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The Quebec government has tabled a piece of legislation that would make it easier to forcibly detain people whose mental health could make them a danger to themselves or others.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If adopted, the bill, which was tabled on Tuesday, would change the criteria required to confine a person experiencing a mental health crisis.<\/p>\n
Currently, Quebec law stipulates that people can be involuntarily confined if they present a \u201cgrave and immediate\u201d danger to themselves or others.<\/p>\n
The new bill, if passed, would broaden that criteria. Doctors and other health-care professionals, including nurse practitioners, would be able to confine any person who is in a \u201csituation where there is a danger\u201d to themselves or others.<\/p>\n
Previously, only physicians were explicitly given the power to confine people and order psychiatric assessments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Quebec Health Minister Sonia B\u00e9langer said at a news conference that the new law \u201cstrikes a balance between the protection of these people and others, and the respect of fundamental rights.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first change we\u2019re making,\u201d Belanger said, \u201cis giving intervenors the possibility to act earlier, before the situation becomes irreparable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The changes to the law come in the wake of two high-profile killings \u2014 the stabbing death of Maureen Breau, a police officer killed in 2023, and the death of Chong Woo Kim, a d\u00e9panneur owner killed this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In both cases, concerns had been raised about the alleged killers in the weeks and months prior to the killings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘When the danger is so severe, it\u2019s already too late’<\/p>\n
In a statement, the union that represents Quebec provincial police officers lauded the new bill. Dominic Roberge, the president of the union, known as the APPQ, said the Quebec law will be similar to legislation in Ontario known as Brian\u2019s law.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ontario model, Brian\u2019s law, shows that it is possible to relax the criteria to allow for faster and more effective intervention within a framework that works in Canada,\u201d he said, adding reform of Quebec’s law “has been long overdue.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Amal Abdel-Baki, a psychiatrist and clinical researcher who studies how to improve care in psychiatry, said the vast majority of people with mental health disorders pose no danger to themselves or others.<\/p>\n
But the problem, she said, is when they don\u2019t get access to treatment on time \u2014 then, they can be at risk of harming themselves or others.<\/p>\n
She said the new bill is a welcome tool, because the law as it is currently written only allows confinement in extreme cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the danger is so severe, it\u2019s already too late,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would like this law to be a law that gives care to people \u2026 and also we need to have the resources to offer that care to them quickly so we can avoid having to restrain people’s freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Concerns of increased distrust<\/p>\n
For one advocacy group, this bill’s effort to \u201cmodernize\u201d is actually a step back in time. Fran\u00e7ois Winter is a spokesperson for AGIDD-SMQ, which helps people with mental illness navigate legal and social issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a social crisis now,\u201d said Winter, citing the struggle to access mental health care and the growing number of people experiencing homelessness. \u201cWe\u2019re disappointed, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are concerns that patients will distrust mental health providers for fear they will be involuntarily confined, he said. He said already people who have been hospitalized have bad experiences in confinement that they don\u2019t want to relive. <\/p>\n
Knowing psychiatrists have increased powers to hospitalize them, patients\u2019 distrust will only increase, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the end, if you create a social fracture, you will not solve a problem,\u201d Winter said. \u201cYou will create more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394],"class_list":["post-559141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}