Comment: B.C. embeds mental health stigma and discrimination in legal regulation

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Bill 21 makes unwarranted assumptions, creates false and stigmatizing connections between lawyers experiencing health conditions and their competency.

There are innumerable reasons to oppose the B.C. government’s proposed Legal Professions Act , particularly the deleterious effects it will have on the independence of the legal profession.

Section 68 initially defines “incompetently” with a focus on conduct that fails to meet standards. However, it goes on to define competence with specific reference to “health conditions.” Making and emphasizing a connection between competency and health conditions, as the government has done, is unwarranted and will inflict great harm both on individuals, and systemically.

Included in those efforts, the law society specifically excised consideration of health conditions from its admission processes and instead focused on the conduct of applicants. Conduct is an appropriate and sufficient trigger for regulatory attention, which avoids the stigma, discrimination and unintended consequences of inquiring into professionals’ health conditions.

The draft legislation makes no provision for the confidentiality or anonymization of such orders, remaining silent on the privacy of medical matters. There is a wealth of evidence that coerced medical care is less likely to be effective. But, even more than that, it can do active harm both to individuals and to the legal professions at large. Not everyone is ready for a particular type of care, or care at a particular time — coerced care is patronizing, de-humanizing, and demotivating, and can imperil the success of subsequent voluntary supports.

 

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