Coroner Géhane Kamel recommends that the Quebec government create a court that would specifically deal with cases involving mental illness.
In her final report on the violent death of three people shot randomly in the Montreal region by a mentally ill person in 2022, Coroner Kamel recommends in particular transforming the Commission for the Examination of Mental Disorders into an “administrative tribunal specializing in mental health ”, as is the case in Ontario.
This legal process would make it possible to involve all stakeholders in a case, including police officers, health professionals and prosecutors.
Ms. Kamel’s report, published Thursday, follows a coroner’s inquest conducted last year into the murders of André Lemieux, Mohamed Belhaj and Alex Lévis Crevier, in August 2022, as well as the death of Abdulla Shaikh, the 26-year-old killer shot dead during an exchange of gunfire with police in a Montreal motel.
“An administrative tribunal specializing in mental health, like in Ontario […] would have the particular benefit of ensuring the homogeneity of decisions and dedicated experience of decision-makers,” writes the coroner in her 58-page report.
Currently, in Quebec, the Mental Disorders Examination Commission determines the risk of people declared not criminally responsible. But other cases must go through the courts, meaning prosecutors, police and mental health experts often work in silos.
The new body would help ensure defendants’ conditions are met and help police understand when to apply certain measures, such as a provincial law that allows people whose mental state poses a danger to be arrested and hospitalized.
Coroner Kamel’s inquest revealed that despite frequent calls from family members expressing their concerns, the application of this measure is not easy.
Abdulla Shaikh, who had a history of mental health problems, had no criminal record despite some run-ins with the law. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia around 2018 and endured two lengthy hospital stays. His family said he did not take his medication as prescribed and was scheduled to receive more medication within days of his death.
The Mental Disorders Review Board ruled in March 2022 that Shaikh, who was being monitored by a psychiatric hospital, posed a significant risk to public safety but could continue to live in the community.
A board decision cited his psychiatrist as saying that Shaikh suffered from “denial and trivialization of his threatening gestures during previous hospitalizations” but that he had shown improvements over the previous six months.
Several “red flags”
Coroner Kamel’s final report includes more than twenty recommendations aimed at various organizations, including the police, Crown prosecutors, Integrated Health and Social Services Centers and the provincial ministries of Health and Justice .
Coroner Kamel concludes that there were several “red flags” in Abdulla Shaikh’s case. She cites in particular the “endless delays in criminal charges” and Shaikh’s lack of cooperation with front-line mental health professionals — the “Intensive Community Follow-up” team.
She also mentions the lack of follow-up after the closure of her file, other than a visit every three months to a psychiatrist and monitoring of her medication intake.
The coroner deplores a shortage in Quebec of mental health resources in general – and more particularly in terms of monitoring people who come under the Mental Disorders Review Commission and who refuse to receive help, or are hesitant to do so. accept.
“The lack of resources is a real problem, but so are the follow-up structures for people who are resistant,” she writes in her report.
Abdulla Shaikh had in his possession two “ghost guns” – homemade weapons. “Mr. Shaikh seems to have premeditated these actions for a long time with a precise objective for which only he could have given us answers,” writes coroner Kamel.
She emphasizes that his behavior was not typical of a person in psychosis. “We are more like someone who has a personality disorder who scrupulously planned these actions,” she concludes. In the opinion of psychiatrists and our expert, personality disorders are more difficult to diagnose and treatment is also difficult. »
The coroner’s inquest revealed that within the space of an hour on August 2, 2022, Shaikh shot and killed MM. Lemieux and Belhaj, who were both on public roads, in the boroughs of Saint-Laurent and Ahuntsic-Cartierville, in Montreal.
He then went to Ontario to visit the Toronto Zoo and “Canada’s Wonderland” park before returning to Quebec and assassinating Lévis Crevier, who was skateboarding on a street in Laval, on August 3. The three victims were hit by several firearm projectiles.
Shaikh was shot dead by police on the morning of August 4 in a Montreal motel.