INVOLUNTARY CIVIL COMMITMENT IN ONTARIO: THE NEED TO CURTAIL THE ABUSES OF PSYCHIATRY

Authors

  • RAJ ANAND

Abstract

This article scrutinizes amendments to the Ontario Mental Health Act with respect to involuntary civil commitment. The author challenges civil commitment procedures and confinement criteria in light of the current state of psychiatric assessment. After reviewing the origins of certain sanctions in the criminal law, each is explained and assessed, from procedures governing admittance to treatments subsequently followed. The article considers the cost and validity of civil commitment, not from an economic but a social standpoint, based as it is on unproven assumptions of psychiatric expertise. It concludes that such procedures and assumptions do not warrant confinement against an individual’s will.

Keywords:

Insanity, Psychiatry

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Published

1979-06-01

Issue

Section

Legal Commentary