Disentitled To Coverage

Out of the goodness of our humanitarian hearts are we compelled to pay for the medical costs of an illegal immigrant's poor health? Canada's vaunted public health system has an international reputation. People have a habit of converging on the country to take advantage of the free medical-hospital treatment they believe they can be entitled to.

Visit the country and take advantage of free treatment.

Medical tourism is not a free advantage in other countries; one travels to other countries of the world, paying the freight. But people come to Canada specifically for the purpose of receiving medical care paid for by government. Paid for by the government certainly, but government receives funding for this and all other purposes by taxation.

Those wishing to emigrate to Canada advise themselves of the many benefits that can accrue to them. With landed immigrant status there are all manner of free (from the taxpayer) bonuses available, from housing assistance to welfare payments, language lessons, educational opportunities and free medical and hospitalization.

Those who arrive in Canada on a visa and allow it to expire are here illegally. They are expected to leave the country, but many do not. And they are able to exact from the country many free advantages. One such casual beneficiary is a woman from Grenada who arrived in 1999 as a visitor whose permit expired several months later.

Nell Toussaint applied for a temporary residence permit which would have the effect of making her eligible for the Ontario Health Insurance Plan. She overlooked paying the application fee, so her application wasn't processed. She has received free medical care for kidney problems she has developed. But to receive additional care she must qualify for it.

She remains in Canada without legal status. She has applied to Citizenship and Immigration Canada for medical coverage under a program offering emergency medical care for indigent people living legally within Canada. She lives here illegally and doesn't qualify. Refugee support groups interceded on her behalf to appeal to the courts.

To have her application fees waived, and to enable her access to health coverage under the Charter of Rights. The Federal Court of Appeal has not agreed with the provision of health care or medical treatment for her.

"The program could not have been intended to pay the medical expenses of those who arrive as visitors but remain illegally in Canada and who, after the better part of a decade of living illegally in Canada, suddenly choose to try to regularize their immigration status", read the unanimous decision.

It seems sensible enough to decline to treat illegal residents of Canada as though they had the right to receive benefits available to citizens of the country through tax-paid social institutions.

"This case is extremely important because it limits the potential claims that other classes of people in Canada may make for medical coverage, such as visitors or those without any status and under the radar, of which the number is currently unknown, but estimated in the hundreds of thousands." Sergio Karas, immigration lawyer.

Bearing in mind, at the same time, that the universal health-care system within the country is already strained, with long wait times and costs burdening provincial budgets.

"The Canadian Civil Liberties Association is disappointed that the Federal Court of Appeal did not recognize that a denial of health care to Ms. Toussaint in these life threatening circumstances violates her right to life and to equality." Iris Fischer, Canadian Civil Liberties Association lawyer.

"The appellant by her own conduct ... has endangered her life and health. The appellant entered Canada as a visitor. She remained in Canada for many years, illegally. Had she acted legally and obtained legal immigration status in Canada, she would have been entitled to coverage." David W. Stratas, Federal Court of Appeal.