The Windsor Star

Friday, June 19, 2009

Re: Windsor police halt jury background checks, June 17.

This is a reminder that the stigma and discrimination so often faced by individuals with mental illness is supported and propagated by the government of Ontario.

It is shocking to learn that background checks are conducted on potential jurors and that their mental health information is disclosed so that they can be ruled out as potential jurors. Surely, such a system is based on old thinking and the myth that people with mental illness are unstable, not capable or responsible, that they have nothing to contribute to their community. The criminal justice system seems to believe that they cannot fulfil their civic obligations and duties to serve as a juror.

Obviously, the jury selection process in Ontario isn't really random and you don't really have the opportunity to have a jury of your peers sit in judgment.

Approximately 20 per cent of Canadians will have a mental illness at some point in their lifetime and it appears now that each would be excluded simply because they have an illness.

Will we exclude everyone that has a medical illness such as diabetes, cancer or heart disease? If not, then we should not be excluding individuals who happen to have a mental illness.

Mental health information is not police information and as such must be zealously protected under the Personal Heath Information Protection Act.

It is hoped that the Privacy Commissioner will require every police department that has engaged in this practice to notify the individuals that have been subject to the breech and disclosure of their personal health information.

This will allow them to pursue their rights under the law and be compensated by police services that have taken liberties with the law that they are supposed to uphold.

DAVID SIMPSON, St. Thomas

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