Supreme Court of Canada, “A.C. v. Manitoba (Director of Child and Family Services), 2009 SCC 30, [2009] 2 S.C.R. 181”

Supreme Court of Canada, “A.C. v. Manitoba (Director of Child and Family Services), 2009 SCC 30, [2009] 2 S.C.R. 181”

26 June 2009 · pp.[2009] 2 S.C.R. 181 at 221-222 · paras. 62-63 (and para. 128 per McLachlin CJ) · Abella J · Supreme Court of Canada

“In Re L.D.K. (1985), 48 R.F.L. (2d) 164 (Ont. Prov. Ct. (Fam. Div.)), for example, the patient was a 12-year-old girl suffering from acute myeloid leukaemia. … In Re A.Y. (1993), 111 Nfld. & P.E.I.R. 91 (Nfld. S.C.), the court was faced with an application from the Director of Child Welfare to impose treatment on a 15-year-old Jehovah’s Witness who had cancer.”

The Supreme Court of Canada’s own summary of the two Canadian decisions described in the 22 May 1994 Awake!. Of Re L.D.K. the Court records that two doctors put the odds of a favourable outcome at around 30 per cent, that Main Prov. Ct. J. found ‘the emotional trauma [the child] would experience’ in forced treatment would outweigh the anticipated benefits (p. 169), and that he concluded ‘[T]his child’s life is equally in danger whichever path is taken’ (p. 170). Of Re A.Y. it records that Wells J noted the treatment was less than 40 per cent likely to be effective, was not ‘essential’, and was contrary to the mature adolescent’s wishes, so that he was not a child in need of protection. At para. 128 the Chief Justice describes the same boy as ‘a 15-year-old boy suffering from terminal cancer’.

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