4. Understand not criminally responsible

If you plead guilty or are found guilty after a trial and you had a specific mental disorder at the time of the act, you may be found not criminally responsible. But it’s not enough that you had a mental disorder. The mental disorder must have caused you to be unable to understand what you were doing and why it was wrong.

Your mental disorder and its impact must be proven on a balance of probabilities. This means that the judge must be more convinced than not that:

• you had a mental disorder at the time of the crime
• the mental disorder affected your ability to know your behaviour was wrong

If a judge finds you not criminally responsible, you will not be convicted of the crime. But, you will have at least one hearing at the Ontario Review Board. The Board decides how your mental disorder should be managed as part of your sentence. You will have ongoing hearings at the Board until it decides on your case.