Bill C-30: an attractive option for defendants

A Follow-Up Study of Persons Found Not Criminally Responsible on Account of Mental Disorder in British Columbia
On February 4, 1992, significant changes were made to the mental disorder provisions contained in the Canadian Criminal Code following the introduction of Bill C-30 (1). These amendments were proclaimed into force after the Supreme Court of Canada declared—in R v Swain (2)—that the Criminal Code sections pertaining to the automatic detention of individuals deemed not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) were in violation of sections 7 and 9 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Objective: To describe the characteristics of individuals found not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder (NCRMD) after the 1992 Criminal Code amendments and to track their movement through the forensic system, as well as to unveil the changes to British Columbia’s forensic psychiatric system that resulted from Bill C-30.

Method: Profile information relating to persons found NCRMD between February 4, 1992, and February 4, 1998, in British Columbia was collected and analyzed. Community follow-up data was collected and analyzed for a 24-month period following a subject’s discharge from hospital.

Results: A substantially greater number of individuals entered the forensic psychiatric system in British Columbia after Bill C-30 was implemented. The post-1992 forensic psychiatric population contained fewer persons charged with serious index offences and a greater number of persons charged with relatively minor offences. The length of hospitalization for the NCRMD cohort decreased substantially after the 1992 Criminal Code amendments.

Conclusion: The Bill C-30 provisions have made the NCRMD defence an attractive option for defendants and legal counsel.

The study made a number of interesting points including the average length of initial hospitalization for persons discharged to the community according to the most serious index offence, presented in Table 2.