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Significant criticism has been directed at these provisions prior to their coming into force, suggesting that they will do little to improve the rights and safety of victims, and are unnecessarily punitive in nature. Furthermore, it was argued that by placing the “high-risk” designation in the hands of the courts, the ability for the Review Board and hospitals to appropriately assist and manage NCMRD patients will be diminished. For a full discussion of these concerns, see Lisa Grantham, “Bill C-14: A Step Backwards for the Rights of Mentally Disordered Offenders in the Canadian Criminal Justice System”. However, since the provisions came into force, there have not been any significant changes at the Review Board level yet.
In BC there is no person currently designated as a high-risk accused. As of April 2015, the only BC case involving a determination of high-risk accused status is ''R v Schoenborn'' (2010) BSCS 220. The accused was found NCRMD and is currently held in a mental health facility. In April 2015, the BC Review Board granted Schoenborn escorted community access, at the discretion of the Director of the facility, in order to aid his rehabilitation. There is currently a hearing underway in the BC Supreme Court for Schoenborn’s designation as In 2017, Schoenborn was found not to be a high-risk accused. There is also currently a Charter challenge due to the retroactive “high risk” designation being applied to trials that happened before the legislation came into effect(''R v Schoenborn'', 2017 BSCS 1556).
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