Judged 'Not Criminally Responsible', Yet a Community Threat

Hamilton Police

"He pulled out a knife and began stabbing her with it in the back. She was stabbed upwards of seven times and suffered a severed bicep and collapsed lung amongst other injuries."

"He resumed using cannabis during the time he was living with his parents."

"[The panel] concluded that Mr. Ghawar remained a significant threat to the safety of the public and that a detention order was necessary and appropriate. With respect to the additional privileges suggested by the hospital, the panel determined that it was appropriate to include in the disposition seven-day passes accompanied by an approved person, and seven-day passes indirectly supervised with a pre-approved itinerary."

Ontario Review Board (ORB)  

"In April 2014, Mr. Ghawar stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication, and his mental health symptoms intensified almost immediately."

"According to his family, Mr. Ghawar became very anxious and irritable, and would refuse to leave the house alone."

Hospital Report  

This is an Ontario resident who twice stabbed people multiple times in the back, and subsequently found not criminally responsible, which led to his being granted a series of day passes, despite the fact that he remains, in the professional opinion of health experts, a "significant threat to the safety of the public". 

 

Diagnosed with schizophrenia and cannabis use disorder "in remission in a controlled environment", Muneeb Ali Ghawar was found in February of 2024 to be not criminally responsible for aggravated assault while wearing a disguise. The second episode where he stabbed a woman took place in 2023, at a Hamilton cannabis store. 

 

He had entered the Sweet Releaf Cannabis shop on February 3, 2023 wearing a mask and a trapper hat pulled down over his forehead. A female clerk began the process of ringing up his cannabis purchase, and while she was thus engaged, the man moved behind her, and withdrawing a knife, stabbed her back repeatedly. Ghawar ran from the store when another employee screamed and called 911. 

 

Lighting up a marijuana joint. Photo by Adobe Stock

 

Ghawar was identified through studying the surveillance video at the cannabis operation where he had appeared on a previous occasion, unmasked. Six days following the stabbing he was arrested. He is now under the jurisdiction of the Ontario Review Board for a second time. He had been declared 'not criminally responsible' for a similar attack nine years previously, when an acquaintance was stabbed in the back and torso by him. He was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward for two years then discharged to live with his family.   

"Mr. Ghawar was compliant with his medication, met consistently with the outpatient team, and maintained stable mental health. He was granted an absolute discharge on February 11, 2019."

"There has been no evidence of mood disorders or psychotic breakthrough. He engages appropriately with co-patients and staff and is always pleasant and polite during interactions."

"His persistent use of cannabis is a  significant risk factor."

"He was using cannabis at the time of the first index offence in 2014, and at the time of the current index offence in 2023. He became extremely psychotic and committed very violent offences that could have resulted in the death of either victim."

Ontario Review Board ruling  

Mental health symptoms had afflicted the man for years. He began the use of cannabis at age 15. In 2024 he was ordered to be placed at St. Joseph's Healthcare where he was given privileges whereby he could enter the community of Hamilton under indirect supervision. He has been treated for anxiety and depression since 2012 by a psychiatrist. He also has amassed a criminal record including assault, mischief, break-and-enter, and assault with a weapon.

 

A psychological assessment in 2023 revealed that Ghawar "expressed delusional thought content, such as that the victim of the index offence was selling bad cannabis to kids in order to draw them into sex trafficking", the ORB decision noted. Ghawar admitted long-standing auditory hallucinations, and that he had stopped taking his medication prior to the offence, while smoking marijuana. 

 

Sweet Releafs Inc.

 

"He again denied using cannabis, and suggested that the positive urine result was from others smoking cannabis around him", noted the ORB decision. And this is the man his parents plan to take to Pakistan to have him married there. "This would be an arranged marriage to a woman he has not met", even while his psychiatrist "expressed concern that bringing another person into the family home would increase the stress at a time when Mr. Ghawar is struggling with cannabis use".  

 

Significant Threat to Public Safety? Ah Well...

"The parties were canvassed for their initial positions at the beginning of the hearing. All agreed that Mr. Samuel continued to represent a significant threat to the safety of the public."

