Ontario judge orders detained patient moved for psychiatric treatment

Community Action, Jan 24, 2005

BARRIE, ON -- A psychiatric patient detained, in an Ontario maximum security hospital without receiving treatment, has been moved to a minimum security hospital where he will receive treatment. The change resulted from an order by Justice Bruce Glass of the Ontario Superior Court.

Justice Glass found that Orru, the psychiatric patient's Charter rights had been violated by the long wait for proper treatment. He called on the provincial government to meet its legal obligations to psychiatric patients by spending more money on treatment.

Alessandro Orru, 28, who has been in Penetanguishene's Mental Health Centre since 1999, was moved to Brockville Psychiatric Hospital. Orru has been petitioning for a transfer to Brockville facility, where treatment that he needs to win his release are available..

He was found not criminally responsible after he was charged with criminal harassment of a woman in 1998.

He claimed that he was subject to solitary confinement, chain restraints and tightly controlled solitude in a "cell-like room," but did not receive proper treatment for his mental condition.

The Ontario Review Board, which annually reviews the status of psychiatric patients who have been found not criminally responsible or unfit to stand trial by a court, ordered Orru moved to the Brockville facility in July. Because of a bed shortage the move was put off with no indication when it might occur.

"I accept that there are shortfalls in bed space. That is not good enough to leave Mr. Orru in a maximum-security mental-health facility when the Ontario Review Board has ordered that he go to a medium-security institution. The province has a legal obligation to provide sufficient space to meet its legal obligations."

The Board has 24 other cases of people who have been waiting more than five months for transfer to other institutions. These cases will have to be accommodated, stated Joe Wright, counsel to the Ontario Review Board. He called the decision "significant" and said it will put pressure on the province to invest more money in psychiatric care.