And the Ontario Review Board (ORB) was being asked at a hearing to continue his detention, in the name of public safety.<\/p>\n
Watson-Pinnock spoke up: \u201cI have a question.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her mind, the registered practical nurse says, she was thinking about how an animal wouldn\u2019t be treated this way. In 20 years, her son\u2019s mental health had only seemed to get worse from being locked in a sparsely furnished room for 22 hours or more a day. His teeth had been removed, he had missed funerals for family members, and he\u2019d repeatedly said he\u2019d rather go back to jail.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy son is going to die in this place,\u201d she told the gathering of doctors and lawyers. It was not a question \u2014 more a statement of fact from a mother who was finally fed up with the lack of progress in her son\u2019s case: \u201cHe\u2019s never going to come out.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cMy son is going to die in this place,\u201d Audrey Watson-Pinnock says.<\/p>\n
Giovanni Capriotti for the Toronto Star<\/p>\n
Mental health experts agree that the longer someone spends in isolation, the more detrimental it will be to their mental health, especially if they already have a serious mental illness.<\/p>\n
Camelott Hamblett may be the person who has spent the most time locked in seclusion in any Ontario hospital.<\/p>\n
That a very ill man can spend 20 years and counting in isolation calls into question not only the treatment practices at Waypoint \u2014 where others continue to be held in similar situations \u2014 but also of the independent oversight of forensic psychiatric care in Ontario.<\/p>\n
A Star investigation into the use of long-term seclusion at Waypoint has\u00a0conducted numerous interviews and pored over hundreds of pages of medical records going back 20 years\u00a0to reveal those\u00a0responsible for Hamblett\u2019s situation: the many doctors at Waypoint who continue to recommend seclusion, and the countless ORB members who have repeatedly ordered his detention while rarely flagging any issues about Hamblett\u2019s living conditions.<\/p>\n
Psychiatric experts have said that the use of seclusion for prolonged periods of time at Waypoint, the province\u2019s only high-secure forensic psychiatric facility, is not appropriate. Eminent doctors, giving their opinion for a lawsuit against the facility, have described the hospital\u2019s practices as \u201coverused,\u201d \u201cabused\u201d and \u201cgrossly in excess\u201d of other North American psychiatric facilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is egregious. It is abusive. It is completely inconsistent with recovery,\u201d said one 2023 report by a pair of U.S. experts behind the best practices that Waypoint itself says it is implementing. They wrote \u201cwithout hesitation\u201d that no U.S. facility uses seclusion the way Waypoint does.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The grounds of Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care in Penetanguishene, Ont.<\/p>\n
Sophie Bouquillon for the Toronto Star<\/p>\n
Seclusion is necessary at times, all experts agree \u2014 but it should be measured in hours, not years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The ORB \u2014 made up of former judges, doctors, lawyers and laypersons \u2014 decides the fate of anyone found NCR or unfit to stand trial, many of whom have complex mental health challenges and represent some of the most vulnerable members of society.<\/p>\n
Among other things, the board\u2019s mandate includes analyzing an individual\u2019s living conditions when considering whether they should remain detained. But almost two decades\u2019 worth of decisions show that the board\u2019s hearing panels \u2014 comprised of different members each time \u2014 never expressed any major concerns about Hamblett remaining in seclusion; some decisions make but a passing reference to the fact.<\/p>\n
Last May was no different. Despite Watson-Pinnock\u2019s pleas, the ORB\u2019s decision was once again the same: Hamblett should remain detained at Waypoint. The board also declined to order an independent assessment of his case, as they didn\u2019t believe there had been a treatment impasse.<\/p>\n
For Watson-Pinnock, that couldn\u2019t stand.<\/p>\n
Hamblett\u2019s new lawyers hope it\u2019s the step needed to finally get him out of seclusion.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy view is that the house is on fire,\u201d his lawyer, Anita Szigeti, told the Court of Appeal in January. \u201cThe board has to acknowledge the emergency, the inhumanity of the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
What emerges from the records of Camelott Hamblett\u2019s life at Waypoint is the story of a man whose plight was well known to those with power to try to change his circumstances.<\/p>\n
