Supreme Court of Canada decision in Chaoulli v. Quebec (Attorney General)

Ontario's Prohibition of Private Health Funding Unconstitutional Too

SCC Decision will Bolster Freedom Party's Ontario Campaign: McKeever

June 9, 2005 - Ottawa, Ontario

Freedom Party of Ontario leader, Paul McKeever, praised the Supreme Court of Canada's decision today which declared unconstitutional a Quebec law prohibiting individuals from spending their own money on health care services.  His party views the decision as added fire-power for its unique stand on the issue leading into Ontario Election 2007.

"The majority of the court found that prohibiting privately-funded health care leads to waiting lists", says McKeever.  "They concluded that those waiting lists can and have led to deaths and to physical and psychological harm and pain.  They concluded that prohibiting privately-funded health care creates patient pain without any corresponding public healthcare gain. For those reasons, the majority declared Quebec's prohibition of privately-funded health care is an unjustifiable violation of an individual's rights to life and security of the person.

"The implications for Ontario's prohibition of privately-funded healthcare are inescapable for two reasons", argues McKeever.  "First, the court found no evidence that banning privately-funded health care helps sustain a public health care system.  Second, to the contrary, the court found that public health care systems in other OECD countries do as well or better than the Quebec system even though those countries have parallel privately-paid systems of health care.  Because the court relied on consistent evidence from around the globe, the conclusions must apply in Ontario as well: prohibiting privately-funded health care creates patient pain without any corresponding public health care gain.  For the same reasons and on the same evidence, Ontario's prohibition on privately-funded health care is impliedly unconstitutional."

McKeever explains that "Ontario's Progressive Conservative government of John P. Robarts introduced the prohibition on privately-funded health care effective October 1, 1969. During the recent leadership campaign for the Progressive Conservative party of Ontario, John Tory campaigned on a strong opposition to privately-funded health care (he even put another contender, Frank Klees, on notice that Mr. Klees' support of a privately-funded health care would preclude him from being a health minister).  Unless Mr. Tory's repeated claims to having the integrity of Mike Harris ring hollow, there can be no doubt that Ontario now has three party leaders in the legislature who will fight to defend Ontario's prohibition of privately-funded health care.

"Freedom Party is the only political party in Ontario that promises to allow Ontarians to opt-out of funding the OHIP system", says McKeever.

Freedom Party believes that Ontarians should be free to choose their own method for funding health care, rather than being taxed for health care. 

McKeever concludes, "If the court's decision today is the thin edge of the wedge, we will be hammering that wedge for the next two years leading up to election 2007.  Ontarians should be able to buy the health care they want, rather than being limited to the health care Mr. Tory, Mr. McGuinty, or Mr. Hampton thinks they need."