 |
| John L. Hill |
Hamblett was found not criminally responsible (NCR) on Aug. 7, 2007, on charges of assault and sexual assault, arising from incidents in June 2004 and 2005. Even before he was found NCR, he was detained at Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care, formerly known as the Oak Ridge facility at Penetanguishene, and deemed unfit to stand trial for two years. He’s been held there ever since — in locked seclusion for 20 years. He was 23 when he committed the index offences; he’s 43 now.
Hamblett was born in Toronto and raised by his Jamaican-born mother as the eldest of three children. He had a stable childhood, attended school regularly and completed Grade 10. There is a family history of severe mental illness, including psychotic disorders. In 1999, he sustained a traumatic facial injury during an altercation in which his lower lip was bitten off and could not be successfully reattached. Following this, he became socially withdrawn, fixated on his appearance, stopped attending school and began experiencing auditory hallucinations.
GDArts: ISTOCKPHOTO
Hamblett has a long and severe psychiatric history. Beginning in 2000, he experienced repeated hospitalizations for psychosis, catatonia and aggressive behaviour and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He has been found incapable of consenting to treatment or managing his property; his family acts as substitute decision-makers, and the Public Guardian and Trustee manages his finances. He is also diagnosed with cocaine and cannabis use disorders, both in sustained remission in a controlled environment.
The index offences occurred in June 2004 and June 2005. In the first, he violently attempted to sexually assault a woman in public before fleeing. Following further episodes of psychosis, aggression toward family members, and repeated hospitalizations, the second index offence involved unprovoked assaults on two hospital visitors. He was ultimately found unfit to stand trial, later found NCR and has been under the jurisdiction of the Ontario Review Board since 2006.
Hamblett has been continuously detained at Oak Ridge/Waypoint, a maximum-security psychiatric facility, for nearly 20 years. He has spent virtually the entire period in locked seclusion due to persistent psychosis, command hallucinations and aggressive behaviour. His condition has shown no sustained improvement. Treatments have included multiple medication trials and 18 sessions of electroconvulsive therapy in 2007, which were ineffective and possibly worsened his aggression. A brief, modest improvement in 2017 while on clozapine was not sustained.
At his 2025 annual hearing before the Ontario Review Board, the hospital and the Crown recommended continued detention. Hamblett argued that a treatment impasse had been reached and sought an independent assessment. Evidence showed ongoing severe psychosis, frequent hallucinations, emotional distress, sexual disinhibition and intermittent violence toward staff. He remains in near-constant seclusion with restraints during relief periods, supervised by multiple staff. Despite efforts to adjust medications and provide seclusion relief, his functioning, hygiene and overall condition declined during the reporting year, and his clinical presentation remains unchanged, despite two decades of detention.
Hamblett submits, as he did at the hearing, that no progress had been made and that none was likely. The board’s error was in unreasonably refusing to order an independent assessment of his situation. An independent evaluation was necessary to assess treatment alternatives and obtain additional evidence regarding his prospects for rehabilitation and reintegration. Among other grounds, Hamblett’s counsel, Anita Szigeti and Michael Schloss, argue that this case constitutes a special emergency. Any reasonable member of the public, if told that someone has been kept in what amounts to a small cell in a maximum-security psychiatric facility continuously for 20 years, would be alarmed and troubled. Szigeti writes in her factum, “Every stone must now be overturned to find this man some hope of real relief. His suffering is not being alleviated and arguably is exacerbated by inhumane conditions.”
The conditions under which Hamblett must reside are now worse than those of federal penitentiary inmates who have been found guilty of crimes. It began when Terry Fitzsimmons enlisted the report of Dr. Stuart Grassian, a highly regarded psychiatrist and Harvard University professor who had conducted groundbreaking research on the effects of solitary confinement in California’s Pelican Bay maximum-security prison. Fitzsimmons was held in solitary confinement for six years before being released and going on a spree of bank robberies and murders. The indefinite solitary confinement caused severe harm, and the Arbour report also accepted Grassian’s research on conditions at Kingston’s now-closed Prison for Women.
Grassian was also an expert on the British Columbia decision handed down on Jan. 17, 2018, which held that long-term solitary confinement breached s. 7 of the Charter and was therefore unconstitutional. It was found that indefinite solitary confinement caused severe harm, especially to mentally ill and Indigenous inmates, and lacked proper safeguards (British Columbia Civil Liberties Assn. v. Canada (Attorney General), 2018 BCSC 62, var’d British Columbia Civil Liberties Assn. v. Canada (Attorney General), 2019 BCCA 228). However, reliance on the B.C. decision was insufficient in a motion to approve a class action, where the plaintiffs relied on decisions across the country that found placing an inmate with a serious mental health illness in administrative segregation, or placing any inmate in administrative segregation for a prolonged period of time (eventually defined as 15 or more days), is negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and/or a breach of the inmate’s rights under ss. 7 and 12 of the Charter (Stolove v. Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care, 2024 ONSC 3639).
The Ontario Court of Appeal will now have the opportunity to ensure that psychiatric patients are afforded the Charter rights available to other Canadian citizens. Anita Szigeti and Michael Schloss are to be congratulated for advancing the grounds for what will be a most critical decision.
John L. Hill practised and taught prison law until his retirement. He holds a JD from Queen’s and an LLM in constitutional law from Osgoode Hall. His most recent book, Acts of Darkness (Durvile & UpRoute Books), was released July 1. Hill is also the author of Pine Box Parole: Terry Fitzsimmons and the Quest to End Solitary Confinement (Durvile & UpRoute Books) and The Rest of the (True Crime) Story (AOS Publishing). Contact him at johnlornehill@hotmail.com.
The opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author’s firm, its clients, Law360 Canada, LexisNexis Canada or any of its or their respective affiliates. This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal advice.
Interested in writing for us? To learn more about how you can add your voice to Law360 Canada, contact Analysis Editor Peter Carter at peter.carter@lexisnexis.ca or call 647-776-6740.