Ontario Review Board
Re: Bradley House
ORB File No: 8452
Hearing held on: Friday, March 27, 2026
Place of hearing: St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton 100 West 5th Street, Hamilton ON
Pursuant to: Section 672.81(1) of the Criminal Code
Before:
Alternate Chairperson: Mr. G. Beasley
Members: Dr. R. Kunjukrishnan Dr. G. Stones Ms. J. Fuller Mr. A. Bouvier
Parties Appearing:
Accused: Bradley House Counsel: Ms. B. Bromberg
The person in charge of hospital: Counsel: Ms. L. Barney
Attorney General of Ontario: Counsel: Mr. B. Adsett
REASONS FOR DISPOSITION
(Dated May 29, 2026)
Introduction
On January 3, 2024, Mr. House was found not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder on a charge of second-degree murder, contrary to the Criminal Code of Canada (the “Criminal Code”).
Mr. House is currently subject to a disposition of the Ontario Review Board (the “ORB” or the “Board”), dated December 11, 2024, which orders that he be detained at the Forensic Psychiatry Program of St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton – West 5th Campus (the “SJHH” or the “Hospital”).
On March 27, 2026, the Board convened a hearing at SJHH to conduct the annual review of the current disposition.
Mr. House was represented by his counsel, Ms. Brombert, who advised that her client did not wish to attend this hearing and that she had instructions to proceed in his absence. The hearing proceeded in his absence, pursuant to s. 672.5(10)(a) of the Criminal Code.
The following documents were entered as exhibits:
1: St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton’s, Administrator’s Report to the Ontario Review Board, dated March 9, 2026 (the "Hospital Report")
2: Aboriginal Legal Service of Toronto’s, Gladue Report for Bradley House, dated February 6, 2026 (the “Gladue Report”)
- The following documents were accepted as part of the record:
Notice of Hearing dated February 11, 2026
Disposition dated December 11, 2024
Reasons for Disposition dated December 30, 2024
Victim Impact Statement of A.F., pursuant to s. 672.5(14) of the Criminal Code, dated March 26, 2026
The issue at this hearing is whether Mr. House is a significant threat to public safety, as defined in s. 672.5401 of the Criminal Code. If so, the necessary and appropriate Disposition in the circumstances must be determined, bearing in mind the factors enunciated in s. 672.54 of the Criminal Code.
For the reasons set out below and based on the expert evidence and opinions before it, the Board concluded that Mr. House continues to present a significant threat to the safety of the public. The Board ordered that the necessary and appropriate Disposition in the circumstances is the continuation of the existing Detention Order with the addition of a term allowing Mr. House to attend a residential treatment program for up to 90 days, as approved by the person in charge of the hospital.
Psychiatric Diagnoses
- Mr. House is currently diagnosed with:
Opioid use disorder – in early remission in a controlled environment
Substance Induced Psychotic Episode
- Mr. House is treatment capable.
Index Offence
Mr. House is an Indigenous man who was living with his common-law partner and their five children in Hamilton. At the time of the index offence, he was suffering from an addiction to oxycodone and cocaine.
On February 3, 2022, Mr. House consumed oxycodone, cocaine and alcohol. He was working on a renovation at a house in Hamilton. While at work, he complained of back and neck pain and asked a co-worker to massage his back. During the massage, he began throwing punches at the co-worker. He then ran out the back door of the residence, jumped a fence, and ran down the road.
Approximately 1.5 km away from Mr. House’s worksite, the victim, his partner A.F., and A.F.’s father, were sitting down to dinner at a cottage. Mr. House, who was a stranger to the three individuals, appeared at their door. He was not wearing a coat, looked distraught and was bleeding from his mouth and head. Mr. House told the group that he had fallen, poked a stick in his ear, and that the stick had broken off within his ear.
A.F. called 911 for help, and the victim retrieved a pair of tweezers to assist Mr. House. The stick did not in fact exist, as Mr. House was suffering from a psychotic delusion. While the victim was trying to assist Mr. House, Mr. House grabbed a kitchen knife and began using it to dig in his ear. He then swung the knife towards the victim. The victim ran out of the cottage and Mr. House pursued him.