[Samuel] had been non-compliant with recommended treatment for his major mental illness, had abused his medication as well as Tylenol 3s and had been  using cannabis in the periods leading to the ... offence."

"He was experiencing auditory hallucinations and paranoia that included his mother screaming for help and delusions that 'they' would kill her if he did not stab someone."

Ontario Review Board 

An empty jail cell is pictured in a file photo. Photo by file photo /Getty Images

 

Diagnosed with schizophrenia, major depressive disorder and cannabis use disorder, Kenroy Samuel has been declared not criminally responsible as a result of mental disorder. He was charged in 2021 with assault causing bodily harm and manslaughter. The Ontario Review Board has nonetheless declared that the Toronto man is now eligible for escorted city visits, even while admitting that the man "continues to represent a significant threat to the safety of the public". 

 

Samuel, back in 2020 had been arguing with his mother in their Toronto apartment. He physically assaulted his mother. His older brother who lived in the same building intervened, trying to calm the situation. Despite which, the confrontation escalated to the point where Samuel fatally stabbed his brother with a knife he had taken from the kitchen. Born in Toronto, his parents separated when he was five, and the mother raised her two boys on her own. Legal issues influenced his father's return to St. Vincent in the Caribbean, but not before ample instances of family violence had been witnessed by the boy.

 

The Review Board noted that Samuel 'misused' his mother's prescription opioid medication at times when he was experiencing suicidal ideation. By his late teens and early twenties it became evident that he had mental health concerns, suffering agitation, paranoia and disorganized behaviour, which repeated cannabis use exacerbated. All of which had necessitated emergency room visits between 2009 and 2013 which led to psychiatric assessments. These episodic outbreaks were linked to his aggression toward his mother. 

 

 

During periods when he threatened self-harm, he was diagnosed with substance-induced psychosis, personality disorder and 'possible' schizophrenia. Intermittent improvement followed with the use of antipsychotic medication, although he was frequently non-compliant with treatment, declined addiction services and frequently skipped follow-ups. 

 

He had been medically incarcerated following the finding of 'not criminally responsible' for having stabbed a woman on the street when police arrested him after witnesses and video surveillance identified him as having attacked the woman. Sent to confinement at the Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care in Penetanguishene, Ontario -- a secure forensic facility -- he was due for transfer to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.

 

While the Ontario Review Board panel was considering his case, Samuel asked for his privileges to be extended, to permit him to enter the Greater Toronto Area with an escort, accompanied by a  hospital staffer, or someone approved as a surety, such as his mother. Greater freedom on hospital grounds another privilege that he argued for himself. All of which led the independent tribunal to state its confidence that the plan will ensure safety of the public since the hospital would control the "pace of Mr. Samuel's next steps".

 

CAMH on Toronto's College Street, in July 2025. Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National Post

 

"[Samuel had] reduced or discontinued his medication [before the stabbings, but his recent hospital report indicates Samuel has demonstrated] sustained clinical stability, exemplary engagement in treatment, and rapid, incident-free advancement in privileges." 

"[He] has performed impressively in available unit employment opportunities. He is goal-oriented and exploring options for schooling. He is medication compliant and expresses guilt, shame and emotional distress associated with the index offences, wishing he could 'go back'.

"His insight globally shows improvement."

"[His psychiatrist testified that Samuel] agreed to move to a long-lasting injectable antipsychotic medication without hesitation. He has been cooperative and insightful into his need for this treatment." 

Ontario Review Board 

"Acting Out" -- Deadly Psychosis on the Loose -- Posing a Threat to the Public

"On March 22, 2015, Ms. Campbell was parked in a commercial parking lot. Her mother exited the car and walked away with the assistance of a walker. Ms. Campbell drove towards her mother at a high rate of speed causing her mother to be thrown into the air, on to the hood of the car and then on to the ground."

"Closed circuit television captured Ms. Campbell accelerating and reversing over her mother four times. She then exited the car, appeared to check on her mother, and then drove away."

