During Covid, the psychiatric survivor advocacy movement lost many of its titans.
Paula Caplan, Bonnie Burstow, Graeme Bacque, the great Don Weitz and the incomparable Darby Penney.
I was so fortunate to learn from and work with Darby over the last couple of years on NARPA’s Board.
She was very special and taught me a lot. I particularly loved working with her on ABLE, a Committee she formed within NARPA – Alternatives to Bad Law Enforcement, which combined a defund police approach with police reform and alternatives to mobile crisis with the preferred model for community based deescalation trained peer supports.
I also deeply loved her book about the lives of those who lived in a psychiatric hospital, which she meticulously traced from luggage they left behind. I carried that book with me for years. It changed my life in many ways.
I am glad she got a nice spread in the New York Times. May her memory be a blessing.
• Called to the Bar (1992)
• U of T Law grad (1990)
• Sole practitioner (33 years)
• Partner in small law firm (Hiltz Szigeti) 2002 - 2013
• Mom to two astonishing kids, Scarlett (20+) and Sebastian (20-)
• (Founding) Chair of Mental Health Legal Committee for ten years (1997 to 2007)
* Founding President of Law and Mental Disorder Association - LAMDA since 2017
* Founder and Secretary to Women in Canadian Criminal Defence - WiCCD - since 2022
• Counsel to clients with serious mental health issues before administrative tribunals and on appeals
• Former Chair, current member of LAO’s mental health law advisory committee
• Educator, lecturer, widely published author (including 5 text books on consent and capacity law, Canadian civil mental health law, the criminal law of mental disorder, a law school casebook and a massive Anthology on all things mental health and the law)
• Thirty+ years’ experience as counsel to almost exclusively legally aided clients
• Frequently appointed amicus curiae
• Fearless advocate
• Not entirely humourless
anitaszigeti 