But little was done \u2014 a fact that was met with disbelief from the appeal court judges: \u201cNo progress appears to have been made in 20 years,\u201d Justice Grant Huscroft said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the greatest of respect to all those involved, trying their best: It ain\u2019t doing any good.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Waypoint president and CEO Dr. Nadiya Sunderji, second from left, is joined by Ontario health minister Sylvia Jones, then-Waypoint board chair Ernie Vaillancourt, and Simcoe North MPP Jill Dunlop at an event in December 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n
File photo<\/p>\n
Waypoint\u2019s president and CEO told the Star in a statement that while she can\u2019t comment on individual cases due to patient confidentiality requirements, the hospital is committed to reducing or discontinuing the use of seclusion and restraint where it\u2019s safe and clinically appropriate to do so.<\/p>\n
Presented by the Star with the experts\u2019 criticism from the lawsuit launched by Toronto firm Rochon Genova about Waypoint\u2019s prolonged use of seclusion, Dr. Nadiya Sunderji said that the hospital has achieved meaningful improvements over the past few years, including a decrease in violence and a \u201creduced reliance\u201d on seclusion, though she did not respond to a follow-up question asking for data.<\/p>\n
Sunderji did not respond to questions about why Waypoint uses seclusion for prolonged periods, nor about how many of its patients are currently in long-term seclusion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Camelott Hamblett\u2019s life before Waypoint<\/p>\n
As a child growing up in Toronto, Camelott Hamblett had many friends, did well in school, played soccer, hockey, and basketball, and loved travelling to Jamaica to visit family.<\/p>\n
He was humble, he was dear, honest, bright \u2014 \u201ceverybody loved him,\u201d his mother said in an interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His sister, Cheyenne Phillip, described him as a \u201cgentle giant,\u201d the brother who bought her first pair of Air Jordan shoes and took her trick-or-treating, determined to fill up two pillowcases with candy.<\/p>\n
When his other sister, Schennelle Hamblett, talks to her own son about the way to treat his younger sister, she said she tells him about Camelott \u2014 how he \u201cwas so sweet and loving to me,\u201d never fought with her, and would ask if she was OK if she seemed upset.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Camelott Hamblett as a young boy<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hurts me\u00a0that so much of his life has been taken from me as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
His mother could count on him to pick up his younger sisters from school and daycare, sometimes making them macaroni and cheese until she got home from her job as a personal support worker. When she was studying to become an RPN, her son would take out her books and quiz her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCamelott was a very athletic and vibrant young boy,\u201d Watson-Pinnock said.<\/p>\n
As his family remembers it, things started to change in 1999, when he was 17 years old. Hamblett got in a street fight \u2014 his mother said the attacker mistook him for someone else \u2014 and the other person bit off his lower lip.<\/p>\n
He was admitted to the Hospital for Sick Children, where doctors attempted to reattach the lip, but the tissue did not survive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t think it would affect him that badly,\u201d his mother said. \u201cHe was such a strong person, with a strong will, strong mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
She then paused, before continuing: \u201cAnd from there, he just went downhill.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watson-Pinnock told a psychiatrist in 2001 that after the lip injury, her son reported hearing voices. He had become \u201cquite withdrawn and aloof,\u201d failing to attend school or to look for jobs, and became \u201cunduly preoccupied about the scar on his face.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schennelle Hamblett vaguely remembers this time. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t violent,\u201d she said. \u201cLooking back, I think he was just trying to manage it and cope with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hospital visits for psychiatric concerns began in 2000, according to voluminous summaries of medical records. A diagnosis of schizophrenia was made in short order, but the records suggest Hamblett had a pattern of initially refusing to take his medication, only to be discharged once stable.<\/p>\n
Hamblett racked up charges stemming from his illness and substance use disorder \u2014 assault, failing to comply with court orders, threats and drug possession. He spent time in jail but was never convicted of anything. To this day, he has no criminal record.<\/p>\n
In June 2004, he was arrested in Toronto for following a 53-year-old woman he didn\u2019t know, grabbing her arm, exposing himself to her and, before he fled, declaring they were going to have sex. This was the basis for the sexual assault charge for which he was later found NCR.<\/p>\n
