Introduction

• Author: Hy Bloom, Richard D Schneider
• Pages: 1-3

1

Introduction

Over the past twenty years or so, Canad a’s criminal courts have had to deal

with escalatin g numbers of mentally disordered accused. The swelling num-

bers of “criminalized” menta lly disordered individuals have neither been an

anticipated nor welcomed state of affairs, and there does not appear to be

any reason to believe the situation will reverse itsel f soon. Nevertheless, the

criminal just ice system has had to respond.

The Attorneys General i n a number of provinces have implemented “diver-

sion” programs for mentally disordered accused as a vehicle for reconnecting

these unfortun ate individual s with the civil mental health care systems from

which they have become disconnected. In Toronto, and in many other Can-

adian cities, in addition to the diversion program, a spec ialized court has been

set up to deal exclusively with this g roup. The court’s mandate is to expedite

the resolution of preliminary mental healt h issues and reduce the probabil-

ity of reoffending. Apart from deali ng with scores of accused whose f‌itness

to stand trial has come to be questioned, t hese courts may also attend to bail

hearings, disposition hearin gs, sentencing, a nd trials of criminal responsibil-

ity. In Toronto the court r uns every day and is staffed by psychiatrist s and so-

cial workers. For further infor mation you may visit the Mental Hea lth Court

website. There are now several mental health court s in Ontario and in a num-

ber of other provinces.

With the proclamation of Bill C-30 in 1992 we now have a “mini-code”

contained in Part XX .1 of the Criminal C ode1 speci f‌ically dedicated to the

mentally disordered accused. Since the proclamat ion of Bill C-30 there have

been a number of important decisions rendered by the Supreme Court of

Canada. The f‌irst suc h decision, and perhaps the most important in ter ms

1 RSC 1985, c C-46.