Panel finds Toronto woman accused in stabbing fit to stand trial

TORONTO — A woman accused of murder in a 2015 stabbing at a Toronto drugstore has been declared fit to stand trial by authorities overseeing her treatment, but a court still has to make its own ruling about her mental state before proceeding with her case.

Rohinie Bisesar is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 28-year-old newlywed Rosemarie Junor at a Shoppers Drug Mart in the underground PATH concourse near the city’s financial district.

Bisesar had previously been found unfit to stand trial due to a mental disorder. She was “acutely unwell” and suffered from delusions and hallucinations, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Ian Swayze testified last year.

If found unfit to stand trial, a person is placed under the authority of the Ontario Review Board, a panel made up of mental health and legal specialists that determines the course of treatment for people in the justice system.

“The board has determined that (Bisesar) is at present fit to stand trial,” the Ontario Review Board said in a formal disposition in her case released on Monday.

A fitness ruling pertains to the person’s mental state at the time of their court proceedings, and is separate from a ruling on a person’s criminal responsibility for their actions, which is based on their mental state at the time the alleged crime was committed.

A person could be declared fit to stand trial , but still be found not criminally responsible — a designation that acknowledges a person committed a crime but that, due to mental disorder, they were incapable at the time of appreciating that their actions could cause harm, or were unacceptable by societal standards.

Bisesar’s trial is expected to start in October, her lawyer said.