Professor Jocelyn Downie:

Yes, the numbers have increased year over year, which is to be expected when going from something being prohibited to being permitted. It will obviously go up from zero and then continue to increase as access increases and people understand that this is an available intervention for them.

On the second point on violations in Quebec, it is important for people to understand something here in terms of the law in Quebec as contrasted with the law in the rest of Canada. Quebec has its own legislation in addition to the criminal code. Its eligibility criteria are narrower than the criminal code. What we sometimes see in cases that relate to a potential breach of the eligibility criteria as opposed to, for instance, somebody’s insurance card expiring, which is the kind of thing included in the numbers, is that what is going on is the commission is responsible for ensuring compliance with the Quebec legislation, so if it sees something that is not consistent with the Quebec legislation, it has to send it over to the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Then the College of Physicians and Surgeons looks to see whether there is compliance with the federal law as well as with the Quebec law.

In Quebec, for instance, the eligibility does not include disability, but the federal criminal law includes disability. There is not, therefore, a breach of the federal criminal code even though something is reported over to the college. What Dr. Michel Bureau is referring to are not matters that are in breach of the criminal code, unless they are minor ones, such as expired card. There has not been any discipline against clinicians in Quebec because the college has investigated the cases that come over from the commission and has determined that they do not warrant discipline.