By Charlene Tebbutt

Nurse fined for criticizing grandfather’s healthcare loses appeal

Apr 12, 2018 | 12:00 PM

A Prince Albert nurse fined for criticizing her grandfather’s palliative care online has lost her appeal of a $26,000 fine ordered by her professional regulatory board.

In a written decision Wednesday, Saskatoon Queen’s Bench Justice J. Currie said Carolyn Strom violated professional conduct rules relating to her profession as a registered nurse. Even though Strom was away from work on maternity leave at the time she wrote the online posts, Currie upheld an earlier decision from the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses’ Association (SRNA) that found Strom guilty of professional misconduct.

In his decision, Currie said his role was not to determine whether the decision from the disciplinary committee was correct, but rather whether it “falls within the realm of reasonable decisions in the circumstances.”

In that respect, Currie agreed with the discipline committee.

“The decision to be made here – whether Ms. Strom’s off-duty conduct is subject to discipline – is the kind of decision that the legislature had in mind when it empowered the association under the Act,” he wrote. “The decision is made by people who have knowledge and expertise in the area. When such a decision is made by such people, registered nurses are being governed through the lens of that knowledge and expertise.”

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Strom’s case dates back to February 2015, when Strom posted comments on her Facebook page criticizing the care of her grandfather at a care home in Macklin, Saskatchewan. In the post, Strom said some of the care was “less than desirable,” and urged anyone with concerns about care at the facility to report anything they did not like saying “that’s the only way to get some things to change.” Below the comments was a link to an article criticizing end of life care in Canada. 

Currie’s written decision noted Strom then decided to make her comments known to the province’s minister of health and the leader of the opposition and changed her Facebook privacy settings so it could be shared with people other than her Facebook friends. Strom told the disciplinary committee that she had made the change by accident, although the committee disagreed.

In handing down its ruling, the SRNA disciplinary committee found that restricting Strom’s comments was justified in this case, and did not infringe on her Charter rights and freedoms. She was fined $1,000 and ordered to pay $25,000 in costs.

Strom appealed in the ruling, and the fines, from the disciplinary committee to Queen’s Bench, and said the decision infringed on her right to freedom of expression. Strom argued the rules applying to registered nurses only apply when they are working.

“The focus of the appeal is whether the discipline committee made the kind of mistake that requires the court to interfere with the committee’s decisions,” Currie wrote in his judgment.

“By law, the committee had a great deal of leeway in coming to its decisions … I have concluded that the committee’s decisions fall within the leeway that the law allows the committee, and so the decisions stand. The appeal is dismissed.”

The Saskatchewan Union of Nurses acted as an intervenor in the case, and said Wednesday it is disappointed the SRNA ruling was upheld. SUN President Tracy Zambory said Wednesday’s decision will affect nurses and other professionals, who will think twice before expressing their personal opinions.

“We don’t believe that this is going to bode well for any profession in Canada. This is a slippery slope,” Zambory said. “It’s an erosion of our individual rights as Canadians and professionals … there is no way that a professional association has any right to step into my personal expression.”

An online fundraiser for Strom raised more than $27,000 last year to help cover the costs associated with the case. 

Strom declined to comment beyond saying she is considering all options.

Charlene.tebbutt@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @CharleneTebbutt