While aspects of Ms. Spears’ experience are unique to her celebrity and career, much of her recent testimony spoke to the all-too-common experiences of adults who are impacted by these laws. Basic dignities we take for granted — your privacy, choices in how you spend your own money, the decisions about what happens to your body — can be taken away and placed in the hands of those authorized to make your decisions for you. Ms.
These kinds of rights deprivations happen to adults in B.C. regularly. Ms. Spears spoke to the indignity of being compelled to pay with her own money for the legal proceedings and rounds of assessment and reassessments that she has not wanted. In B.C., the costs of legal proceedings under the Patients Property Act to declare an adult incapable is generally an expense ordered to be paid from the adult’s own money — whether they wanted the proceeding or not. Ms.
Of course there are times when we need help with decision-making because of our health, an injury, or a disability. But the problem is that too many of our laws have outdated responses that rely on prejudicial stereotypes — treating mental health issues as moral failings, or assuming everyone with a mental disability is a wholly “incapable person.” The B.C. Law Institute observed that “B.C.
Laura Johnston is the legal director of Health Justice, an adjunct professor, and a lawyer who has worked with many adults impacted by B.C.’s mental health and guardianship laws.