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The idea of community in community mental health has recently been criticized as problematic in that it has been ill defined, under-investigated and under-theorized. In this article we introduce actor-network theory as a useful framework for the analysis of everyday psychiatric and legal interventions and their effects. We focus on the community treatment order (CTO) in Alberta as one such intervention, showing how community positions people diagnosed with mental illness as risky subjects. In examining the CTO as an important actor in the construction of mental illness, we argue that the idea of community acts as a counterweight to balance rights, a carrot in a mechanism of consent, and as a crucible where interpretive work on a subject must be done in chains of examinations. Further, we propose a procedural and relational definition of community to inform scholarly work as well as professional practice.