Gary McCullough, 53, is questioned by police during his arrest on June 24 outside the G20 perimeter. Officers pulled over his car because of its unusual roof box, then arrested him when he exhibited 'disorientation.' (Geoff Robins/AFP/Getty Images)

Two months after he was pulled over in his car, surrounded by two dozen police officers and arrested for having a crossbow near the G20 zone in downtown Toronto, a 53-year-old man with mental-health issues is still in jail.

Gary McCullough was one the first people taken into custody by G20 security personnel, and though they quickly acknowledged he had nothing to do with the summit of world leaders, he is one of the last still in detention.

The Crown says the Haliburton County, Ont., man intended to use the crossbow for a dangerous purpose and poses a threat to the public, for which he should be held without bail until his trial in the fall.

McCullough's advocates, however, say his is a tragic case of a man with a history of mental illness being in the wrong place with the wrong implements at the wrong time.

'He's ingenious'

McCullough lives on a hilly acreage behind the summer homes of cottage country, at a secluded property he bought about 20 years ago. A professional engineer, he built himself a two-storey cabin and installed a generator for power and cisterns to catch rainwater.

"He was living like a hermit all on his own, but he's never lacked for anything, anything that he's needed," his father, Kem McCullough, said in a recent interview. "He's ingenious in the things he comes up with."

Constables remove water jugs and gas cans from McCullough's car after his arrest. A police spokesperson called assorted items found in the car 'weapons of opportunity.' (Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press)

Over the years, though, he ran into problems with neighbours. A spat about property lines and tree-felling turned nasty. And it was exacerbated by his mental condition.

Gary McCullough resists the label, but his father describes him as having paranoid schizophrenia: "He's suspicious of everybody else and he just doesn't want to be bothered by anybody."

The cottage-country neighbours called in the police, and McCullough was taken away, spending several years in the mental health centre in Whitby, Ont., and several more in supervised homes. When he finally could return to his cabin in the woods, it had burned down, or been burned down. "That didn't make him feel very happy about his neighbours," Kem McCullough said.

Then in June, he had another run-in with a neighbour. In the confrontation, the driver's-side window on McCullough's car was smashed. He decided to visit Toronto, where it could be fixed faster than in Haliburton and where he could visit family. It proved a fateful decision.

Worldwide headlines

On the Monday before the G20, McCullough lunched with his parents at their suburban Scarborough condo. Three days later, on Thursday, June 24, his curiosity did him in. He wondered what Toronto looked like under the strain of the elaborate G20 conference security, and he decided to drive downtown.

But amid traffic snarls and road closures, McCullough made a wrong turn, ending up on a side street two blocks from the G20 perimeter barrier. A police officer on bicycle noticed his silver Hyundai Elantra with its large metal roof box and pulled it over. Two dozen other constables — there was a protest around the corner by striking hotel workers — converged. They found that McCullough had fuel canisters, a chainsaw, a sledgehammer, a hatchet, arrows and the crossbow.

The implements in McCullough's silver Hyundai Elantra included a chainsaw, sledgehammer, hatchet, arrows, baseball bat and a crossbow. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)

"He wasn't forthcoming initially with his information" and exhibited "some disorientation," Toronto police Const. Hugh Smith said at the time. "It's lawful to have them in your possession … but with close proximity to the summit, we are going to relate it, you know, to the G20 and the safety. So there was more than enough to arrest."

The incident touched off a media tumult. "Man with astonishing array of weapons including crossbow and chainsaw is arrested near G20 summit in Toronto," blared the next day's Daily Mail newspaper in Britain.

By that night, having ascertained no threat to the world leaders, authorities were toning down the alarm. "There's no evidence to indicate or suggest that it's G20-related," Toronto Const. Tony Vella said.

However, McCullough was charged with violating Section 88 of the Criminal Code, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.

