‘Some are afraid of her’

Amy Elizabeth Mason no longer welcome in small options home after assaulting police

A P.E.I. woman under public guardianship because of her mental health is headed back to Hillsborough Hospital after assaulting a police officer and committing several other offences.

Amy Elizabeth Mason appeared before Chief Judge Nancy Orr in P.E.I. provincial court last week for sentencing after previously pleading guilty to assault causing bodily harm to a police officer and carrying a weapon for a purpose dangerous to the public peace.

Mason also pleaded guilty to breaching her probation and breaching an undertaking.

She left the court with a suggestion from Orr that the next time Mason wasn’t happy she should stop and think if she wanted to go back to court or jail.

“If there’s more problems you’re not going to have any freedom,” Orr said.

Orr sentenced Mason to 81 days in jail, but with credit for time already spent in custody the sentence was considered served.

When she committed the offences, Mason was living in a small options home, which is a house for residents who need more intensive supports than in a group home.

She left that house when she wasn’t supposed to leading to the probation breach charge.

At one point, Mason was swinging a metal bar around and she also assaulted a police officer, scratching his face.

Mason previously spent several years living in the Hillsborough Hospital because of her mental illness, which included time spent confined to a room with only a mattress.

In recent years, she has been in and out of court for assaulting people, including in 2015 when she asked a judge to send her to jail so she could get out of the hospital.

She eventually got her wish, but had since been living in the small options home.

Defence lawyer Yolande Murphy said a few meetings were held to try to come up with a plan for Mason and a decision was made on her residence in the small options home.

“She’s not welcome there,” Murphy said.

An area has been converted at the Hillsborough Hospital for Mason and the plan was to take her straight there if she didn’t receive any further jail time.

Murphy said Mason’s behaviour was escalating with some people scared of her.

“Some are afraid of her and don’t want to work with her,” Murphy said.

Orr said she recognized that Mason’s circumstances posed a challenge for those working with her, but they needed to be addressed.

Locking Mason up and throwing away the key wasn’t the solution, Orr said.

“That is not an option.”

Orr also told Mason if her actions continue somebody will get hurt.

“It might be you. I hope not,” Orr said.