The question of how to address and respond to the needs of people suffering from mental infirmity is an issue that the courts have been dealing with for many years.
In 1942, Chief Justice Robertson of the Ontario Court of Appeal described the jurisdiction of the court as follows:’ The jurisdiction of the Court in lunacy maters is an old one, derived from various sources, and is now declared and governed by the provisions of The Mental Incompetency Act RS.O. 1937, c. 10. The functions of the Court in providing for the management of the estate of a mentally incompetent person are of character that a public officer such as the Public Trustee, who has a great many separate funds in his care, requiring for their supervision and management a large staff to whom much of the business must be delegated, would hardly be able to discharge. It has ben said that in the management of the estate of the afflicted person, the Court endeavours to supply the place that has been rendered void by his withdrawal.