On Thursday, it will be the turn of medical specialists to ask the Superior Court to temporarily suspend elements of Health Minister Christian Dubé’s Bill 2, pending a hearing on the merits of their challenge to the constitutionality of the bill.
The request for a stay by the Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Québec (FMSQ) is not lacking in dramatic elements to support its arguments. After pointing out that Bill 2 was passed under gag order shortly before 4 a.m. on Oct. 25, the second paragraph states that “the darkness that surrounded the parliament building at that hour then fell upon the entire Quebec health care system.”
The legal document goes on to state that “Bill 2 (…) is not an ordinary special law. It is a draconian law, unprecedented in modern Quebec.”
Attacking two measures that “will significantly reduce the income of medical specialists in just two months,” the request for a stay cites income losses ranging from 21.4 per cent to 65.6 per cent for some doctors.
The FMSQ ultimately intends to ask the court to declare “several provisions” of Bill 2 unconstitutional. It argues that this law “compels obedience and collaboration. It establishes a system of forced denunciation in Quebec universities with medical faculties. It allows the Quebec government to establish, potentially throughout Quebec and until March 31, 2028, a system of control, surveillance, forced denunciation, and punishment of physicians by a political police force of their peers.”
The union has maintained from the outset and reaffirms that a medical specialist “who resigns, retires, or decides to practice outside Quebec exposes themselves or can legitimately fear exposure (…) to ruinous penalties.”
It believes that the legislation “forces professionals to continue working in a position they no longer want, under penalty of ruinous sanctions, which is tantamount to enslavement and forced labor,” adding that to its knowledge, “no special law since the advent of the Charters has had such a drastic effect.”
The Federation’s document ultimately sees this as a violation of several rights and freedoms protected by the Charters that “could not be justified in a free and democratic society.”
The request for a temporary stay seeks to suspend the application of the elements contested by the FMSQ pending the Court’s consideration of the merits through a request for an interlocutory stay. However, pending the filing of these new proceedings, the request heard on Thursday argues that “there is nevertheless an urgent need to act to provisionally suspend the application of the provisions in question” until a judgment on the merits is rendered.
Obtaining a provisional stay from a judge is based on four criteria. The first is to determine whether the issues are serious, a criterion that experts believe is met by the “clear infringement of the rights and freedoms of physicians.” The second requires the applicants to demonstrate that they would suffer irreparable harm, which they believe is evident due to the sanctions, loss of income, and “loss of enjoyment of their freedoms.”
To meet the third criterion, the plaintiffs must demonstrate that they suffer more inconvenience than the defendant, in this case the Quebec government. Finally, the fourth criterion is to demonstrate that it is urgent for the court to grant the stay.
The FMSQ is also asking the court to order closed proceedings for the sworn statements of five doctors, whose identities and the content of their statements would remain secret. Judge Pierre Nollet was presented with this request on Tuesday and is expected to rule on it this Thursday. The Attorney General of Quebec, as well as all the major media outlets, have opposed it.
Ultimately, the specialists are asking the court to block the possibility of sanctions being imposed on a physician who stops practicing or teaching, resigns, retires, or moves their practice outside Quebec.
They also want criticism of the law, protests, and other concerted actions not to be considered a punishable offense.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
