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EXPLANATORY NOTE
The bill permits individual health care workers to refuse to assist or participate in any
designated health care service, except for delivering nutrition or hydration, which is
contrary to their religious or conscientious convictions. It prohibits health care
authorities from coercing workers in such matters and it sets out penalties for such
coercion. In effect, it would ensure that no health care worker would lack legal
protection if pressured to act against his or her conscience - whether through the threat
of dismissal, demotion, or refusal to hire or give professional certification, or other
forms of discrimination
A health care worker who intends to exercise a right under this act is required to give
notice of that as soon as possible and is protected from liability for damages and from
discrimination for exercising the right."
An Act to provide for
the Protection
of Consciences of Health Care Workers
Her Majesty, by and with the advice
and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, enacts as follows:
Definitions
1. In this Act,
"designated health care" means anything that is done for a therapeutic,
preventive, palliative, diagnostic, cosmetic, prognostic, research, counseling,
family planning, treatment, referral or other health-related purpose, and includes,
(a) personal assistance
services and community services that are related to health care,
(b) examination
and assessments of an individual to determine the individual's physical or mental state in
order to determine the health care that the individual needs,
(c) advising, counseling or giving prescriptions or referrals to an individual for
the purpose of health care, and
(d) the compounding, dispensing or selling of a drug or the selling of a
device, equipment of any other item to an individual, or for the is of an individual,
pursuant to a prescription,
but does include the
delivering nutrients or hydration to an individual; ('soins de sante designes")
"health care institution"
means a public or private corporation, partnership, association, organization, agency or
other legal entity that is involved in providing designated health care, and includes a
hospital, a clinic, a physician's office, a medical school, a nursing school and any other
institution or facility that provides training in providing designated health care;
("establissement de soins de sante")
"health care professional" means an individual who practices a health
profession within the meaning of the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991;
("professionnel de la sante)
"health care worker" means a health care professional or an
individual who is employed by or who works for a health care professional or a health care
institution' ("travailleur de la sante")
"personal assistance services" means assistance with or supervision of
hygiene, washing, dressing, grooming, eating, drinking, elimination, ambulation,
positioning or any other routine activity of living; ("services d'aide
personnelle")
"Religious or conscientious conviction" means the religious or
conscientious requirements or prohibitions by which an individual believes oneself to be
bound in conscience. ("convictions religieuses or consciencieuses")
Right of Conscience
2(1) Subject to subsection (2), a health care worker has the right to refuse
to provide designated health care or to refuse to assist or participate directly or
indirectly in providing designated health care on the basis that doing so would,
(a) violate the worker's
religious or conscientious convictions; or
(b) necessarily involve work that would violate the worker's religious
or conscientious convictions.
Notice
2(2) As soon as practicable after a health care worker becomes aware of a potential
or actual conflict between the worker's religious or conscientious convictions and the
designated health care that the worker is required or requested to provide, the worker
shall make reasonable efforts to give notice of the intention to exercise a right under
subsection (1) to the individual who is to receive the designated health care and to one
of the following persons:
1. The person or health
care institution who employs the worker or for whom the worker works.
2. The physician who has prescribed the designated health care, if the worker is not the
physician.
Protection
3(1) Despite any other Act, no person or health care institution shall require a
health care worker to do work that the worker refuses to do on the basis of
exercising a right under section 2.
No civil liability
3(2) Despite any other Act, a health care worker who exercises a right under
section 2 to refuse to do work shall not be liable in damages to any person of health care
institution for the refusal.
Prohibited treatment
3(3) Despite any other Act, no person or health care institution shall subject a
health care worker to any of the following treatment for exercising a right under section
2:
1. Termination or threats of
termination of employment or contract work.
2. Discrimination in hiring for employment or contract work.
3. Discipline, penalties, retaliation or discrimination in employment or contract work,
including in privileges, benefits, remuneration, promotion and transfer from existing
duties and responsibilities.
4. Discrimination in the
admission to or the renewal of registration in an educational or training program.
5. Discipline, penalties, retaliation or discrimination in the participation in or the
graduation from an educational or training program.
6. Discipline, penalties, retaliation or discrimination in respect of a grant or other financial compensation.
7. Discipline, penalties, retaliation or discrimination in respect of a health care
professional by a College of a health profession within the meaning of the Regulated
Health Profession Act, 1991.
8. If the health care worker is a health care professional who is otherwise qualified
for a registration as a member of a College of a health profession within the meaning of
the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991, the refusal to grant, continue or renew the
registration.
Exception
3(4) Despite subsection (3), a health care institution or a part of it may refuse
to employ or retain the services of a health care worker who exercises a right under
section 2 to refuse to do work or may terminate the employment or work contracts of the
worker if,
(a) the institution is established
for the primary purpose of providing the forms of designated health care that the worker
refuses to do; and
(b) the institution has made a diligent effort to find employment or a work contract, as
the case may be, of equivalent value for the worker in the institution if the worker
is qualified for it.,
Emergencies
3(5) This Act does not apply to designated health care which is necessary in an
emergency situation to treat a patient who has a disease or injury which puts that patient
at imminent risk of sustaining bodily harm or death when the health care worker who has a
religious or conscientious objection is the only worker available to provide the
designated health care.
Application to Crown
4. This Act binds the Crown, every agency of the Crown and every employee in the
service of the Crown or an agency, board, commission, authority, corporation or person that exercises any function
assigned or delegated to it by the Crown.
5. Nothing in this Act suspends or
affects any civil or other remedy that a health care worker may have.
No waiver
6. This Act applies despite any agreement or waiver to the contrary.
Offence
7. (1) A person is guilty of an offence if the person,
(a) contravenes subsection 3
(1) or (3); or
(b) attempts to require, direct, or induce a health care worker to do work that the worker
refuses to do on the basis of exercising a right under section 2.
Directors, officers
7 (2) It is an offence for any director or officer of a corporation to cause,
authorize, permit, or participate or acquiesce in the commission by the corporation of an
offence mentioned in subsection (1).
Penalty, non-corporations
7(3) A person other than a corporation who is convicted for an offence under this
Act is liable to,
(a) for a first conviction, a fine
of up to $2,000 or imprisonment for up to one year or both; and
(b) for a second or subsequent conviction, a fine of up to $10,000 and imprisonment for up
to one year or both.
Penalty, corporations
7 (4) A corporation that is convicted of an offence under this Act is liable to,
(a) for a first conviction, a
fine of up to $2,000; and
(b) for a second or subsequent conviction, a fine of up to $10,000.
8. Subsection 76 (1) of the Employment
Standards Act, as amended by the Statutes of Ontario, 1991, chapter 43, section 2, is
further amended by striking out "or" at the end of clause (h) by adding
"or" at the end of clause (i) and by adding the following clause:(j) has exercised a right to refuse work
under section 2 of the Health Care
Workers" Protection Act, 1998.
Commencement
9. This Act comes into force on the day it received Royal Assent.
Short title
10. The short title of this Act is the Health Care Workers' Conscience
Protection Act, 1998. |
