Court grants absolute discharge to shooter deemed ‘a significant threat to public safety’ - National Post

Copy URL Facebook Linked In X (Twitter) Loading account options Sign In Manage Account Close account menu Sign Out Osgoode Hall, home to the Ontario Court of Appeal. (Peter J. Thompson/National Post) By Chris Lambie November 4, 2026 at 8:02 p.m. Last Updated: November 4, 2026 at 8:03 p.m. Ontario’s top court has granted an absolute discharge to a man the Ontario Review Board found to be a “significant threat to public safety.”

Charles Joseph Horvath, 54, has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and has a history of substance abuse. He was found not criminally responsible more than 30 years ago for shooting someone twice who he claimed ripped him off in a drug deal.

In December, the Ontario Review Board (ORB), which regularly reviews the status of those found not criminally responsible, denied him an absolute discharge, insisting instead on a conditional discharge. It required Horvath to reside at a specific address, refrain from possessing weapons and abstain from alcohol.

Horvath appealed to Ontario’s court of appeal, which found the ORB decision to be unreasonable.

“The board’s reasoning process contained logical leaps that led to conclusions unsupported by the evidence,” Justice Lisa Brownstone wrote in a recent decision from the three-judge panel.

“Indeed, the evidence clearly showed that the legal test the board was required to apply was not met.”

A psychiatrist repeatedly said Horvath posed some risk, “but he candidly acknowledged that he could not say there was a significant risk of serious harm,” Brownstone said in the Oct. 27 decision.

Horvath “is entitled to be discharged unless he constitutes a significant threat to the safety of the public,” the judge concluded.

The court heard that Horvath rang his victim’s doorbell after midnight on Nov. 29, 1992. When the man approached the door, Horvath shot from a small rifle he held at waist height, striking the man in the shoulder.

“When the victim put up his arms to protect himself, (Horvath) fired a second shot, hitting the victim in the left wrist. The victim fled. (Horvath) fired two more rounds through a window, narrowly missing the victim.”

When police showed up, they saw a flash and heard another rifle shot.

Horvath was later apprehended after throwing away a .22 rifle, which had been stolen from a residential break and enter a few days earlier, the decision said. The police found a large number of .22 calibre ammunition and 15 high-powered .308 calibre shells in his pockets. When the police checked the rifle, there were five live rounds in the magazine.

Horvath “revealed no remorse” during police questioning. “He said he had been ‘ripped off’ by the victim in a previous drug deal, and the victim therefore deserved to be shot.”

Horvath — who was found NCR for attempted murder in June 1993 — was hospitalized first at North Bay Psychiatric Hospital and then Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital. He was discharged in March 2000, and later moved to Wawa to be closer to family.

He was readmitted to hospital in September 2009 “after a serious suicide attempt,” said the decision. “He remained an inpatient until he was discharged on August 10, 2010, to supervised accommodation. He has lived in the community since that date.”

Dr. Robert Sheppard, a forensic psychiatrist at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, reported Horvath has done well under the terms of his conditional discharge and that he hasn’t exhibited “any threatening or aggressive behaviour in many years.”

Sheppard’s “main concern was with respect to potential substance abuse,” said the decision.

“He was quite certain” that if Horvath got an absolute discharge, he “would start drinking again and would be unlikely to limit his alcohol intake to one or two drinks.”

I think … there’s the risk of assaultive behaviour. That’s why we think he’s still a significant threat

That would, according to the psychiatrist, make Horvath “less likely to attend appointments and would ultimately create a risk” that he would not take his medication.

“The symptoms that he currently has which are always present are likely to get worse and you’re likely to see some increase in mood instability,” Sheppard told the ORB. “And the public could come to harm as a result of those things, based on his history of violence.”

It’s difficult to know who Horvath would harm, Sheppard said. “But I think people in his immediate environment would be at some risk. Some kind of interpersonal conflict would arise that he wouldn’t be able to deal with and I think, you know, there’s the risk of assaultive behaviour. That’s why we think he’s still a significant threat.”

Sheppard later “clarified that ‘something untoward’ is likely to develop if this sequence of events were to come to pass, but he could not say what that would be, or whether it would be criminal in nature. He acknowledged that the resulting event may be as minor as a disturbance on a street corner, but that he could not say more without speculating.”

The ORB “significantly overstated Dr. Sheppard’s evidence,” said the appeal court.

The psychiatrist “was clear” Horvath would start drinking again if he got an absolute discharge. But Sheppard “did not opine” that would lead to Horvath stopping his meds, Brownstone said.

Sheppard said that he believed Horvath when he said would continue his medication, the judge noted.

The ORB “overstated the certainty” of the psychiatrist’s evidence when it came to what could happen next, she said.

“Dr. Sheppard used terms such as ‘might ensue’ and noted a ‘risk of medication non-adherence.’ Yet the board imported an element of inevitable causation – if he started drinking, he would stop his medication – that did not exist on a fair reading of Dr. Sheppard’s evidence.”

The psychiatrist “did not say that ‘violence would follow’ from the possible cascade of events just described. Dr. Sheppard said that he was concerned that (Horvath) would become disinhibited, but that he could not say where that disinhibition would lead,” said the appeal court.

“It could lead to (Horvath) being ‘more in people’s faces,’ which would lead to conflict, or it could lead to a ‘minor disturbance on a street corner.'”

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