The man charged in two fatal stabbings near Kingston’s Integrated Care Hub (ICH) in September 2024 appeared in court Feb. 21 to hear several more names added to his no-contact list.
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Andre Wareham, incarcerated at Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, Ontario, appeared virtually before Justice of the Peace Shawn Borgford, who presided over Courtroom Two at the Kingston Ontario Court of Justice on Wellington Street. Wareham’s lawyer, Steven M. Hinkson, was not present but asked via the duty counsel that the hearing be adjourned until late March 2025 “for further disclosure to be received and a counsel pre-trial.”
The duty counsel also asked Borgford to confirm if a publication ban was in place on Wareham’s case, saying, “I believe there is, but ‘Hinkson’ has requested that I ensure a publication ban has been put in place.”
Borgford asked the court clerk if there was a publication ban. But before he could answer, the Crown attorney, Shawn Eagles, and the duty counsel insisted that a publication ban was in place.
However, Justice Services Online records show no publication ban entered into Wareham’s file as of Feb. 21 and the clerk also indicated there was no publication ban on Wareham’s file.
“There’s no indication there was ever a pub ban on this information,” Borgford stated.
Eagles checked his records, stating again that he was sure one had been ordered.
Borgford discovered a publication ban on Wareham’s file ordered by Justice of the Peace Jack Chiang, though he didn’t indicate when that order was made. It was a 517 order; a publication ban under section 517 of the Criminal Code is a temporary court order that prevents the public from sharing information from a bail hearing. The ban is intended to protect the defendant’s right to a fair trial by preventing the publication of evidence, information, and reasons given by the justice. It applies to bail hearings, bail reviews, and related applications and remains in place until the accused’s matter is concluded.
Once all of this was confirmed, Eagles asked to add several more names to the no-contact list for Wareham. During several court appearances since Wareham was arrested, the list of people he has been ordered not to contact while in custody has grown to over 80.
Wareham is charged with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in the violent attacks on and around Montreal Street on Sept. 12, 2024.
Those attacks led to the deaths of 38-year-old Taylor Wilkinson and 41-year-old John Hood, according to police, and the hospitalization of a third, unidentified victim who sustained “serious injuries.” Following the stabbings, Wareham engaged police in an hours-long standoff.
As the standoff continued, police confirmed that two of the three assault victims had died. The standoff ended just before 5 p.m. that same day, and the incidents resulted in the closure of the ICH and the removal of people living in the encampment beside it.
Just before the accused man was apprehended on September 12, Mayor Bryan Paterson released a statement calling for the closure of the ICH, consumption treatment services (CTS), and encampment. This led many people to wonder if anyone had confirmed that those involved were clients of the ICH and/or living at the encampment — information that had not yet been disclosed by police at the time of Paterson’s statement.
Kingston Police later confirmed that Wareham was not a client of the ICH, nor was he living in the adjacent encampment, but he was living close by on Montreal Street.
Michelle Dorey Forestell is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter with the Kingstonist. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.