Patients of an Ontario physician filed a legal challenge against the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO), alleging an unlawful investigation against their family doctor and an unconstitutional demand for their medical records in Toronto. .The patients object to the release of their personal information because the investigation and demand for records is based on a third-party non-patient complaining about a mask exemption written by the doctor for two child patients..Court documents filed by the patients’ lawyer, Rocco Galati, claim both the CPSO investigation and the demand for medical records is without lawful authority, and an abuse of power..An application for judicial review of the CPSO orders was filed in Ontario Divisional Court in October 2022. The court file states CPSO does not have the legal justification, or the “reasonable and probable grounds” required to even begin an investigation of this nature. If there is no valid investigation, then the demand for records is also unlawful and violates their Charter right to privacy against unlawful seizure..The CPSO claims the doctor’s mask exemption to two young girls from the COVID-19 mask mandate is misconduct or incompetence. The doctor must hand over medical records of all her patients now or face discipline..According to Galati, the complaint about the girls was not made by a patient, or even another doctor, but by a “third-party interloper.” The girls’ parents and more than 100 of the doctor’s patients object to the release of their private, sensitive, and personal information on this flimsy basis as an unlawful search and seizure. .In December 2022, the CPSO filed a motion to block the patients from going to court. In its materials, the CPSO claims neither the public, nor a doctor’s patients, can legally challenge how it uses its powers, something Galati says would make the CPSO unaccountable. .“The CPSO shockingly claims that patients should not have any say about their own medical records, or how the CPSO wants to use that information, including their names and personal details that have nothing to do with the doctor’s practice. It claims the doctor must succumb to the ‘unfettered’ power of the CPSO to all information about her patients or lose her licence,” Galati explains..“This is an unprecedented attack on the sanctity and privacy of the doctor-patient relationship and the right to privacy of personal and health information in Canada. Medical regulatory overreach must be subject to judicial scrutiny by the courts. The rule of law requires it.”.The patients filed their objection in January 2023 and the case is scheduled to be heard on March 30, 2023 at 10 a.m. at 130 Queen St. West, Toronto’s Osgoode Hall. The website Privacyisyourright.ca has been set up to publicize the case. The court filing was posted there with the name of the doctor redacted..A patient named in case, Leslie Peel, says, “This case transcends individual decisions or beliefs about the pandemic, masking, lockdowns, or vaccinations that have divided society. It is a case about the privacy of our health and personal information. Our challenge affects all Canadians. I think that most people would be shocked to realize that, right now, their medical records are not safe with their doctor.”.An unnamed patient in the release asks, “Who is regulating the regulator if the courts do not allow us to?”.Dr. Brian Day, former head of the Canadian Medical Association, says BC laws also force doctors to share confidential patient files with government inspectors..“Patients are not only denied the right to block government access, but neither their consent nor even notification are required,” Day told the Western Standard in an interview last month..“I personally witnessed a situation in which a newly elected government’s agents demanded access to the personal medical files, including mental health assessments, of a recently defeated provincial cabinet minister of the outgoing government.”
