Senate
Bill S-11 (1999)
Senator Ray Perrault
Introduction
Bill S-11 replicates
Bill S-7,
which had been proposed by
Senator Stanley Haidasz on 19 November, 1997. Senator
Raymond Perrault reintroduced the text as Bill S-11 in November, 1999. The bill was replicated
in
a number of unsuccessful bills proposed by M.P. Maurice Vellacott,
the most recent of which is Bill
C-537. [Administrator]
An Act to amend the Criminal Code
for the purpose of preventing coercion
in medical procedures
that offend against conscience.
Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and
House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:
1. The Criminal Code is amended by adding the following after
section 425:
425.1(1) Every one is guilty of an offence punishable on summary
conviction who, being an employer or the agent of an employer,
a) refuses to employ a health care practitioner,
b) refuses to advance or promote a qualified health care practitioner,
or
c) dismisses, or threatens to dismiss, a health care practitioner from
employment
because the health care practitioner is, or is believed to be, unwilling
to take part in or counsel for any medical procedure, that offends a tenet
of the practitioner's religion, or the belief of the practitioner that human
life is inviolable.
(2) Every one is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction who,
being an educator or the agent of an educator in any field of health care in
Canada,
a) refuses to admit any person to courses in a field of health care,
or
b) refuses to grant accreditation in a field of health care to any
person
because the person is, or is believed to be, unwilling to take part in or
counsel for any medical procedure that offends a tenet of the person's
religion or the belief of the person that human life is inviolable.
(3) Every one is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction who,
being an officer of a professional association of health care practitioners,
or the agent of any such officer,
a) refuses to admit a person to membership in the professional
association,
b) refuses to advance or promote the standing of a person as member of
the professional association,
c) excludes a person from, or threatens to exclude a person from, the
professional association,
because the person is, or is believed to be unwilling to take part in or
counsel for any medical procedure, that offends a tenet of the person's
religion or the belief of the person that human life is inviolable.
(4) The following definitions apply in this section.
"educator" includes a university or college,
"health care practitioner" means any person who may lawfully provide
to others
a) as a physician, surgeon, dentist, nurse or other skilled health
care provider, or
b) as a person engaged in the provision of medical, dental, hospital,
clinical, nursing or other health care services under the direction of a
skilled health care provider or a clinic, hospital, accrediting body or
government ministry, or
c) as a teacher, professor, instructor or other person providing
teaching services in any field of health care.
"human life" means human life at any stage beginning at conception
"professional association" means any professional accreditation body,
other than a university or college, and includes any association of health
care practitioners and any trade union of health care practitioners;
"tenet" means a religious doctrine that human life is inviolable or
an edict of a religion that requires that human life not be deliberately
ended or that human life not be subjected to any increased risk of death
when the subjection to increased risk is avoidable.
(5) No proceedings shall be commenced under this section without the consent
of the Attorney General.
2. This Act comes into force 90 days after the day it is assented to.