Canadians who experience medical harm at the hands of the health-care system they pay for are often chagrined to learn that, if they pursue their legal remedies in court, they are also footing the bill to defend the very physicians they claim have harmed them. Now it seems that Canadian taxpayers have been victimized by this system, too. In a landmark decision, a New Brunswick court found last June that the publicly subsidized Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA) primarily exists to defend doctors against lawsuits and misconduct complaints. In other words, it does not provide malpractice insurance for doctors. As Madam Justice Tracey DeWare forcefully voiced: "Since its inception in 1901... at all times the CMPA has been an association of physicians, run by physicians, and for the benefit of physicians. At no time have the objectives or scope of the CMPA included any notion of protection of the public...."

(Photo: Shapecharge via Getty Images) For decades, provincial governments have been funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into the CMPA under the guise that they were protecting Canadians by helping to pay for physicians' liability insurance. Since 1987, the bill paid by Ontario taxpayers to the CMPA has soared by 3,200 per cent. Not surprisingly, that fund now has a war chest of more than $3 billion. It is that kind of clout that allows the CMPA to pursue a "scorched earth" policy against victims of medical errors, where, according to some critics, it would prefer to spend five times the amount of a claim to defend a case rather than settle. Over the years, patients and families from across Canada have written to me and shared their nightmares involving the CMPA. Many describe how they were scorched by this organization's policy. But this is only one way in which Canadians who have been injured by avoidable medical errors are subjected to more harm when they pursue their remedies in court. In Canada, even on those rare occasions when a patient wins, she can lose. That's what happened to Allison Kooijman, whose horrific battle with cancer also saw her become a casualty of Canada's legal system. Even on those rare occasions when a patient wins, she can lose. Allison contacted me about her story through the free Outreach Clinic of The Center for Patient Protection, the patient and family advocacy I founded to help fight medical errors and heal the emotional harm they inflict. After a typically grueling and long legal process, she managed to establish to the satisfaction of a British Columbia court that some of the physicians involved in her diagnosis failed to meet the standard of care required of their profession. That's a huge obstacle and one which few patients are able to overcome, especially going up against the CMPA's 800-pound legal gorilla. But it was not enough. The court ruled that Allison did not satisfy other legal requirements related to the harm set out in her claim and dismissed her case. In a recent email interview, Allison (who has consented to the release of her story) described how the litigation process unleashed further waves of emotional harm which began with the initial medical disaster. "I felt like I was on a deserted island trying to navigate through it all," she told me. Feelings of abandonment and isolation are common with many patients and families who have sought legal redress, based on the experiences they have shared with me over the past several years. After she learned of the heart-breaking results of her court case, Allison fell into a deep depression, leaving her in a troubling state of personal risk. "I was very suicidal and sought psychiatric help. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't do anything but ruminate on how wronged I felt," she recalled.