Unless we do something to stop this

By Ingrid Pincott (in collaboration with BC Rising & CSSEM)

On November 24th 2022 the Province of BC passed one of its largest bills ever, into law: Bill 36 now known as The Health Professions and Occupations ACT /HPOA. John Rustad, MLA for Vanderhoof, was the ONLY MLA who voted against the Bill and who was responsible for bringing this to the attention of those concerned citizens. The BC Rising and Canadian Society for Science and Ethics in Medicine (CSSEM) groups have since then devised a public campaign to educate not only the citizens of BC but also the professionals. NO ONE seems to know about this ACT and its severe implications until this campaign was launched in April of this year.

The HPOA is comprised of 645 sections that when printed is 3 inches thick! Only 232 clauses were read in the BC Legislature and the remaining 412 sections were not discussed or debated before the ACT received royal assent. This violated the BC government’s own Standing Orders 84 (1) and (2) of the BC Constitution Act 1996, s45. Premier David Eby invoked this early closure denying politicians, healthcare providers and concerned constituents the ability to voice their concerns.

The new Act compresses 15 Health Professional Colleges into more or less 6 College boards, with all board members being directly or indirectly appointed by the minister. When challenged, Health Minister Adrian Dix replied: “The Minister appoints because the Minister appoints”. Previously approximately 50% of these College boards were health professionals elected by their membership and now 100% will be appointed. This makes the board ripe for political interference.

The Act allows the government to suddenly seize a patient’s records, close a doctor’s office without investigation, and persecute a doctor based on an anonymous complaint. This will affect doctors, naturopaths, nurses, chiropractors, dentists, optometrists, and all other healthcare professionals in BC.

The BC Health Minister Adrian Dix says that 4000 Health Care professionals were consulted throughout BC over those past years through the Harry Cayton Report. For example Doctors of BC were given a time frame for stakeholders submission of two weeks during a holiday period. They got 56 responses which are not representative of the membership.

Why be concerned?

Under the guise of “modernization” and “streamlining”, the new Act made sweeping changes, which ultimately violates the doctor-patient relationship threatening an already disintegrating healthcare system in BC.

We need to remember that Governments are in place to only provide funding for health care. Governments have no education or background to ban or mandate medical treatments or procedures.

Healthcare workers and colleges need to be regulated but not to be interfered with by politicians, bureaucrats and lobbyists. Health care needs to be provided by health care professionals who are trained in their science of medicine to provide informed consent and personalized health care for their patients and their families for the best outcome of the patient. This is the definition of personalized medicine.

Once enacted fully, Bill 36 will be the final nail in the BC healthcare coffin. Already practitioners are taking stress leave, forced retirement and leaving the province to be able to practice autonomously. BC will not be able to attract health care professionals due to these penalties.

Offices and walk-in clinics are closing, while the long wait times in BC Emergency Departments, struggling to remain open, are causing patients to leave without being seen by a physician. In Dec 2022 (a CBC report) claimed that rural Emergency Rooms around BC were closed for an equivalent of 4 months.

Despite irrefutable evidence that Covid shots do not prevent transmission, it is estimated that 5000 fewer nurses and care aids have not returned to practice due to sick leave, disability or vaccine status, while every other province, except Nova Scotia, has welcomed back their unvaxxed workers. In May 2023, ER doctors at the Surrey Memorial Hospital wrote an open letter warning of the dire hospital conditions and advised patients not to come to their ER for treatment. In a show of progressive action, Adrian Dix, the BC health Minister, arranged signage and a ground-breaking ceremony for new Surrey facilities. All equipment and signs were quietly removed 2 days later.

While the BC government continues to deceive the province with promises of cash infusions, the fast tracking of foreign workers, and shipping cancer patients to the US for costly treatment because of understaffing, there is pushback by BC Rising and the Canadian Society for Science and Ethics in Medicine (CSSEM). These two organizations, comprised of lay persons and doctors respectively, have created something effective: The Bill 36 Postcard Campaign.

