Article content continued

Both the SRNA and Justice Currie acknowledged that the disciplinary decision abridges the freedom of expression enshrined in the Charter. There are circumstances when Charter rights can be overridden, but this is surely not one of them. Justice Currie noted that the discipline committee didn’t elaborate on why Strom’s Charter right to freedom of expression deserved to be set aside.

If the expression for which Strom was disciplined is the new standard for misconduct, the consequence will be a severe constraint on the latitude of professionals to criticize anything that occurs in a system in which error and serious harm are everyday occurrences

A moderate critique of the care of a family member is hardly akin to falsely yelling fire in a crowded theatre, directing hate speech against an identifiable group or viciously impugning the character or conduct of a fellow health-care worker. Where speech is not so extreme, Supreme Court doctrine imposes a very heavy burden on those who would justify curbing it. If the expression for which Strom was disciplined is the new standard for misconduct, the consequence will be a severe constraint on the latitude of professionals to criticize anything that occurs in a system in which error and serious harm are everyday occurrences.

Strom will appeal once more, but there is no assurance it will be decided differently. We hope the higher court will determine that the discipline committee’s frontal assault on her moderate exercise in freedom of expression deserves not deference, but rebuke.

If an appeal court does not overrule this decision, the issue falls to the legislature. When governments gave professions self-regulatory powers, we doubt they envisioned those powers would be used to muzzle the sort of expression at the heart of this case. Thankfully, most professions don’t. Through one avenue or another, the Strom decision cannot stand if the public interest is to be served.

• Steven Lewis is a health policy consultant in Saskatoon and adjunct professor of health policy at Simon Fraser University. Ken Norman is emeritus professor of law at the University of Saskatchewan and former chair of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission.