Waypoint Solitary Confinement Class

The Claims

Proceeding, filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, on behalf of involuntary patients at the Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care relating to systemic abuses of solitary confinement and seclusion starting in the year 2000 and continuing to the present.

Waypoint (formerly, the Mental Health Centre Penetanguishene) is a psychiatric facility located in Penetanguishene, Ontario. Waypoint houses involuntary patients, including those found Not Criminally Responsible on account of Mental Disorder.

The action alleges that Waypoint and the Ontario government have been systemically negligent by routinely subjecting involuntary patients to solitary confinement. It is alleged that patients are placed in confinement for weeks, months and sometimes years at a time, as part of “formal seclusion” and various behaviour management programs, including “Individual Management Plans”, “Targeted Safety Protocols” and “Crisis Prevention Plans”, among others.

The practices alleged to amount to solitary confinement began when the facility was administered by Ontario in the year 2000 and continue to the present day. The claim alleges that Waypoint, certain of its senior executives, and Ontario knew or ought to have known that these practices are seriously harmful and contravene acceptable medical and ethical standards for the treatment of involuntary psychiatric patients. It is alleged that these practices also violate these involuntary patients’ rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Updates

On June 25, 2024, the Superior Court dismissed the plaintiffs’ motion for certification. Despite finding that “there is more than some basis in fact for many prima facie cases of negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, or breaches of the Charter” against the defendants, the Court held there was no basis in fact of systemic wrongdoing or abuse.
On May 21, 2025, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Superior Court.
On April 9, 2026, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the application for leave to appeal.