Mr. House chased the victim to a nearby cottage and stabbed him repeatedly with the knife. Neighbours were able to remove the knife and subdue Mr. House until police arrived. Mr. House was mumbling and did not make sense.
The victim passed away from multiple sharp force injuries, including injuries to his diaphragm, stomach, bowel and left lung. A penetrating injury to his right axillary artery was rapidly fatal.
During his assessment, Mr. House indicated that he had consumed marijuana, Percocet, cocaine, and beer on the day of the index offence at home and while at work. He reported having no memory of harming the victim.
Mr. House’s history and background are outlined in the Hospital Report in pages 4-7. A recently provided Gladue Report expands on Mr. House’s history and background, and specifically identifies Mr. House’s unique systemic and personal background factors that may have contributed to bringing him before the court, and now the Board. Mr. House’s background, as detailed in both reports (which were marked as exhibits), is summarized below.
Mr. House is an Aboriginal person as defined by the Constitution Act and is registered as a Status Indian. His entire family is from Six Nations, which is the most populous First Nation in Canada. He is currently 35 years old and has eight siblings, including two paternal half-sisters. Mr. House has one sibling with whom he shares both parents and five children with his partner of 13 years. He was raised in Hamilton, and some of his siblings were raised on-reserve. He regularly visited his family at Six Nations.
Mr. House’s direct paternal and maternal relatives have a history of forced residential school attendance, documented back to the 1930’s. The long-term, intentionally destructive effects of residential schools on members of the Canadian Indigenous population are summarized in pages 5 – 13 of the Gladue Report. These include broken culture, addictive and self-destructive behaviours, violence, broken family, and broken spirit.
Mr. House indicated that he didn’t have a strong connection with his culture growing up and was, at times, the subject of derogatory slurs stemming from negative stereotypes of Indigenous people. He was often mistaken as being a member of non-Indigenous ethnic backgrounds (i.e., Spanish or Latino) and over time, stopped correcting the inaccurate assumptions. He has had difficulty accepting himself as Aboriginal.
Several of his family members struggled with substance abuse and addiction, including his stepfather and his grandmother, who drank daily after the loss of her partner. Mr. House disclosed that he lacked cultural exposure as a child, but his mother was part of a “party community” with family members who he often witnessed drinking to excess.
Mr. House tried alcohol and marijuana around the age of 17. He developed an opioid addiction at 18 years old, following a motor vehicle accident. In his 20’s, he experimented with drugs at parties and occasionally abused Percocet, which had been prescribed for his partner’s surgeries. He did not drink regularly until he began to experience several losses in his family. The first time that he tried marijuana and alcohol, one of his cousins, with whom he was close, died in a car accident. Mr. House continued to lose other family members, and in his early 20’s, his brother Richie passed away after he fell and hit his head during a night of drinking. Mr. House blames himself for Richie’s death because he didn’t call an ambulance for Richie. A few years later, Mr. House’s father died. Following these deaths, Mr. House’s substance abuse worsened. His form of self-medication mirrored that of his grandmother, who had turned to alcohol as a coping mechanism after the loss of her husband.
In 2018, Mr. House weaned himself off opioids and cocaine and stopped drinking for approximately 10 months. During this time, he was supporting his best friend in recovery following a car accident. However, in 2020, Mr. House lost another brother, his closest sibling, to a fatal drug overdose. Over the next few years, Mr. House’s mental health and substance abuse worsened. He began abusing Percocet and cocaine regularly and, at one point, overdosed on hydromorphone in his home.
After his arrest in 2022, Mr. House was held in custody for approximately 18 months. He did not see his children while in custody. While in custody, he was taking prescribed Suboxone and once tried fentanyl from a cellmate.
Mr. House arrived in SJHH in February of 2024. He stopped taking Suboxone upon arrival and today receives medications for anxiety and to help him sleep.
