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Medicine & State Security
Year Published: 1984Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX2973 Abstract: Medicine & STATE SECURITY is a brief submitted to the Standing Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs on Bill C-9, an Act to establish the Canadian Seecurity Intelligence Service (CSIS). THe brief was written by a general practitioner in Toronto who expressed concern about the conequences of Bill C-9 on the practice of medicine. Follwing are some of the key points of the brief. "Canandian physicians will be directly affected by the proposed Act to establish a Canadian Securuty Intelligence Service. "The activities of physicians who lawfully advocate on behalf of their refugee patients and who lawfully protest against regimes that torture their refugee patients could easlily be perceived as being 'directed toward' goals consistent with the Act's interpretation of a threat to Canadian security. Their work is frequently used by and in support of groups whose purpose is to achieve a political objective in a foreign state. These physicians would have to desist from their humanitarian work for fear of an all-powreful Security Service. The definiton of 'threats to the security of Canada should be amended so that physicians working in Canada and foreign human rights organizations will not be subject to security investigation... "Under section 2 of the Act, physicians whose documentation of the cases of torture victiomes residing in Canda is used by groups opposing foreign governments will be deemed as security threats... "Access to medical records by Service empolyees vitiates the trust and confindentilaity essential to patient-physician relationships. THe foundation of good medical practice-taking a full history from the patient-will be undermined by the patient's and physician's knowledge that medical records might be subject to examination by Service employees and the institutions described in sections 13 and 14. Such wide distribution of the sensitive information contained in medical records stands in contradiction to our democratic principles.... "Sections 16 and 21-28 authorize the Service to obtain medical records from physicians whose patients are not included in the protected groups under Section 16, Section 24(b) authorized physicians to release medical records to Service employees who the physician reasonably believes are acting in accordance with a warrant.... "Section 16(2) should be amended so that medical records on the unprotected groups are exempt from security investigations. Section 21(2)(c) should exclude medical records from the records legally obtainable under sections 21-28.... "Section 19(2) which authorizes the Service to disclose information indluding that contained in medical records will make physicians agents of the fovernment and police. "BillC-9 in its present form threatens the Canadian democracy." Subject Headings |