Applicability of the Charter in the Healthcare Context Through the Lens of Vaccination-or-mask Policies

Despite numerous Supreme Court of Canada decisions on Charter applicability, there has been limited discussion on how the Charter applies to entities operating in the healthcare sector. This paper uses vaccination-or-mask policies as a test case to illustrate the difficulties in applying the current law to determine if the Charter applies to various actors, including hospitals, regional health authorities, physiciansâ offices and other for-profit healthcare companies, and the professional regulatory bodies. The analysis demonstrates that the current test remains confusing and unclear, does not significantly reduce the possibility of government shirking its Charter obligations, and may lead to a differential protection of rights across the provinces. A solution is proposed that requests the court to consider a more holistic approach to characterizing an entity as governmental or not. Also, it may be useful to recognize that healthcare as a public monopoly is a unique case for Charter applicability.

Department dc:contributor.department

Law

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Greiss, John

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Rogerson, Carol

• Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
• constitutional law
• healthcare workers
• influenza
• vaccination-or-mask policy

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1807/74844

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/74844