It would be my opinion, yes, that they could. The law currently, as it exists, the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, would allow that.
In fact, Corrections routinely sends individuals to psychiatric institutions in jurisdictions. The obvious one people know about and was discussed is the Phillippe Pinel Institute, which has a separate unit. In addition, though, in this region, St. Thomas has been used. Other hospitals have been used. Portions of Kingston General have been used. It depends on the institution, but most of the provinces and territories--not all the territories--have locked forensic units.
Although those sometimes aren't the greatest places, because of the limited resources, in my experience, the reality is that every single prisoner, to a person, who has gone from a prison segregation cell to a forensic unit, even if it's a locked forensic unit, even if it's the most secure forensic unit, even if it has essentially the same conditions of segregation, within 24 hours has shown improvement. Partly it's because of the more appropriate medication treatment or whatever. As well, they are treated, fundamentally, as individuals with a mental health issue whose behaviour is symptomatic of that mental health issue, not of bad behaviour, which is how they tend to be seen in prisons, not surprisingly. That's what prisons are.
As I mentioned, at the regional psychiatric centre most of the staff believe that security takes precedence over mental health, even though it's the business of this facility.
Another issue you should ask about, especially in the psychiatric centres you go to, is how many times committal proceedings are commenced. In my experience, the mental health legislation is often used to commence committal proceedings and to then do forced injections. It is then abandoned before the mechanisms for oversight kick in at a provincial mental health point.
My post-graduate work right now is in forensic mental health because of these issues. So if there's anything we can assist with, I'd be happy to. I know that we're limited in time.