Charter challenge to B.C. Mental Health Act long overdue

Isabel Grant, a UBC professor of law, co-wrote an op-ed for the Vancouver Sun on a challenge to the B.C. Mental Health Act under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“What makes B.C. an outlier is that it is the only jurisdiction where, once someone has been detained involuntarily, any psychiatric treatment the physician chooses to impose can be given without consent,” wrote Grant and Thompson Rivers University law professor Ruby Dhand. “We can only hope that this case will at least set a precedent protecting the Charter liberty and security interests of people with mental health issues in this province.”