He was released after the arrest but was admitted several more times to hospital. While at Humber River Regional Hospital in June 2005, he punched two visitors at random in the face without provocation. They didn\u2019t suffer any visible injuries, but he was once again arrested, and this time he was held in custody.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s never been out since.<\/p>\n
Life in seclusion<\/p>\n
The general consensus in psychiatry \u2014 and according to Waypoint\u2019s own policy \u2014 is that seclusion is the option of last resort when dealing with a patient who presents an immediate danger to themselves or others. It\u2019s also usually supposed to be brief.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Hamblett, it\u2019s been his whole world for half of his life. Over 20 years, Waypoint\u2019s doctors have tried every possible antipsychotic medication, cognitive behavioural therapy, multiple sessions of electroconvulsive therapy, and have sought at least three outside reviews. But they have been unable to bring his psychotic symptoms down to a manageable level.<\/p>\n
Hallucinations<\/p>\n
When he was experiencing extreme hallucinations, it\u2019s probably because he\u2019s just in a room year after year by himself.<\/p>\n
Numerous pages detailing his aggressive behaviour due to persistent auditory hallucinations \u2014 including assaults on staff and patients, threats, punching walls, exposing himself to female staff, and self-harming \u2014 have been filed by the hospital annually with the review board.<\/p>\n
The records note his mental status can fluctuate wildly and that he\u2019s \u201cgenuinely a nice person\u201d when less symptomatic. Nevertheless, he\u2019s rarely let out for more than two hours \u2014 almost always in restraints \u2014 and some days not at all.<\/p>\n
His family argues that it\u2019s the seclusion itself that is at least partly to blame for Hamblett\u2019s behaviour. Schennelle recalled the family being told during a hospital visit that Hamblett was in an aggressive state and didn\u2019t want to see them, but he was brought out after they insisted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was so calm, so happy, so elated,\u201d she said. \u201cThat experience alone just goes to show that when he was experiencing extreme hallucinations, it\u2019s probably because he\u2019s just in a room year after year by himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Camelott Hamblett, right, being visited by his brother-in-law, Ebenezer Yamoah, at Waypoint in 2015.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hamblett had his teeth removed by a dentist, as records state he has poor oral hygiene. That\u2019s left his brother-in-law, Ebenezer Yamoah, wondering how Waypoint could be so \u201ccruel\u201d to\u00a0not do more to help him take care of himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder no circumstances should people, as human beings who live on this Earth, be put in the situation that Camelott is in,\u201d said Yamoah, who used to play basketball with Hamblett before he became ill.<\/p>\n
Inside Hamblett\u2019s room, a bare mattress sits on a plastic platform with no sheets or pillowcases, according to Szigeti, who recently became his lawyer and visited him earlier this year. There\u2019s also a toilet, a plastic bookcase and a seating area, as well as a large window facing outside onto Waypoint\u2019s grounds next to Georgian Bay in Penetanguishene.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing that broke my heart is Camelott has a stuffy,\u201d said Szigeti. \u201cHe\u2019s 43 years old and has a stuffy on his bookshelf. I thought it was a bear, and he said it was a moose.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s important for decision-makers to go see how people like Hamblett live, Szigeti said. \u201cBecause you can read about it, think about it \u2014 but nothing prepares you for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Szigeti described feeling a \u201csense of panic\u201d being in the room\u00a0\u2014 \u201cI kept glancing at the door behind me to make sure it was open.\u201d<\/p>\n
The push to\u00a0get Camelott Hamblett out of isolation<\/p>\n
After his final arrest in 2005, Hamblett was first sent to Toronto\u2019s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) to be treated so that he could be declared mentally fit to stand trial, and it was at this point that it started becoming apparent to health-care professionals that he presented with an extremely difficult form of schizophrenia.<\/p>\n
In a July 2005 report, a CAMH psychiatrist wrote that despite receiving \u201cmultiple medications,\u201d Hamblett remained \u201cpsychotic, bizarre, and unpredictable,\u201d and that the bulk of his stay at CAMH had been \u201cin an isolation room due to the obvious potential for serious physical aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n