'No evidence of any intention': lawyer

"Weapons dangerous," as it's known, is a tricky offence. The definition of "weapon" is open-ended and can be anything "used, designed or intended" to injure or threaten someone. On the other hand, the Crown must prove that the accused possessed the weapon for "a purpose dangerous to the public peace or for the purpose of committing an offence."

That's where the case against McCullough falls apart, his lawyer maintains.

"There is no evidence of any intention to do anything wrong," James Carlisle said. "It seems that all they are saying is, if a person had a crossbow in downtown Toronto near the time of the G20, then you can infer that they had an intention."

At McCullough's bail hearing, which took place before Carlisle began representing him, the justice of the peace stated, "I see no sense that he had to bring all the items for the sole purpose of being in Toronto and running an errand." In denying bail, the justice added: "The inference is he carried all these items for a purpose dangerous to the public."

The Crown acknowledges it has no direct proof of a dangerous purpose and will rely on circumstantial evidence. "In most cases, we're not lucky enough to have the accused actually spell out what they're trying to do," Philip Enright, the senior prosecutor on McCullough's file, said in an interview. "In most cases, it is a matter of inference."

According to McCullough's lawyer and father, though, his purpose in having an array of mostly construction implements has been grossly misunderstood. Because of his distrust of his neighbours, McCullough keeps his "prized possessions" in his car when he leaves home, his father said.

As for the crossbow, the country dweller has it to fend off the occasional bear or other wild animal, and it was securely locked in a carrying case, father and lawyer affirmed — not loaded and in the open as one media outlet reported.

None of that mattered in bail court. The Crown sought McCullough's detention largely on the allegation that, without a form of third-party supervision known as a surety, he would pose a danger to the community. And McCullough's parents, who are in their 80s, felt they couldn't commit to housing and supervising him because of his disorder.

"It all has to do with whether he stays on his medications or not," his father said. "This guy's a perfect gentleman, he goes to church, he makes friends when he's on his medications. When he's off his medications, he just becomes a loner all by himself and goes his own way."

Tough time in jail

So McCullough has been in Maplehurst Correctional Complex in Milton, west of Toronto, for the last two months.

By all accounts, it has been a devastating time for him. Jail culture has unwritten rules — who can use the phone when, what to do when you come back from a court hearing (shower), how to talk to the guards (don't) — that McCullough's mental condition hinders his ability to appreciate.

"The way he put it once was that he was very much out of his element," recalled Alex Hundert, who spent two weeks in the same jail range as McCullough before making bail on charges that he conspired with other protest leaders to foment vandalism during the G20.

'I don't see any basis for a determination that he is a danger to the public. I really believe that it's a prejudice against the mentally ill.' —Lawyer James Carlisle

One altercation with another inmate turned violent, and while neither Hundert nor defence lawyer Carlisle would divulge details, McCullough's father said his son suffered several broken ribs. He was moved into segregated custody, where, barring a successful appeal of his bail, he will remain until his Oct. 6 trial in Toronto.

Meanwhile, his psychological and emotional states have been deteriorating.

"He's totally frustrated that he's been in there this long and totally innocent, as far as he's concerned, and nobody's doing anything about it," Kem McCullough said.

Hundert put it this way: "His ability to take care of himself in jail was decreasing as time wore on. He can't understand how or why they're able to do this to him."

Underlying McCullough's continuing detention, Hundert and Carlisle and Kem McCullough all contend, is a grave systemic discrimination, whereby people with a history of mental illness are too often seen as dangerous and, among other consequences, denied release, at least on the same terms as anybody else.

"I don't see any basis for a determination that he is a danger to the public," Carlisle said. "I really believe that it's a prejudice against the mentally ill."

Enright, the prosecutor, is cautious about whether McCullough's mental health played a role in the decision to deny bail: "I cannot say whether it was determinative," he said. "Do we treat mentally disordered offenders differently than those who aren't? Well, you look at all the circumstances — it's unfair to try to pigeonhole Crown decisions. Yes, I guess."