The battle for control of the Delta Hospice Society is going to drag on for a while.
A hearing was held at the B.C. Court of Appeal Monday, but was adjourned to allow B.C.’s attorney general enough time to prepare a position on a charter of rights argument by the current board.
The board filed the appeal to overturn an earlier petition to the B.C. Supreme Court which successfully halted a planned meeting by the board to have the society’s constitution amended to be Christian-based.
The petition by Chris Pettypiece, Sharon Farrish and former board president Jim Levin followed the current DHS leadership rejecting many society membership applications by Delta residents opposed to the board’s actions.
Accused of stacking the membership to impose their religious viewpoint, including signing up many non-Deltans, the current board is alleged to have breached the Societies Act by blocking people from joining. The board and its president Angelina Ireland are opposed to providing the legal procedure medical assistance in dying (MAiD) at the Irene Thomas Hospice in Ladner.
The current board reversed a decision by the previous board to allow MAiD.
In a news release following Monday’s session, Pettypiece said he, Levin and Farrish are staying the course, adding, “We believe Delta Hospice and its services should be available to all that require hospice care, regardless of their end-of-life choices. We are committed to ensuring a membership that reflects the wishes of the entire community and we’ll use this delay to strengthen our representation of them as we head into the fall and the BC Court’s decision.”
Pettypiece also said, “The most frequent question our group is asked is about when applicants can expect to have their memberships approved. The Courts will give direction to the Society as to when and how they must add the applicants so I urge everyone to apply now as the Courts will set that deadline at their discretion.”
The earlier petition against the DHS board stated, “The board of the Society has manipulated the membership list to stack the deck, by holding back up to six months, and ultimately rejecting without basis, hundreds of membership applications by community members concerned by the direction of the Society, all the while selectively accepting members supportive of their philosophy and direction. Once this manipulation was complete, the Society has now given minimum notice of an extraordinary meeting. It is intended to change what has always been an open, secular community organization into a closed, religious organizations.”
They are part of a new group, Take Back Delta Hospice, which says it is composed of DHS members, supporters and advocates who believe the society should be accountable to its members and the community it serves. (https://takebackdeltahospice.ca/)
In a news release, Ireland stated, “We feel like the Court heard us today. We welcome the chance to argue on constitutional grounds why it’s wrong for the courts to force us to let a hostile group take over the Society, change its foundational purposes, and seize the assets built up for over 30 years.”
The news release also notes lawyers for the DHS argued that B.C. Supreme Court’s Madame Justice Sheila Fitzpatrick erred in fact and law when she ordered on June 12th that the society must accept 310 applicants who had been denied membership.
The board contends she mistakenly treated the membership process as if the DHS was a public institution rather than a private association.
Even if the B.C.’s Societies Act permits such an order, it then violates charter rights of free association and freedom of conscience, the news release noted, adding appeal court justices agreed to hear both aspects of the DHS legal claim.
Ireland stressed the membership applications rejected were part of an attempted takeover of the society through “a public and coordinated campaign to infiltrate the Delta Hospice Society and overwhelm the existing membership with those who do not share our constitution. Their whole purpose was to reverse our policy on euthanasia.”
DHS president Angelina Ireland said, “What we’re facing are hard-core ideologues who won’t stop until all care providers are forced to provide euthanasia whether hospices like ours want it or not, whether those at the end of life want it present or not. It is our hope that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms will protect and defend us as this should never be allowed to happen in Canada.”
Ireland emphasized that the implications of allowing Justice Fitzpatrick’s judgement to stand go well beyond the MAiD issue, going to the heart of private associations in Canada remaining free to choose members who support their organizational values, goals and regulations.
Ireland also said such “hostile tactics” are particularly perilous when it comes to MAiD because they would “let advocates of euthanasia and assisted suicide embed the propaganda that Canadians have a right to MAiD wherever and whenever they want.”
By next February the charter argument and battle for control of the society could be a moot point, though.
Fraser Health has mandated that non-faith based hospices offer MAiD to those who ask for it, putting Delta Hospice on a collision course with the health authority and the province, which announced earlier this year the society would lose its funding by Feb. 25, 2021.
Health Minister Adrian Dix said no matter who controls the society by then, it would also not be permitted to provide hospice palliative care by that date.
He also suggested the hospice society’s $1 annual lease with Fraser Health stipulates a publicly-funded facility must operate at the site, so the current buildings don’t have to be shuttered and may instead be turned over to public management.
