Legal deadlines | Pinel struggles to assess the worst criminals

“Exponentially growing” volume of requests, insufficient funding, deficient mode of remuneration: the National Institute of Forensic Psychiatry Philippe-Pinel can no longer assess the worst criminals in Quebec within the legal deadlines since the pandemic. Already, a hardened criminal has tried to get away with these delays.

Louis-Samuel Perron
The Press

Jeffrey Howard Hébert was an influential pedophile on the dark web. He was even the administrator of a forum devoted to child pornography. The Dorval resident also made very real victims by photographing two toddlers on the sly hundreds of times. He had more than 90,000 images and 2,000 videos of particularly sordid child pornography.

Due to the seriousness of his crimes, the Crown asked last July that Jeffrey Howard Hébert be assessed to determine if he can be declared a dangerous or long-term offender. These labels are reserved for the worst criminals in order to protect the population. For example, it is very difficult for a dangerous offender to obtain parole. A long-term offender may be subject to a long period of supervision upon release from custody.

Such a psychiatric evaluation must in principle be carried out within 60 days, stipulates the Criminal Code. However, three months later, Jeffrey Howard Hébert is still 18^e of 24 on the evaluation waiting list. Waiting times will thus exceed six months, announced the National Institute of Forensic Psychiatry Philippe-Pinel in letters filed in court Tuesday at the Montreal courthouse.

These letters signed on October 18 and 20 by the Head of the Institute’s Reception, Admissions and Medical Archives Department, Elizabeth Mandeville, paint a grim portrait of the situation. The Institute argues that it is “currently impossible to respond to the exponentially growing volume of said requests” due to the “scarcity of our resources”.

The Institute is indeed overwhelmed by the 60 requests received in 2021-2022, an “impressive” number, since the average was previously around 40 requests, the letter states.

“The establishment’s ability to respond to all requests ordered by the courts is greatly compromised, and the deadlines prescribed by the courts are unfortunately not respected, because we are not sufficient for the growing demand”, reacted by e-mail the Institute’s spokesperson, Pascale Trudeau. She adds that it is “important” for the establishment to “eliminate” the current waiting list.

At the heart of the problem: only five experts are able to carry out these very specific assessments for the whole of Quebec, specifies the Institute in the letters.

In addition, one of them will soon be retiring. And it is without counting that psychiatrists do not only devote themselves to these evaluations. Such a report requires extensive work, in addition to testimony in court.

“The mode of remuneration of resources is clearly a brake on the recruitment of new”, analyzes the Institute, before the court.

The funding allocated by Quebec to conduct such assessments is “insufficient”, writes the Institute. An agreement with the Minister of Health and Social Services and the Department of Justice allocates funding to Pinel and the University Institute of Mental Health of Quebec for only 15 assessments.

However, this agreement is “overridden”, we argue in the letters. The Pinel Institute claims to have since taken steps with the ministries to “raise awareness” of the situation. The Institute also presented to the Ministry of Health a project to create a department that would devote itself to this issue with permanent resources. “We are awaiting a response from them,” we wrote.

The Ministry of Health was unable to comment on the case on Tuesday. The Ministry of Justice did not respond to our request.

Additional deadlines

In Jeffrey Howard Hébert’s case, the Pinel Institute asked Judge Yves Paradis to grant him an additional 60 days to complete the assessment. In the eyes of the Crown prosecutor, Ms.^e Amélie Rivard, the accused suffered no “prejudice” as a result of this delay.

“We had a common suggestion that took into account all of the evaluation we were anticipating. It was an excessively important element. We were supposed to settle the file in November, ”explained in court M^e Rivard.

“No decision applies to a context like the one proposed to me,” reacted Judge Paradis, concerned about the situation.

A criminal, however, tried last summer to avoid such an assessment and the label that could result from it by pleading that the legal deadline was exceeded. Sébastien Pauzé was found guilty last year of numerous charges, including criminal harassment, death threats and assault on a peace officer.

In December 2021, the judge ordered a report to be prepared to determine whether he can be declared a dangerous or long-term offender. However, as of July 2022, the Institute had still not delivered its report due to “lack of resources” and the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, Judge Pierre Labrie of the Superior Court of Quebec rejected Sébastien Pauzé’s request, since he did not demonstrate that he had suffered any prejudice because of these delays. The judge argues that the Court of Appeal determined that these statutory waiting periods do not result in the termination of proceedings in the absence of prejudice.

“It is important for the judge to be able to obtain the most complete insight into the applicant and his dangerousness,” Judge Labrie concluded.