Prior to the index offence, Mr. House had no serious criminal history and did not have any pattern of violent behaviour.
Course Since Last Disposition
Mr. House’s course since his last Disposition is set out in detail in the Hospital Report pages 33-40. In summary, Mr. House’s mental state has remained stable over the past year. He has no active symptoms of psychosis, mood instability, or behavioural dysregulation. His previous psychotic symptoms, which included persecutory delusions and ideas of references, were temporally associated with his substance use and have fully resolved with abstinence.
Over the past year, Mr. House has had two substance use relapses, both associated with significant periods of stress and loss. The first occurred in July 2025. Leading up to this relapse, Mr. House had family court proceedings, as his mother sought care of his five children. Mr. House was utilizing community passes to visit his children consistently, but their mother was not seeing the children on a regular basis. This caused Mr. House a significant amount of distress and he blamed the family breakdown on his actions that led to the index offence. Mr. House used cocaine, oxycodone and marijuana while on a community pass. He disclosed this use to hospital staff and two days later produced two baggies of cocaine to hospital staff. He had purchased the cocaine in the community and brought it back to the hospital.
Mr. House advised staff that prior to using cocaine, he had read an online article about the index offence and the corresponding comments about him. He was remorseful for his substance use and understood that it would take time to rebuild trust and privileges in the hospital. He advised that he felt “pissed off, angry and stuck” with respect to his social stressors.
The second relapse occurred in late November, 2025. Mr. House’s 25-year-old younger brother had passed away in his sleep unexpectedly in late October. Mr. House attended his wake and feast following his death. During this staff-escorted outing, Mr. House obtained cocaine and marijuana from an acquaintance at his brother’s funeral. He stored the drugs in the hospital and used them on a later date. Both substances were identified in his urine samples in late November.
Mr. House did not experience any psychotic symptoms with either relapse. He was not involved in any conflicts. Staff have been concerned about his risk of self-harm as Mr. House feels helpless and despondent regarding “losing his family”.
Position of the Parties
All parties advised that this was a joint submission with the Hospital’s recommendation for a continuation of the December 11, 2024 disposition, with the addition of a term that will allow Mr. House to attend up to 90 days of residential treatment in a program approved by the person in charge.
For this hearing, counsel for Mr. House, advised that significant threat was not in dispute.
Evidence at the Hearing
The Board had available to it the evidence and documents forming the Record, including the Victim Impact Statement, the Gladue Report (Exhibit 1), the Hospital Report (Exhibit 2), and oral evidence from Dr. Nagari.
Dr. Nagari testified that Mr. House relapsed in July, after a family visit, by using substances including cocaine (and reportedly cannabis and opioids), but he did not experience psychotic symptoms. Mr. House later tested positive for cocaine in December 2025 after obtaining substances from a family member around the time of his brother’s death and related ceremonies, and he voluntarily disclosed information about his use. Neither relapse was associated with agitation, aggression, or violence, and there have been no incidents of aggression over the past year.
The relapses have prevented the team from progressing Mr. House to indirectly supervised community passes. Mr. House is engaged with his treatment team and is open to attending a substance use program. He is on a waitlist for the next offering.
Mr. House continues to face significant stressors, including loss of family members, limited contact with his children, and complicated family dynamics. This year, Mr. House has not been able to move forward with education or employment goals, in part due to multiple hand surgeries and ongoing functional limitations.
Dr. Nagari emphasized that Mr. House needs stronger coping strategies to avoid returning to substance use under stress.
Dr. Nagari summarized Mr. House’s treatment over the past year and his prospective treatment plans as follows:
Mr. House is not taking antipsychotic medication because schizophrenia has been ruled out, though his mood fluctuates and antidepressant treatment has been used/considered.
Mr. House has received one-to-one psychological support (including work related to healing/forgiveness/moral injury), and he has discussed family issues with Dr. Nagari and a psychologist, Dr. Sheridan.
