Re Clarke Institute of Psychiatry.

Abstract

The Ontario High Court of Justice declined to reverse a lower court order calling for the release of confidential psychiatric hospital records to determine whether a newborn child of a patient in a psychiatric facility needed protection. Canada's Child Welfare Act and Mental Health Act provide for disclosure of confidential clinical records when there are reasonable grounds to believe that there is information therein which would be relevant to a child abuse investigation, and the High Court found such evidence here; once the grounds are disclosed, it is presumed by the statutes that the knowledge or information sought will be disclosed.