In imposing the finding jointly requested by Crown attorneys Laura Liscio and Jackson Foreman and defence lawyers Karen Symes and Megan Andrews, Superior Court Justice Jane Kelly said it was obvious Ali was a loving brother and son.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is easy in such cases to simply view the victim as the deceased, and lose sight of the fact that Mr. Ali was a person who, like all of us, had hopes, dreams, and aspirations,\u201d the judge said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Standing in the prisoner\u2019s box in a grey hoodie and black pants, Samuel politely waved to the court.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you so much, Your Honour,\u201d he said. \u201cThank you to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ali\u2019s death was a \u201ccompletely avoidable tragedy,\u201d Symes and Andrews said after court.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Samuel did not want this to happen. He was the only one who tried to stop this from happening,\u201d they said. \u201cAll of the systems that should have been in place to protect Mr. Ali and to protect Mr. Samuel failed them. This case makes it clear that our jails are not equipped to house individuals who are mentally ill. We are making sick people sicker, and as a result, society is less safe.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Why Ibrahim Ali and El Hasheem Samuel were together in the same cell<\/p>\n
Samuel, who has recently been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder, arrived at the jail in September 2023 after his bail was revoked on charges including aggravated assault. He received medication for psychotic symptoms, but a psychiatrist testified Friday that he was likely \u201cvery under-treated\u201d in the jail.<\/p>\n
Ali, who suffered from schizophrenia, was initially arrested for allegedly stealing a pack of cigarettes in March 2023 from a convenience store. His mental illness made it difficult for him to abide by his bail conditions, and he continued to be arrested that year for other alleged thefts of cigarettes. He was sent to the South in October after his bail was revoked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was a bright child who was accepted into several universities, only to begin to struggle with his mental illness near the end of his degree in chemical engineering at Toronto Metropolitan University.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Father Abdi Osman and mother Khadra Dore both recounted how they rushed back from a trip to Somalia to find their son brain-dead and on life support.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had crossed the world to reach our son and what we were given was a machine keeping him alive,\u201d Dore said. \u201cThat image \u2014 Ibrahim lying there with the bruising on his face, the injuries visible, connected to those machines \u2014 is something I will never be free of. It is in my mind every single day. It comes to me at night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ali\u2019s parents said they were faced with the decision no parent should ever have to make: removing their child from life support.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Osman said his fear is that his son becomes just a name in a file. \u201cI\u2019m asking this court to remember that a young man lost his life, that his parents had to make an impossible decision, and that we have been living with the consequences of that every single day since April 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abdirahman Ali described his older brother as his role model, with whom he spoke by phone almost every day he was in jail. Younger brother Abdullahi Ali described Ibrahim as one of the most intelligent members of the family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s almost like we lost half our brain,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was incredibly important, maybe not to the world, but to this family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hartman and Dawson said the men should never have been put in the same cell together.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd once they were in the same cell, they were entitled to be supervised in compliance with the law,\u201d the lawyers said. \u201cThat didn\u2019t happen, and (Toronto South) failed both these men.\u201d<\/p>\n
El Hasheem Samuel\u2019s symptoms<\/p>\n
Dr. Lemmie Odell Tan, one of the forensic psychiatrists who assessed Samuel, testified that he reported telepathic communications from Ali. He also experienced hallucinations that he was hearing and seeing a cousin with whom he believed he had a child, and that the cousin told him Ali was a demon who was going to harm them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He thought that if Ali could simply be removed from his presence, then there would be no danger, Tan testified. \u201cBut with no response to the emergency call button, he\u2019s left with the singular option of physically defending himself.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tan concluded that Samuel didn\u2019t know that his beating of Ali was morally wrong, hence he was not criminally responsible; a psychiatrist hired by the Crown, Dr. Alina Iosif, concurred.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The finding of not criminally responsible means that Samuel will remain detained in hospital and fall under the jurisdiction of the Ontario Review Board, which will decide annually whether his detention should continue or if he should be released with conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The details of Ali\u2019s final hours at the South are documented in a statement of facts agreed upon by the Crown and defence. Before reading it into the record, Foreman added a preamble: that while the Crown agrees to these facts for the purposes of Samuel\u2019s NCR hearing, \u201cit shouldn\u2019t be taken as an admission that holds other Crown entities or other Crown ministries to these facts in any related proceedings.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n