When “Care” Becomes Control: The Terrifying Reality of Forced Treatment in BC
By Tina Winterlik (Zipolita) —
Every day I read something that makes me question what kind of society we’re becoming — but this one hit like a punch to the gut.
Did you know that in British Columbia, right now, today, the government can detain you as an involuntary patient, declare you “deemed” to have consented, and subject you to forced psychiatric treatment — including physical restraints, isolation, heavy drugs, and even electroconvulsive therapy — without you or your family having any say at all?
It sounds like something from a dark chapter in history we thought we had left behind. But it’s happening here, now, and quietly.
A Case That Should Have Shocked the Province
A retired nurse from Victoria was subjected to roughly 300 rounds of electroconvulsive therapy and forced medications while detained as an involuntary patient. Her trauma became part of a long-running BC Supreme Court challenge against the province’s “deemed consent” laws.
What “deemed consent” means:
If a doctor detains you under the Mental Health Act, the law automatically assumes you agree to anything they decide to do to you. Even if you say no. Even if you’re capable of making your own decisions. Even if your family begs them to stop.
What Makes It Even More Disturbing
What makes this so bizarre — so dystopian — is that BC is also the province where doctors and social workers can declare that parents have “no right” to make medical decisions for their own children, while at the same time saying those same children are “mature enough” to make life-altering mental health decisions alone.
So adults can lose their rights. Parents can lose their rights. Children are handed responsibilities they cannot possibly understand.
And if the system fails them, as it so often does — if they spiral, or struggle, or become overwhelmed — the same system can then scoop them up and say: “Now you meet criteria for involuntary care.”
How Is This Still Happening in 2025?
- BC has the most extreme forced-treatment laws in Canada.
- We are the only province where involuntary patients automatically “consent” to whatever treatment doctors choose.
- Oversight is weak and appeal rights are often symbolic.
- The public largely doesn’t know this is legal — the harms are hidden inside medical and legal systems that silence victims.
For decades, no one challenged it — because the people harmed the most are the least able to fight back. Trauma, stigma, poverty, disability, homelessness… these are not the people politicians listen to.
But now a major constitutional challenge has reached the BC Supreme Court, and the judge is deliberating right now. The province appears to be moving to expand forced treatment — a move some see as trying to shore up the law before a possible court decision.
This Isn’t Compassion. It’s Control.
I want to be clear: mental health support is essential. People in crisis deserve safety, stability, and compassionate care.
But forced treatment without rights? Without consent? Without due process? That’s not care. That’s not safety. That’s not health. That’s paternalism at its ugliest.
“Forced treatment will further erode trust and disengage people from care.” — DTES healthcare worker Blake Edwards
Because how do you build trust when people fear they can be taken, restrained, medicated, or shocked — legally — against their will?
We Can’t Ignore This Anymore
This isn’t a fringe issue. It’s a human rights crisis hiding in plain sight.
If this can happen to a trained nurse, imagine what happens to people who have no power, no lawyer, no family advocate, no visibility.
No one should lose their bodily autonomy because a system is too overloaded, underfunded, and outdated to provide real care.
It’s time for British Columbia to rethink the balance between safety and human rights — because right now, that balance is shattered.
Read more about the case and the legal challenge here: tinyurl.com/y6s33au6
No comments:
Post a Comment