The figures are disturbing. Barely five per cent of individuals facing a motion ordering their psychiatric confinement were represented by a lawyer before the Court of Quebec in the small town of Alma in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region. In neighbouring Chicoutimi, the figures over a ten-year stretch between 1998 and 2008 were just as appalling. The situation was not much better in Montreal, with less than 25 per cent of individuals facing the same fate even present at such hearings, and of those scarcely half had legal representation.

Spurred by the wrongful conviction of an intellectually disabled Quebec City man who served six years in prison after confessing to a series of sexual assaults that a DNA test proved he did not commit, a sober report penned by a nine-member committee of the Barreau du Québec issued a slew of recommendations to improve the way the provincial justice system deals with people afflicted with mental illness or suffering from intellectual disabilities.

“We must absolutely find ways to treat people with mental illness or the intellectually handicapped just like every other citizen,” remarked Jean-Pierre Ménard, a Montreal lawyer specializing in health and medical liability who was part of the committee. “People who are afflicted with mental health problems face atypical legal procedures that infringe fundamental rights. So it is unacceptable that the justice system allows these people to be treated without the right to defend their rights.” (more…)