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The McGill Journal of Law and Health, Team VISEV, the McGill Institute of Health and Social Policy and the McGill Research Group on Health and Law are pleased to invite you to Rethinking the Revolving Door: Mental Health Courts in Canada and the US, an interdisciplinary panel composed of Dr. Virginia Aldigé Hiday (North Carolina State University) and Mr. Joe Wright of the Ontario Review Board.

What outcomes have mental health courts generated for people with a mental illness and for the community? Gathering specialists from the legal, sociology and psychiatry fields, this panel considers the promises and shortfalls of mental health courts in Canada and the United States. The panel will be moderated by Professor Anne Crocker (Dept of psychiatry, McGill) and Professor Alana Klein (Faculty of Law, McGill).

The Panelists

Joe R. Wright
Mr. Wright is currently legal counsel to the Ontario Review Board. A graduate of Queen’s University Faculty of Law, he has been a member of Legal Aid Ontario’s Advisory Committee on Mental Health Law, and also a member of the Toronto Forensic Mental Health Committee. From its inception in 1998, until 2004, he served as Mental Health Duty Counsel to Canada’s only full time dedicated mental health court, Old City Hall’s ‘102 Court’. He was responsible there for all aspects of representing accused persons, from determination of fitness to stand trial and assessment of criminal responsibility to conducting fitness hearings, bail hearings, guilty pleas and diversion of charges.

Virginia Alidé Hiday
Distinguished Professor of sociology at the North Carolina State University, Dr. Alidgé Hiday conducts studies in law and psychiatry, particularly outpatient civil commitment, mental health courts and violence, victimization and criminalization among persons with mental illness.

Kindly RSVP by emailing rghl.law [at] mcgill.ca.