LEGAL CHALLENGE: Charter Challenge to Bill 7 “More Beds, Better Care Act”

Posted: March 12, 2025

(March 12, 2025)

Background on Bill 7 Charter Challenge

Cornerstone to our system of modern medicine is the principle of informed consent to which all patients have the right. This legal case is a Charter Challenge, known as a Constitutional Challenge or a Challenge under the Charter of Rights. It was brought by the Ontario Health Coalition and the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly who argued that the law– which was passed by the Ford government in the summer of 2022 and came into effect that autumn — violates the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the equality rights of elderly patients. These rights are guaranteed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in our Constitution.

Bill 7 targets the elderly, overriding rights to privacy and informed consent that all other patients enjoy, and risks the lives of those patients sent to substandard long-term care facilities far away from their spouses and loved ones. The results are often an increase in their suffering and a premature death.

The Charter Challenge to Bill 7 was argued before the the Ontario Superior Court on Monday, September 23 and Tuesday, September 24, 2024.

Bill 7, the More Beds, Better Care Act (2002), passed by the Ford government, gave new powers to hospitals and placement coordinators to override the right of elderly patients to informed consent in order to force them out of hospital into long-term care homes that they do not want to live in. The Act neither provides more beds nor better care. It enables hospitals and placement coordinators to:

share patient information with an array of long-term care corporations and others without their consent;
to apply for placement without the patient’s consent, and;
to admit them into a long-term care home without their consent.
If the patient refuses to go, the hospital is required to charge them $400 a day.

The law is used to force patients into long-term care homes that they do not want to go to for reasons that may include that the homes are substandard, cannot provide appropriate care, are unsafe, or are far away from loved ones.

Under this law, patients in Southern Ontario can be moved up to 70 km away and in the north up to 150 km away, or further if no beds are available.

For most, this is the last move of their lives and they will pass away in the long-term care home that has been forced upon them.

The Ontario Health Coalition has to raise the funds to cover the costs of this Charter Challenge. If you or someone you know can help, please donate here: https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/index.php/donate-now/