LAWS TO TARGET MENTALLY ILL

Will Allow Forced Treatment for People in Danger

The Progressive Conservatives are promising to ensure mentally ill people
considered dangerous will comply with prescribed treatment regimens.

The party's election platform outlines plans to "change the laws that stand
in the way of families, police and social workers so that people who pose a
danger to themselves or others can be taken off the streets to get the care
they need."

That would mean the introduction of community treatment orders that have
been advocated by numerous coroner's juries probing tragic deaths involving
the mentally ill. These include, most recently, the inquest into the death
of Edmond Yu, a paranoid schizophrenic shot by police in 1997.

"The reality is we're responding to the needs of individuals who (require)
assistance. A very significant part of what needs to be done is that these
people need to be helped and (have) treatment provided for them," Health
Minister Elizabeth Witmer said yesterday. While many families and doctors
hailed the announcement, advocates for the mentally ill said they are alarmed.

"It sounds like this government is declaring war on the poor and the
homeless and the mentally ill," charged lawyer Suzan Fraser, who represented
the Queen Street Patients Council at the Yu inquest.

"Any time you force people to take mind-altering drugs against their will,
it infringes on their charter rights," she said.

The Tory platform says people end up on the streets for many reasons. "Many
of them need medical or psychiatric help, but are refusing it or can't
understand their own problems."

It goes on to say that existing mental health legislation is inadequate
because it "makes it very hard to put people into care, even if they are
suffering from serious mental illness, or alcohol or drug addiction that
makes them a danger to themselves and other people."

Dr. Stephen Connell, of the Coalition of Ontario Psychiatrists, said his
organization is pleased about the government's "sensitivity" toward the
mentally ill.