Human rights application alleging racial discrimination in medical testing and reprisal dismissed for lack of evidence.
The applicant, an Aboriginal woman suffering from chronic pain, alleged discrimination in services on the basis of race, colour, ancestry, and disability, as well as reprisal.
She claimed her physician targeted Aboriginal patients for urinalysis and improperly reduced her pain medication, and subsequently dismissed her from his practice after she filed the human rights application.
The Tribunal found that the physician had changed his narcotics prescribing and testing practices for all patients following a directive from the Non-Insured Health Benefits Program, and that the applicant's personal characteristics were not a factor in his clinical decisions.
The Tribunal also found that the termination of the physician-patient relationship did not constitute reprisal, as it was based on the physician's professional obligation to avoid a conflict of interest once the relationship became adversarial.
The application was dismissed.
Morrison-George v. Norman Krupa Medicine Professional Corporation, 2015 HRTO 729
