A snowplow is shown closing in on Sgt. Ryan Russell's police vehicle. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO
January 20, 2014 - 1:00 AM
TORONTO - Ontario's highest court is set to hear arguments today about what privileges a man who killed a Toronto police officer with a snowplow should have at a psychiatric hospital.
The Crown argues that the Ontario Review Board made a mistake by granting Richard Kachkar the privilege of escorted trips into the community.
Kachkar's doctors say he has not shown any active psychosis since he was detained in April 2013 in the Ontario Shores facility in Whitby, Ont., after he was found not criminally responsible for the death of Sgt. Ryan Russell.
Lawyers for Kachkar filed the doctors' evidence, in which they also say he has been fully compliant with treatment and medication, in support of the Ontario Review Board's decision.
The hospital appears to have not yet actually allowed Kachkar into the community, as his lawyers say he has been granted "off-ward" privileges more than 100 times, though all within hospital property.
The doctors say the hospital has taken a "very cautious approach" because of the seriousness of what Kachkar did, but has allowed him off of his secure forensic unit, while escorted, 131 times between July and October last year.
The Crown is not appealing the not criminally responsible verdict, rather the review board's decision about Kachkar's hospital privileges.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2014