at that decision for the following reasons.

49. While the Board recognizes the important areas of progress in Ms. Uwasomba’s case, we also realize Ms. Uwasomba continues, even when medication compliant, to experience fluctuations in her mental status - persistent persecutory and referential delusions focused on staff and co-patients, and somatic and auditory delusions. Declining antipsychotic medication, or refusing an optimal level of medication, poses a risk to Ms. Uwasomba’s mental stability which in turn risks danger to public safety.

50. The Board is impressed with the advancements Ms. Uwasomba has achieved in the last few months of the current review period. She is making good use of and has advanced on the pass ladder, is open to and availing herself of therapeutic tools and recreational engagement. She has shown a capacity to manage her emotional responses under stress and has returned to taking her antipsychotic medication. She is on a waitlist and ready to be transitioned from a secure forensic women’s unit to a general forensic women’s unit. This is commendable.

51. The Board hopes going forward that Ms. Uwasomba will continue on this positive trajectory reaching consistent medication compliance and continuing to take advantage of the tools offered in therapeutic programs to learn to manage her emotions and behaviour in a productive and responsible manner as she did during the November 16, 2025, incident. We look forward to seeing Ms. Uwasomba progressing up the pass ladder to eventually reach a point of stability where she can advance in her gains in community contact.

52. Based on the Hospital Report and the evidence added in Dr. Ray’s testimony the Board concludes, under s. 672.54 of the Criminal Code, that Ms. Uwasomba 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 threat to public safety, is detention at the General Forensic Service at CAMH on the existing conditions including the privilege to reside in approved housing.

53. The Board finds that the existing disposition satisfies the paramount criterion under s. 672.54 of protecting the safety of the public and further meets Ms. Uwasomba’s interests in community re-integration and supports her mental health and his other needs.

DATED this 22nd day of January, 2026, at the City of Toronto, in the Toronto Region.

The Hon. B. Allen Legal Member

___________________ Office of the Registrar Ontario Review Board