Court to hear appeal of hospital privileges for Richard Kachkar

TORONTO – A lawyer for the Ontario government says the public was put at “undue risk” when a review board granted community privileges to a man who killed a Toronto police officer with a snowplow.

The Crown argues that the Ontario Review Board made a mistake by ruling that hospital staff were allowed to escort Richard Kachkar on trips into the community of Whitby, Ont.

Kachkar was found not criminally responsible for killing Sgt. Ryan Russell and has been detained since the verdict last year at the psychiatric hospital Ontario Shores.

Crown attorney Eric Siebenmorgen says doctors can’t agree on a specific diagnosis for Kachkar, so not enough is known about his condition and what triggered his psychotic break to be able to manage his risk in the community.

Siebenmorgen says if there was an altercation during an outing, hospital staff wouldn’t be allowed to physically intervene and they would have to call police, which would again put Kachkar in conflict with an officer.

Kachkar’s lawyer says the psychotic break that led to the death of Russell didn’t come out of nowhere, rather he appeared to unravel over about two weeks, so hospital staff would be able to assess his condition before any outing.

(The Canadian Press)

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