The doctor wrote: \u201cThe relative lack of improvement with quite large doses of multiple antipsychotic medications to date suggests his long-term prognosis is guarded, to put it mildly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamblett was transferred to what is now Waypoint in August 2005. A few months later, psychiatrist Dr. Derek Pallandi told the court there had been no improvement: \u201cUnfortunately, despite aggressive pharmacotherapy \u2026 Mr. Hamblett has remained highly symptomatic and unstable in his mental state.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamblett was ultimately found not criminally responsible for the sexual assault and hospital assaults in 2007.<\/p>\n
Ever since, the order keeping Hamblett in seclusion has been made by a doctor and his case is assessed daily, but not necessarily by his treating psychiatrist, nor always in person. The assessment by a physician is completed \u201cin collaboration with the on-site clinical team directly involved in the patient\u2019s care,\u201d Waypoint said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The atrium at Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care.<\/p>\n
waypointcentre.ca<\/p>\n
The staff check on Hamblett regularly, and a \u201cseclusion relief team\u201d will escort him out for brief periods of time, so he can do things like shower or listen to music \u2014 his family says he likes Sean Paul and old reggae. In other years, when he was less symptomatic, he was able to play basketball.<\/p>\n
A patient in long-term seclusion is also supposed to be evaluated in person by a psychiatrist every 28 days; it emerged at Hamblett\u2019s review board hearing last year that five psychiatrists completed 12 seclusion consultations in the prior year, meaning some of them assessed Hamblett more than once.<\/p>\n
How can it be that a man could spend 20 years in isolation before his case appeared before the courts?<\/p>\n
This was the question the judges kept coming back to at the Ontario Court of Appeal in January.<\/p>\n
Part of the answer can be found in the ORB decisions, where each year Hamblett\u2019s longtime lawyer, Peter Mudry, made the same request on behalf of the family: That Hamblett be transferred to a facility closer to home in the Greater Toronto Area \u2014 for instance, CAMH.<\/p>\n
Year after year, the other institutions said they would not take Hamblett, believing only Waypoint had the staff and expertise to manage him.<\/p>\n
But Mudry\u2019s requests never changed, and the board\u2019s decisions to continue Hamblett\u2019s detention at Waypoint were never appealed.<\/p>\n
Mudry, who is now retired, could not be reached for comment. (The Star received an \u201cundeliverable\u201d message from his old law firm email address, and the firm now using his office number said it could not pass along a message.)<\/p>\n
When Szigeti came on board in the last two years, her firm took the approach that an independent assessment was needed to at least try to get Hamblett out of seclusion.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lawyer Anita Szigeti is fighting to get Camelott Hamblett out of seclusion.<\/p>\n
Sophie Bouquillon\/Toronto Star<\/p>\n
She explained in court that such an assessment is different than the external consultations requested by Waypoint in Hamblett\u2019s case, in that the review board would pick the assessor and set the parameters if the parties can\u2019t agree, and the board would maintain oversight of the assessment. It could also be much more comprehensive than external consultations, which are more like \u201csecond opinions\u201d where the hospital gets to pick the doctor, she said.<\/p>\n
Szigeti believes the reason the status quo has been maintained for so long is, in part, that people working in the system have become desensitized \u2014 \u201cThey can no longer step back and see what is obvious to the rest of the world, which is that there is something terribly wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
The change in tactics was also driven by Hamblett\u2019s younger sister, Cheyenne Phillip, who became more involved in her brother\u2019s case in the past few years as one of his substitute decision-makers.<\/p>\n
It was a \u201cdead end\u201d to keep asking the board to move her brother closer to home, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has to be a doctor out there who has seen Camelott\u2019s situation and can help him in some sort of way, where Waypoint has failed,\u201d she told the Star.<\/p>\n
The independent assessment ordered by the court in January is expected to be conducted in the coming months.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Camelott Hamblett being visited at Waypoint in 2024 by his sister, Cheyenne Phillip, left, nieces and nephew, and mother Audrey Watson-Pinnock.<\/p>\n
Family photo<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s the accountability that is the outlier\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThese cases are not the outliers; it\u2019s the accountability that is the outlier,\u201d the longtime prison reform advocate said.<\/p>\n