Quebec introduces bill to make it easier to incarcerate people in mental health crisis

The Quebec government has introduced a law that would make it easier to forcibly detain people whose mental health could make them a danger to themselves or others.

If adopted, the bill, which was introduced on Tuesday, would change the criteria required to confine a person experiencing a mental health crisis.

Currently, Quebec law stipulates that people can be confined involuntarily if they pose a “grave and immediate” danger to themselves or others.

The new bill, if passed, would broaden that criteria. Other health care professionals, including doctors and nurse practitioners, will be able to detain any person who is “in a situation where there is a danger to themselves or others”.

Previously, only physicians were explicitly given the power to confine people and order psychiatric evaluations.

Quebec Health Minister Sonia Bélanger said at a news conference that the new law “strikes a balance between the safety of these people and others and respect for fundamental rights.”

“The first change we are making is giving interveners the possibility to act earlier before the situation becomes irreversible,” Belanger said.

The changes to the law come in the wake of two high-profile murders – the stabbing death of Maureen Breau, a police officer who died in 2023, and the death of Chong Woo Kim, a depanneur boss who was killed this month.

In both cases, concerns were raised about the alleged killers in the weeks and months before the murders.

‘When the threat is so serious, it is already too late’

In a statement, the union representing Quebec provincial police officers praised the new bill. Dominique Roberge, president of the association known as APPQ, said the Quebec law would be similar to Ontario’s law, known as Bryan’s Law.

“The Ontario model, Bryan’s Law, shows that it is possible to relax the norms to allow faster and more effective intervention within the framework that works in Canada,” he said, adding that reform of Quebec’s law is “long overdue.”

Amal Abdel-Baki, a psychiatrist and clinical researcher who studies how to improve care in psychiatry, said most people with mental health disorders pose no threat to themselves or others.

But, he said, the problem is that when they don’t get treatment in time – then, they may be at risk of harming themselves or others.

He said the new bill is a welcome tool, because as currently written, the law allows imprisonment only in extreme cases.

“When the threat is so serious, it is already too late,” she said.

“We want this law to be a law that takes care of people…and also has the resources to get them care quickly so that we avoid restricting people’s liberties.”

Concern about increasing distrust

For one advocacy group, the effort to “modernize” this bill is actually a step behind the times. François Winter is the spokesperson for AGIDD-SMQ, which helps people with mental illness deal with legal and social issues.

“We have a social crisis now,” Winter said, citing the struggle to access mental health care and the increasing number of people experiencing homelessness. “To be honest, we’re disappointed.”

There are concerns that patients won’t trust mental health providers because they fear they will be involuntarily confined, she said. He said people already hospitalized have had bad experiences in prison that they don’t want to relive.

Knowing that psychiatrists have increased powers to hospitalize them will only increase patients’ distrust, he said.

“In the end, if you create social rift, you’re not going to solve any problems,” Winter said. “You’ll make more.”