The BC Human Rights Commissioner, Kasari Govender, says she has found “systemic discrimination” in how health authorities stop vulnerable adults who run the risk of damage.
Adults who seem to be mistreated, careless or confronted with themselves have fun and cannot give their consent for attention in hospitals or care centers are sometimes detained under the Adult Tutoring Law (AGA). However, the 134 pages report They discovered that older people, disabled people and people who live do not have disproportionate detection.
He said that these arrests often lack transparency, supervision and legal authority.
“I have discovered that a significant number of vulnerable adults is being arrested under this act through an opaque process with very little supervision,” he said.
“While adults are detained for their own security, they are often denied their rights to the fair process, including knowing why they are retained against their will or what they can do about it.”
The report found that between 2018 and September 2023, the health authorities arrested 300 people under the AGA. There were a total of 340 arrests: the shortest was six days and the longest 212.
The governor said that 94 percent of people detained under the law during that period had disabilities, and 70 percent were older people.
Changes to the expected legislation following the report
The Governor makes 10 recommendations in the report for the Ministry of Attorney General of BC, the Ministry of Health and the Health authorities. They include:
- Provide the detainees written reasons for detention and not keep them for longer than the emergency.
- Ensure that each person detained has legal representation.
- Creation of an independent process for people to challenge their arrests.
- Amending the AGA to clarify the legality of detention in emergency situations.
The current legislation does not explicitly allow people to be arrested in normal circumstances, but the governor says that the health authorities have interpreted different parts of the Guardianship Law for Adults to support their practice of detaining people in an emergency that runs the risk of damage.
She says that legislative changes will take place soon, something that pointed out that she was late.
“I reviewed documents that suggest that the government recognized the importance of taking appropriate and significant measures and was aware of concerns about the continuous risk of damage to vulnerable adults,” Govender said.
“Despite this, the Government has not proposed any legislative change or has made any other significant policy change to date to protect the rights of vulnerable adults.”
While BC attorney general, Niki Sharma, said he intends to respond to all recommendations, would not say what specific actions he intends to take in the legislature as a result of the report.
“We need to ensure in the province that vulnerable people are protected, and that the legislation has not been updated in a long time,” Sharma said.
“We have been looking at it since 2019, where we need to strengthen adult protections in that legislation, and I am grateful for the work that [Govender] did.”
The arrests significantly affect people, says the report
A decision of the BC 2019 Supreme Court found that a woman who had been arrested by Fraser Health for more than 11 months under the Aga without receiving reasons for her detention or legal representation violated her rights of the Charter.
The report also shares compounds of the experiences that people arrested by the AGA and their loved ones passed, with anonymous quotes of those affected by the arrests.
A woman, whom the report calls Rose, fought to get her 10 -year -old husband of detention after he had a fall when she was not at home. Her husband, who had a history of seizures and dementia, was taken to a hospital by the police after a well -being control.
Although she was able to visit him daily, the report says he was transferred one day to a long -term attention center depending on the substitute consent of his son, and no one would say to Rose where he had gone. After looking for three months, the report says that Rose finally found the long -term attention home where they have transferred it.
“He just looked at me, I couldn’t believe it was me, he just started crying … He said: ‘I thought you would never find me,” says the report.
Erika Cedillo, director of Public Policies of Inclusion BC, says that when trying to protect people from damage, this report shows that more damage is being done, particularly vulnerable people.
She hopes to see these changes made in a way that emphasizes that information about arrests is accessible to people with disabilities and improve responsibility.
“A light really shines where there has been little attention and where matrix violations are happening,” Cedillo said.
“Every time we limit the rights of a person, there must be strong supervision so that these powers are not abused.”
