PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Graham Glancy AU - Kiran Patel TI - The Ontario Court of Appeal Takes a New Look at Automatism in <em>R v. Sullivan</em> AID - 10.29158/JAAPL.210138-21 DP - 2022 Sep 01 TA - Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online PG - 450--459 VI - 50 IP - 3 4099 - http://jaapl.org/content/50/3/450.short 4100 - http://jaapl.org/content/50/3/450.full SO - J Am Acad Psychiatry Law2022 Sep 01; 50 AB - Automatism has long been a significant topic of discussion between forensic psychiatry and the courts. In a recent case, the Ontario Court of Appeal addressed this concept in the setting of a Canadian law, s. 33.1 of the Criminal Code, that limits the defense of self-induced intoxication for any offense involving violence. The court found that s. 33.1 violated the presumption of innocence and the principles of fundamental justice and could not be saved by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as it was not demonstrably justifiable in a free and democratic society. Therefore, the court declared s. 33.1 to be of no force and effect. In this article, we describe the legal history of automatism in Canadian courts and the reasoning behind this important decision. Finally, we discuss some implications for forensic practice.