Challenging Healthcare Monopoly: A look at the Implications of Chaoulli v. Quebec for Canada (Calgary)

Guest Speaker: John Carpay

Across Canada, provincial governments make it illegal for taxpayers to use their own after-tax dollars to buy private insurance for essential health services. While private health insurance is legal for vision care and dentistry, it’s illegal when it comes to cancer, heart disease, and debilitating back pain. Any health service deemed to be "essential" is forced into the government’s inefficient and unaccountable monopoly with its painful waiting lists. In Chaoulli v. Quebec, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that "Access to a waiting list is not access to health care." In Chaoulli, six Justices held that the ban on private health insurance violates the Charter section 7 right to life, liberty, and security of the person, but they were divided three-three as to whether the ban was justified. Carpay’s talk will examine the implications of this Supreme Court ruling for healthcare users in the rest of Canada.

About the Guest:

John Carpay is President of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (www.jccf.ca). John has been a voice for freedom in Canada's courtrooms since 2001, when his then-employer, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, argued in Benoit v. Canada that race, ancestry, descent, and ethnicity should not be grounds for the unequal taxation of Canadians. John’s clients include university students across Canada whose campus free speech rights are threatened by censorship from university administrations. In 2010, Preston Manning presented John with the Pyramid Award for Ideas and Public Policy in recognition of John’s work in constitutional advocacy, and in recognition of John’s success in building up and managing a non-profit organization to defend citizens’ freedoms.

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