Latest news with #HospitalAppealBoard
National Post
2 days ago
- Health
- National Post
Amy Hamm: B.C. judge goes to great lengths to protect hospital that fired unvaccinated doctor
Article content Earlier this month, the B.C. Supreme Court refused to overturn the decision of British Columbia's Hospital Appeal Board that resulted in Dr. Theresa Szezepaniak being suspended, and effectively fired, for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. Article content Szezepaniak argued that she should not have been disciplined for refusing to follow Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry's October 2021 public health order (PHO), which required all doctors and nurses working in hospitals to be vaccinated. Article content Article content Article content Szezepaniak told the court that her being disciplined left a 'black mark' on her reputation and violated her Charter right to life, liberty and security of the person, which, she argued, 'includes the right to earn an income to support oneself and family.' Article content Article content Judge Steven Wilson (a Liberal appointee) disagreed. Wilson dismissed the case and concluded that the Charter doesn't apply, at all, to the circumstances. Article content Earlier this year, B.C. saw another court case, this one directly challenging the vaccine mandate, dismissed as 'moot' at the B.C. Court of Appeal. The case became 'moot,' according to the court, after Henry rescinded her mandatory vaccination order. As such, a case that had the potential to create a precedent on freedom from governmental medical coercion was stopped dead in its tracks. Article content It would appear as though the judiciary is bending over backwards in order to excuse the draconian public health orders that were issued during the pandemic. The Szezepaniak case fundamentally boiled down to whether the punitive actions taken by the hospital were subject to the Charter of Rights. Article content Article content Most reasonable Canadians would surely agree that given that the Charter applies to the actions of the provincial government, the consequences of an order issued by the province's chief public health officer and implemented by a government-funded public hospital would also be subject to it. Article content Article content But Wilson ruled that, 'The decision to require all health-care workers including physicians to be vaccinated in order to practice in hospitals was made by the public health officer by way of the PHO. However, the decision regarding how to discipline the hospital medical staff for their breach of the PHO was not subject to governmental control under the Hospital Act, as the responsibility for adopting disciplinary measures for governmental policies rests with the IHA Board.' Article content Judge Wilson drove this point home when he wrote: 'This case is not about whether the petitioner could be compelled to be vaccinated. Rather, the focus is on the consequences that flow from her decision to decline the vaccine.' Article content The court has decided that losing one's job and reputation is no big deal — not the sort of thing that is consequential enough to admit the glaring truth: British Columbians were coerced into taking a vaccine in order to prevent unacceptable and catastrophic consequences in their lives, but those who refused also faced unacceptable consequences for which no one is willing to take responsibility. Article content Eleven days after Henry issued her PHO on mandatory COVID vaccinations, Szezepaniak, according to her appeal board decision, sent a letter requesting an exemption be made for her on the basis that the order was a violation of her Charter rights. Her letter 'also included numerous requests for information related to disclosure of scientific evidence regarding the vaccines and how Charter requirements were being met,' according to the decision. Article content Article content Szezepaniak's exemption was denied, and she received no answers to her inquiries. All told, her vaccine refusal forced her to sell her home, move her family, take a job considered (in medicine) a demotion and to disclose to all future employers that she was disciplined and suspended. Article content Judge Wilson decided that Szezepaniak's hospital was not acting as a direct agent of the government when it disciplined her — a legal technicality that absolved all parties from considering whether her Charter rights had been violated (though Wilson listed reasons he believes a Charter violation didn't occur, regardless). Article content Article content Article content
Vancouver Sun
11-08-2025
- Health
- Vancouver Sun
B.C. doctor loses challenge of dismissal for COVID vaccine refusal
A B.C. judge has rejected a Charter challenge brought by a Kamloops doctor who said her rights were violated when her hospital privileges were revoked for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Theresa Szezepaniak brought the action in B.C. Supreme Court in Kelowna against the Interior Health Authority and the Hospital Appeal Board, which upheld the health agency's decision. Judge Steven Wilson said the revocation was an administrative decision, not a matter of Charter rights, and ruled in favour of health officials. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Szezepaniak worked as a hospitalist at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops during the pandemic. On Oct. 14, 2021, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry issued an order that all doctors and nurses must be vaccinated. Those who refused were told they must resign their privileges or run the risk of being disciplined. The doctor refused either to get the vaccine or resign, instead launching an appeal with the Hospital Appeal Board, which largely upheld the decision of Interior Health, although it ' concluded that the sanction of termination was too harsh.' The appeal board said Szezepaniak should be suspended instead, effectively ending her contract while the health order was in place. Szezepaniak 'argues that her decision not to be vaccinated was one she was entitled to make, and because the provincial health order precluded her from working at the hospital, she ought not to have been disciplined at all.' The doctor argued the discipline meant she has a 'black mark' on her record that will have to be disclosed whenever she applies for new positions. She argued that violates Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms because it 'includes the right to earn an income to support oneself and family.' The judge noted neither the validity of the health order nor the question of the efficacy of the COVID vaccine were at issue in the case. The judge also said it was not a test of the 'procedural fairness' of the appeal board hearing or of Interior Health's procedures and rules for employees. Szezepaniak has been practising medicine for 23 years and was a clinical instructor at UBC for 15 years. The primary earner in her family, she moved to 100 Mile House and took a position there after the Royal Inland dismissal. Hospital privileges in all B.C. health authorities are reviewed annually by the regional board of directors, and when a medical worker fails to abide by the Hospital Act or any of its bylaws, a disciplinary process is started. Interior Health's board cancelled Szezepaniak's hospital privileges in a resolution dated Aug. 18, 2022. She appealed to the Hospital Appeal Board, which upheld the dismissal and rejected the Charter argument. The appeal board 'acknowledged that the petitioner was free to make the decision to remain unvaccinated, but concluded that discipline was nonetheless the consequence of that decision.' As for the Charter argument, the appeal board said the health authority was only making a 'routine or regular' application of existing government policy. 'While made in response to the effects of the (provincial health) order, it did not constitute application or implementation of government policy.' The judge also agreed the operational decision to suspend Szezepaniak's hospital privileges was not 'patently unreasonable' in the circumstances, a condition that could trigger a Charter challenge. 'I do not accept that a hospital board's ability to exclude a practitioner from the hospital for failing to comply with the bylaws is a decision that is governmental in nature,' said the judge in the ruling posted online late last week. While the vaccination mandate was a provincial health order, 'the decision regarding how to discipline the hospital medical staff for their breach of the PHO (order) was not subject to governmental control under the Hospital Act, as the responsibility for adopting disciplinary measures for governmental policies rests with the Interior Health Authority board. 'It follows that I conclude that the Charter does not apply to the circumstances in this case.' Though acknowledging that Szezepaniak encountered 'stress and hardship' in making her decision to reject the vaccine, the judge said that 'does not make the orders a state interference with their physical or psychological integrity.' The judge referred to an earlier ruling that said 'the right to security of the person does not protect the individual from the ordinary stresses and anxieties that a person of reasonable sensibility would suffer as a result of government action. 'If the right were interpreted with such broad sweep, countless government initiatives could be challenged on the ground that they infringe the right to security of the person, massively expanding the scope of judicial review, and, in the process, trivializing what it means for a right to be constitutionally protected.' jruttle@
