Suzanne Anton (BC’s Attorney General 2013-2017)

“COVID is over” are welcome words to many in B.C. But “COVID” is not over for the large group of unvaccinated health care workers (HCWs) who continue to be off the job. Nor is it over for the ongoing scarcity of medical services in our province, nor for the fundamental medical freedoms of British Columbians.

U.S. courts have been quick to recognize when unelected officials overstep their authority and have cancelled various COVID-related mandates throughout the country.

I question whether the same principle should apply here. Is it right that the unelected PHO be permitted to make an order with this kind of permanence without specific legislative authority and with the medical emergency to which it initially responded clearly over?

Canadian courts have been more deferential to health officers than the U.S. courts have. Will a challenge to this order change that?

Image: succo @ Pixabay