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mandel: toronto police search for another dangerous 'elopee' from camh
glenroy blake is a seriously troubled man, a “significa...
nov 22 2023
3 minute read
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glenroy blake is a seriously troubled man, a “significant threat” to the community — especially women — who is supposed to be under the care of camh in a medium secure unit, not out on the streets. but like so many of his fellow hospital residents before, he’s gone missing from the psychiatric hospital.
again.
why is it so easy for these dangerous people to simply walk away from the centre for addiction and mental health?
blake, now 41, was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2010. the aspiring rapper has over 80 criminal charges and 30 convictions as an adult, including weapons-related offences, uttering threats, assault, and criminal harassment, typically targeting women who didn’t know him.
in 2010, blake was found not criminally responsible (ncr) on four charges of failure to comply with bail and one each of watching a dwelling house, failure to comply with probation, prowling by night and carrying a concealed weapon. according to the ontario review board, which is mandated to annually review his progress and determine his conditions for the upcoming year, his 2010 arrest found him “to be carrying tape, a stainless steel ice pick and a dildo, which were collectively referred to in a later part of the hospital report as ‘remarkably similar to a rape kit.'”
an inpatient for two years at camh, blake has been in and out of the hospital ever since, usually for testing positive for cocaine but once in 2014 for allegations of drug trafficking, plans to buy a gun, and reports of gambling on hospital grounds.
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in 2018, blake was discharged again but readmitted twice, once for threats to obtain a gun and harm two of his previous case managers. after his discharge, camh even issued a no-trespass notice except to allow him to return for appointments. he not only repeatedly violated the notice but, even more frightening, four female staffers alleged that he’d followed them.
placed on a detention order that allowed his readmission to the hospital, blake was brought back in for three weeks in 2019 after screening positive for cannabis and cocaine. according to court documents, “he required restraint and seclusion and was described as ‘a high risk for violence.'”
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he later spent about nine months in camh before being discharged again in april 2020.
when blake was living in the community from 2021 to 2022, he was readmitted five times after testing positive for cocaine. his current hospital stay, which began in march 2022, was also triggered by a positive urine drug screen.
this past spring, he began refusing to take his meds. according to the orb report, there were repeated incidents of him being sexually inappropriate, verbally aggressive to staff and other residents and swearing loudly in jamaican slang, leading to security being called. it got to the point that they were going to transfer him to another unit due to safety concerns for a co-patient.
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and then blake went awol for the first time in june.
after his return to camh four days later, staff packing his belongings to move him to another unit found drug paraphernalia and “clean urine” for use in drug screenings. blake denied they were his.
his troubling behaviour continued, the orb report noted, including punching a fellow patient several times in july. placed in a secure unit, the hospital reported blake was still “threatening and aggressive.” on sept. 11, security had to be called and he was placed in “locked seclusion.”
but he didn’t see that he had a problem.
at his annual review last month, blake requested a conditional discharge, with his lawyer suggesting it was anti-black racism that kept him in the hospital for 19 months. camh was opposed, with the hospital especially concerned about the threat he poses to women “if he does not abstain from substance use and is not closely monitored for psychotic symptoms and medication compliance.”
blake seemed to signal to the board that if he didn’t get his conditional discharge back into the community, another awol could be in his future: “he commented that he knew his rights and would only return to the hospital if it was fair. he did not seem to understand why he remained in hospital and why it was important that he follow through with therapies offered to address his sexually inappropriate and substance use behaviours.”
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the orb denied a conditional discharge and asked him to be patient. instead, he absconded — and he’s our problem now.
mmandel@postmedia.com
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