Friday, October 3, 2014

Treatment orders for accused cannot be made without consent of treating professionals

R. v. Conception, 2014 SCC 60:

A treatment order regime in Part XX.1 of the Criminal Code is intended to bring mentally ill accused persons to the cognitive threshold required to proceed to trial.   Consent of the treating physicians is required for the disposition order in its entirety, not simply to the treatment aspect of it.  A court may not make a disposition order directing that treatment begin immediately if the hospital or treating physician does not consent to that disposition unless the situation is a rare case in which a delay in treatment would breach the accused’s rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and an order for immediate treatment is an appropriate and just remedy for that breach.

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