PATH killer allowed escorted visits
Mental-health centre given discretion to let Bisesar into community
Rohinie Bisesar, who was found not criminally responsible for the December 2015 stabbing death of another woman in a downtown Toronto Shoppers Drug Mart, can seek escorted trips into the community during her detention at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
In a ruling issued Wednesday by the Ontario Review Board, CAMH was granted the discretion to permit Bisesar, 43, to enter the community with an escort or accompanied by staff, when she’s deemed medically fit.
Bisesar’s lawyer, Robert Karrass, said his client “may not be ready for those passes now, but six months from now she may be.”
The review board’s green light allows the hospital to deem Bisesar, who has schizophrenia, fit to enter the community if she shows enough progress before her next hearing a year from now, Karrass said.
Under hospital policy, an escorted visit to the community is a one-on-one walk with a staff member within arms’ reach. A patient is permitted more freedom to roam on an accompanied trip.
CAMH staff must “notify the local police at such times as he or she exercises his or her discretion to permit the accused to enter the community,” the ruling said.
The finding was made following a Friday hearing before the five-member review panel. It was Bisesar’s first review since November, when she was found not criminally responsible for the slaying of Rosemarie Junor, 28.
The board heard testimony from Bisesar’s CAMH psychiatrist, Dr. Ipsita Ray, who said that Bisesar still poses a risk to the public if left unmonitored or not subjected to her current supervised regimen of antipsychotic medications. Although Bisesar showed some remorse for the victim’s family, Ray said, she had a “significant lack of insight” about the gravity of her illness, her treatment and the risk she poses to the community.
The review board rejected the hospital’s bid to relocate Bisesar to a lower-security general unit from the secure women’s foren- sic unit. Detailed reasons for each of the board decisions will be provided in the coming weeks, ORB officials said.
Bisesar is currently allowed to roam the CAMH compound with staff present. She has been undergoing treatment for schizophrenia since December 2017.
During Friday’s hearing, Crown lawyer Michael Feindel said Bisesar has made positive progress during her stay at the hospital, but said it was premature to allow her unsupervised community passes.
“This board needs concrete evidence to say we’re satisfied she’s reached that point,” he said. “She has a significant way to go.”