A B.C. Supreme Court judge threw out a lawsuit filed against the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) and Northern Health Authority (NHA) because it was deemed too long, unclear and unlikely to succeed.
In a Tuesday, Jan. 14 written ruling, Justice Kenneth Ball agreed with an application by the two health authorities to strike out and dismiss the entirety of Tanya Akonwie’s statement of claim. The decision came after an Oct. 8 hearing in Prince George.
The Vanderhoof Metis woman sued for negligence, breach of privacy and intentional infliction of mental suffering.
Ball wrote that Akonwie “used an unusual format” to outline a series of events that occurred over a one-year period. The allegations related to failure of three doctors and a nurse to test and assess the plaintiff’s symptoms, including the health of her unborn baby, in December 2022. The unidentified physicians were not employed by NHA.
“The allegations in the claim that pertain to the FNHA appear to amount to a claim in negligence,” the judge wrote. “The plaintiff alleges that two FNHA employees, a nurse and an ‘officer worker’, were negligent and reckless in calling the RCMP to conduct a wellness check. The plaintiff alleges that the FNHA workers did not have the authority to do so.”
The wellness check in July 2023 was prompted by a call the plaintiff made to an FNHA nurse who became concerned Akonwie was in distress and suicidal, court heard.
Akonwie’s claim sought various damages, including under the constitutional right to life, liberty and security of person.
“The claim does not make a formal Charter (of Rights and Freedoms) challenge, nor does it disclose facts which would implicate the NHA or the FNHA in any Charter challenge,” Ball wrote.
Akonwie represented herself in the action. FNHA and NHA each had a lawyer. One lawyer acted for both the Attorney General of Canada and the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General of B.C.
The National Self-Represented Litigants Project website offers an online library of guides for self-represented litigants in civil and family matters and a national directory of professionals offering services to self-represented litigants.
It is a legacy of a 2013 study, by University of Windsor law professor Julie Macfarlane, that concluded “there is an urgent need to address the consequences of the large and growing numbers of people representing themselves in both family and civil court.”