So far over 3000 postcards have been signed and mailed by BC citizens to their MLA, demanding that Bill 36 be repealed or, at a minimum, allowed to be debated in the Legislature. More cards are being sent in daily as people realize that Bill 36 will prevent them from seeing a doctor or any healthcare practitioner to receive high-quality, private, personalized advice. We need thousands more.

The term Bill 36 has continued to be used because it was also part of the recall Premier David Eby campaign that took place earlier this year so the public is familiar with the term. However the Bill has now been passed but NOT yet enacted, to form the HPOA. It is felt that with huge public pressure that the Government of BC can be forced to bring HPOA back to the table or better yet scrap it entirely and garner the support and input from all of the Health Care Professionals in BC to draft a new one.

Campbell River based Aaron Gunn in his documentary “Waiting to Die” states that in Canada we already have a 50- tiered Health Care system and explains the reasons why patients are dying while waiting for Health Care. It expertly explains how 27 other countries with Universal Health Care have highly effective hybrid systems combining public and private pay, which is NOT the US based system. These are some of the solutions that are being provided to the politicians.

Patients are Less Safe:

Here are some of the concerns: (see references to clauses in the Bill 36 in Cover Letter www.cssem.org/Bill36

The entire Bill is open to interpretation and does not define the terms “misinformation, misleading or false information” and who decides? The government is allowed to define and influence “false or misleading information”. The minister may unilaterally make regulations regarding what information must be provided by health care providers to both patients and the public.

The Health Minister dictates the construction of health care colleges and appoints directly or indirectly all board members of these colleges, as well as the director of discipline. At no point is the minister obliged to consult with the front line health care workers in the making of these regulations, appointments and construction of these colleges. If front line workers are not consulted this will ultimately make patients less safe.

This same partisan-appointed director of discipline can independently appoint discipline members, consultants, experts and specialists. Remember, when questioned about this dubious appointment Dix answered: “The minister appoints because the minister appoints.” A complaint can be filed against the Health Care Provider based on a media or a public source and a formal investigation can be initiated even before a complaint has been made against a registrant.

A regulatory complaint with personal and protected information can be disclosed to the public.

Speaking out against policies which lack scientific basis would hold a health care provider liable on conviction of a $25,000 fine, six month imprisonment, or both.

Bill 36 is destroying personalized health care and informed consent making it so that patients and their families are ultimately less safe.

Freedom of Speech in Medicine is Gone

Dr. Chris Milburn MD runs a yearly conference in Nova Scotia www.FreeSpeechinMedicine.com. He along with Jordan Peterson state that free speech in medicine is gone in Canada. See the video of Dr. Ben Turner MD, President of the Canadian Society for Science and Ethics in Medicine on Bill 36. www.cssem.org/bill36/media. Information about Bill 36 is censored from the Legacy Media and many organizations are refusing to help with dispensing of this important information.

You Can Make a Difference

Go to www.cssem.org/bill36 and print, sign and send in a postcard to your own MLA. Share with 7 or more friends including your own health care professionals. Volunteer at a Bill 36 table event. www.bcrising.ca/committee/Bill-36 Meet with your MLA and express your concern.

HPOA takes censorship to an unprecedented level of control. The government will decide what is “misinformation”. The Ministry of Health will unilaterally make regulations regarding which therapeutic options can be provided to patients and will become the sole arbitrator of what is “false or misleading”.

There is little doubt that BC will be left with government-controlled potentially pharma-based disease-care medicine on steroids. Where is patient centered care in all this? That is if you can find a family doctor without driving to Alberta. BC is being used to implement a system that can gradually spread to all provinces resulting in severe health restrictions coming to a province near you.

PLEASE DO ONE SMALL THING and become an activist and help get rid of Bill 36/HPOA and bring back “safety” to Health Care. Share this two minute concise message 604-659-9476.

Ingrid Pincott is a retired Naturopathic Physician. She penned a regular health care column in the Campbell River Mirror for over 20 years and now volunteers for BC Rising and Canadian Society for Science and Ethics in Medicine

Source information: cssem.org/bill36/coverletter