An Ontario judge has acquitted a Toronto man who threw a seven-year-old girl to the ground, punched her, and choked her in her family’s driveway after he argued the attack was involuntary because he was in a cannabis-induced psychosis.
The man, Ahmed Baig, did not dispute that he attacked her.
Justice Mara Greene found him not guilty of assault causing bodily harm and assault by choking because he was so high at the time.
The attack happened August 2, 2023, in North York.
Greene wrote that Baig left his house wearing only a towel after vaping cannabis at home for anxiety. The towel fell off as he chased the child in the driveway.
“On August 2, 2023, Mr. Baig exited his residence wearing only a towel. He ran into the street, and as he did so, his towel fell off. Now fully naked, Mr. Baig chased a family who lived across the street. He ran into the driveway and picked up a seven-year-old girl. He threw her to the ground, punched her and strangled her. He then abruptly left the driveway, and a short time later was arrested by police. At the time of arrest, he wore only a t-shirt.”
The attack was captured on video.
The girl’s mother told the court he said both “I will kill you” and “I won’t kill you,” according to a report from the Toronto Star.
“He also referred to Allah.”
The father said Baig “sounded nonsensical at times and made comments about billionaires.”
Baig later said he had no memory of the assault and next recalled being fingerprinted.
Greene accepted the non-mental-disorder automatism defense, which claims that the acts were not willed, closer to sleepwalking than to a planned assault.
She wrote that Baig “has proven on a balance of probabilities that he was acting as an automaton when he attacked the seven-year-old girl in her driveway. I am satisfied that Mr. Baig voluntarily consumed cannabis, had an unexpected reaction to the cannabis, that led to a state of psychosis where he acted in an involuntary state and attacked the young victim.”
Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Gary Chaimowitz testified that Baig was in a cannabis-induced psychosis with “grandiose, paranoid and disorderly” thinking, or sleepwalking, or both, and did not appreciate the nature of what he was doing.
The Crown argued the acts were still voluntary even if the drug affected him.
Greene rejected a not-criminally-responsible mental-disorder verdict and rejected the Crown’s volition argument.
She noted Baig was 38, a father of three, and had no criminal record. He had used cannabis before without this result. He bought a potent legal product, identified in coverage as Tiger Blood, after a dispensary worker recommended it for anxiety.
“In my view, it was not objectively foreseeable that [the accused] would have such a catastrophic reaction to the cannabis with such catastrophic consequences,” she said. She also said the case was “not satisfying at all to the victims and it’s not satisfying to society in many ways.”
Canada legalized recreational cannabis in 2018.
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