Dr. Nagari said shame and disappointment about setbacks and feeling that he is unable to justify expanded privileges, contribute to Mr. House’s difficulty facing the Board.
The treatment team is reviewing the suggested Gladue-informed supports, including Indigenous peer support, community-based Indigenous services, and possible virtual therapy with Indigenous clinicians. The team will implement programming that meets both Mr. House’s cultural and clinical needs. Dr. Nagari stated that appropriate residential treatment programs in Ontario exist and may be explored, but they would require administrative approval and careful consideration of security and escape risk.
No other evidence was called.
A.F., the former partner of the victim of the index offence, read into the record a portion of her Victim Impact Statement. The full document has been filed as part of the record. A.F. highlighted the significant and ongoing loss she faces resulting from the death of her partner, as well as the emotional toll the incident and the annual hearings continue to take on her life.
Analysis and Conclusions
Having heard and considered the entirety of the evidence, as well as the submissions from the parties, the Board agrees with the joint submission: Mr. House remains a significant threat to the safety of the public. This is primarily due to Mr. House’s ongoing struggles with relapse into substance use, which is the primary risk factor associated with the extremely violent behaviour of the index offence.
The evidence presented showed the multi-factorial issues that have contributed to Mr. House’s struggles with substance abuse. These include physical injuries that resulted in his introduction to prescription opiates; the loss of family members, sometimes related to drug and alcohol use; witnessing alcohol use as a coping mechanism amongst family members; and personal use of drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism. The shame and guilt over the index offence, coupled with his separation from society and his children, and the deaths of family members over the last year, have contributed to his two relapses.
Given the recency of the relapse into substance use, where drugs were obtained on supervised community outings, and polysubstance use being the main contributing factor to the index offence, a detention order with a condition that allows Mr. House to enter a treatment facility, as approved by the hospital, is the necessary and appropriate disposition.
The hospital team is cognizant of Mr. House’s therapeutic needs and his Indigenous heritage. Dr. Nagari is exploring appropriate options for Indigenous-based counselling and addictions treatment, as recommended in the Gladue Report.
Mr. House is an engaged patient who has been actively participating in therapeutic treatment and counselling provided by the hospital and in the community. The Board is hopeful that Mr. House will continue to work on managing his shame and guilt and will attend his next hearing in person. Facing both the Board and A.F. is an important step in progressing through the forensic system.
In Winko, the Supreme Court outlined that, in coming to the conclusion on the issue of significant risk, a Review Board should closely examine a range of evidence, including: the circumstances of the original offence; the past and expected course of the accused’s treatment; the present state of the NCR accused’s medical condition; the NCR accused’s own plans for the future; the support existing for the NCR accused in the community; and most importantly, the recommendations provided by experts who examined the NCR accused. In coming to our conclusion in this matter, the Board relies on the uncontroverted expert evidence of Dr. Nagari, in addition to the documentary evidence before us.
The Court of Appeal in Davis (Re), 2022 ONCA 716, has directed the Board to indicate the causal link between the use of substances and the index offence to justify the imposition of an abstinence clause in a disposition. Mr. House is diagnosed with opioid use disorder and a substance-induced psychotic episode. The index offence occurred while Mr. House was experiencing a psychotic episode while under the influence of cocaine, oxycodone and alcohol. He had used marijuana on the date of the offence. Given the violent nature of the offence, brought on by Mr. House’s substance-induced psychosis, the abstinence clause, which includes abstention from marijuana and alcohol, is most appropriate in the circumstances.
In consideration of all the evidence, submissions of the parties and criteria set forth in s. 672.54, the paramount consideration being the safety of the public, in addition to the mental condition of Mr. House, his reintegration into society and his other needs, the necessary and appropriate Disposition is to continue with the Detention Order. The Board is mindful of the seriousness of the index offence and acknowledges the Victim Impact Statement that forms part of the record.
DATED this 29th day of May 2026, at the City of Toronto in the Region of Toronto.
Ms. Jessica Fuller Legal Member
Office of the Registrar Ontario Review Board