Mental Disorder Review Board
Responsibilities of the Board*
The Review Board may have cases come before it in two fashions:
The Court may find a person unfit to stand trial, or find that the acts sufficient to constitute an offence have been made out, but the accused, at the time of the offence was not criminally responsible. The only time a matter will not come before the Board when there has been a finding of not criminally responsible is when the court has thereafter ordered, as disposition, a discharge of the accused.
The Board must then consider either what initial disposition is appropriate, or, if a disposition has been made by the court, what ongoing disposition is appropriate.
Because it is the responsibility of the Board to continue to review a disposition, a person may have his or her matter before the Board on a number of successive occasions, until such time as the person is discharged unconditionally. Once a finding has been made by the Court, the Court's involvement in any continuing disposition comes to a close.
The Board is obliged to make dispositions, which are the least intrusive to the accused person, having in mind considerations of the safety of the public. There is considerable case law in this area, which provides guidance to Boards in their consideration of dispositions.
*Excerpt from Peterson, Katherine R. The
Northwest Territories Mental Disorder Review Board: Report to
the Honourable Charles Dent, Minister of Justice, Government of
the Northwest Territories. 2005
