Father who killed one-year-old son with axe may be allowed to travel in southwestern Ontario

A Mennonite father who killed his one-year-old son with an axe may be allowed to travel to parts of southern Ontario in the coming months

A Mennonite father who killed his one-year-old son with an axe may be allowed to travel to parts of southern Ontario in the coming months, but a long-term plan for reintegration into his tight-knit community remains unclear.

The Waterloo Regional Police Service was called to a property on Powell Road in Wellesley Township on Sept. 18, 2021, where they found the child’s body in the basement of a home.

Within minutes of the first officer’s arrival, Isaac Martin, the child’s 31-year-old father, was arrested.

Martin was charged with first degree murder. In January 2024, a judge found Martin not criminally responsible (NCR) on account of mental disorder for the death of his son, Mahlon.

“It was obvious that Mr. Martin was suffering from a severe major mental illness operating at the time of the incident itself that deprived him of his ability to realize that these acts were wrong,” Martin’s lawyer Steve Gehl tells CTV News.

Martin is now at Southwest Centre for Forensic Mental Health Care in St. Thomas and is under the jurisdiction of the Ontario Review Board, a body that gets updates on his treatment and determines what privileges he may have, with the long-term goal of eventual reintegration into society.

Martin’s first review board hearing was held in April, and a detailed report into the hearing before a five-person panel and their subsequent decision (called the reasons for disposition) has now been released.