The Application of the Canadian Charter in the Health Care Context

Abstract

This note examines the extent to which the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies to the decisions and actions of those in the health care system. The Supreme Court’s decision in Eldridge v British Columbia has significantly expanded the potential for invoking the Charter in the health care context. Publicly funded health care in Canada has become a core government program. In Eldridge, the Supreme Court recognized that the publicly funded health care system is subject to Charter scrutiny. The Court found that the scope of the Charter’s protection should not be determined by the nature of the decision-maker or of the locus of the health care decision-making which impinges upon individual health-related rights, but rather by the nature of the service being provided, be it by government departments, hospitals or individual physicians.

Keywords: Canada, Charter, health care, Eldridge, funding, human rights, decision-making, medicare, constitution, public