Sure. Right now, in practice, an accused person with a mental health or addiction issue comes into court, and there's a whole panoply of potential diversion options that might be made available to that person, through either bail or a mental health court or a drug treatment court or a diversion court. They call them accommodation or community courts in some circumstances, but there's a huge potential range of options.
Right now what's in the Criminal Code is quite narrow. It doesn't speak to that majority of clients with a mental health or addiction issue. It speaks to the 2% to 3% of the population who have a serious and persistent mental health issue. For them, the definition of mental disorder and the way it plays out in section 2 of the Criminal Code creates a very comprehensive system for those accused to enter into and to get health care and support and services and so forth.
The majority don't get those right now. Different mental health courts will have different definitions of who should be diverted. They may only admit for diversion clients who fall just short of meeting that not criminally responsible or unfit threshold. Other courts might take almost everybody. There's a tremendous range right now and very little standardization.
I see opportunities in the Criminal Code to have the legislation actually reflect what's going on on the ground; through the leadership of the federal government and working with the provinces and other groups, to define what the best approach to diversion might be; to help set some thresholds for eligibility; to work with academics and others to find out which models of diversion work best, because there are many different models of diversion; and to have the legislation reflect all of that.