Ontario Review Board, case review 

A Toronto woman is facing a murder charge after police allege she intentionally ran down her mother in a furniture store parking lot. March 23, 2016  Global News / Ben Jonah

 

Now 52 years old, born in Kingston, Jamaica as an only child, Michelle Campbell was raised by her grandparents for the first four years of her life. She moved with her mother at age seven to Toronto when her mother married a Canadian. Ms. Campbell graduated from high school, then attended York University. At 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon of March 23, 2016, she drove her 65-year-old mother Eleanor to a Leon's Furniture store in Pelmo Park, Toronto. As her mother exited the vehicle in the parking lot, her daughter Michelle deliberately rammed her mother, killing her.

 

She was found guilty of killing her mother, but not held to be criminally responsible, at trial in 2017. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia. She is under constant supervision by an assigned team of medical workers at the Forensic Outpatient Service at the hospital responsible for her well-being, and sees her psychiatrist every six to eight weeks. In the last reporting year she has worked as a cashier and shelf-stocking clerk at both Walmart and Dollarama. 

 

She attends religious services at two congregations, while living in a subsidized apartment where she is supported by the Canadian Mental Health Association. At a recent hearing at Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences in Whitby, Ontario, her psychiatrist informed the Ontario Review Board during a periodic review of her case that the patient incurred judgment lapses of late, citing having made contact with her ex-husband and his son, contrary to court order. 

"The team continues to be concerned that without the support Ms. Campbell has, her presentation and beliefs can shift quite quickly and that could result in a re-offence scenario like that of the index [original] offence."

"Ms. Campbell continues to pose a significant threat to the safety of the public."

"[Her psychiatrist] also explained that Ms. Campbell is a very religious person, and there are some aspects of the religiosity which cross the line into illness but these are more benign and less threatening now." 

"When she is going to be driving Campbell will list all the places she is going to go that week, and the destinations that are consistent with her schedule. If the itinerary is acceptable, the hospital approves it. The itinerary requests and approvals are done by email."

"[Her psychiatrist] is monitoring the emails  and Ms. Campbell's mental state and advised he would intervene if there were a change in her mental state that would impact her driving."

Ontario Review Board 

 She also undertook, without notifying and discussing the matter beforehand with the hospital treatment team to purchase a car for herself. For the first infraction she is facing a criminal charge. Responding to the board's query of the seriousness of the second infraction, the psychiatrist responded on behalf of the woman's treatment team by reminding them that the acquisition of a personal vehicle was problematic since is was "the murder weapon, so to speak". 

 

The approved method of the woman getting around to running her itemized and approved personal errands was to rent cars and driving only as she was permitted to do in her disposition. That she had self-initiated a car buying expedition for herself without first discussing that decision with her care team was a surprise, since conditions in her disposition limit her driving to an approved itinerary.

 

Querying the psychiatrist with respect to the woman's insight level  of the act of killing her mother elicited the response that her insight is 'limited'. "Ms. Campbell acknowledges she was unwell, but continues to believe that it was partly her mother's fault." The Board decided to continue Michelle Campbell's existing conditional discharge, while stating "Ms. Campbell continues to pose a significant threat to the safety of the public, since her offence is the most serious criminal offence in the criminal Code". 

 

The Ontario Review Board concluded by discharging Campbell on conditions including that she reside in the Durham Region. 

She has incurred a new charge of breaching her conditions for contacting her ex-spouse. She purchased a vehicle for herself without consultation with her [psychiatric] team. In addition, she has a longstanding history of psychotic symptoms, and past non-compliance with her medication."

"She continues to have limited insight, and beliefs that may be indicative of symptoms of her underlying illness. There is concern that such beliefs have the potential to intensify and cause her to act out, as was the case at the time of the index offence."

"[Campbell] picks up her medications weekly and remains medication compliant. Ms. Campbell is aware she requires treatment and is agreeable to taking her medications."

However, Ms. Campbell was also recently more stressed about the criminal charges which have impacted her mental state."

"The [medical] team will continue to work with her to build insight These are items the treatment team will be monitoring and working closely with her over the next year in order to best support her."

Ontario Review Board 

Toronto traffic on Queen Street West during night time. (Credit: Getty)