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Supreme court dismisses Delta Hospice Society appeal
over membership dispute
Community group wins another round in fight against board of directors
who banned medically assisted dying
Karin Larsen · CBC News ·
Posted: Apr 09, 2021 5:36 PM PT
The Harold and Veronica Savage Centre for Supportive Care is pictured in Delta, B.C. The Delta Hospice Society,
which used to operate the facility, was evicted from the building and the Irene Thomas Hospice in March, 2021.
(Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)
The Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed an appeal by the Delta Hospice Society (DHS) in a fight over medically assisted death, society memberships and attempts by a new board of directors to bring in an expressly Christian constitution.
DHS launched the appeal after the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld a B.C. Supreme Court decision in favour of community advocates, backed by the group Take Back Delta Hospice.
Community advocate Chris Pettypiece, who speaks on behalf of Take Back Delta Hospice, said it was gratifying to see the DHS board held accountable for "improper conduct."
"What an ordeal it has been to have to fight all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada so that local residents who wish to become members of the [Delta Hospice] Society are treated fairly," said Pettypiece.
In a statement, the Delta Hospice Society said: "The court does not give reasons for refusing leave to appeal so we'll let others speculate if they want to play that game. No one will ever know if the speculation is correct or wildly wrong."
It goes on to say, "Anyone who criticizes our exercise of legal due process does a disservice to Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and to the foundations of the rule of law on which this country was created. They know who they are."
Allegations of vote-stacking
Pettypiece, Sharron Farrish and Jim Levin brought the original petition alleging that the DHS board had contravened the B.C. Societies Act and stacked the voter list by denying applications of community members who were seen as not supporting its new agenda.
The Delta Hospice Society argued that as a private society, it had the right to choose who could join and who couldn't.
In the decision, the B.C. Supreme Court sided with the petitioners, cancelling an extraordinary general meeting and ordering the board accept over 300 would-be members who had been rejected.
How it all started
The legal wrangling began soon after the new board came to power and banned medical assistance in dying (MAiD) at the 10-bed Irene Thomas Hospice in Ladner.
The board then proposed a number of amendments to the society's constitution to turn it into a faith-based organization. It then called an extraordinary general meeting to vote on the changes.
In B.C., faith-based palliative care hospices are exempt from a requirement to offer MAiD. MAiD has been legal in Canada since 2016.
The conflict intensified when Health Minister Adrian Dix announced the province was withdrawing $1.5 million in annual public funding to the society effective Feb. 25, 2021 because of its refusal to offer MAiD.
BC's provincial government is far-left, as are its higher courts and Canada's Supreme Court.
Last month the Delta Hospice Society was evicted from the Irene Thomas Hospice and the Harold and Veronica Savage Centre for Supportive Care, but only after a number of dying residents of the hospice were forced to move and many long-time staff terminated.
Fraser Health (The Provincial Government) has taken over the facilities and said they will re-open April 15.
Do you think they can run them for $1.5m?
London Pastor Arrested for Sermon on Marriage: 'I Was Only Saying What the Bible Says'
Michael Foust | ChristianHeadlines.com Contributor |
Friday, April 30, 2021
Last week, a pastor was arrested in London after he delivered a public sermon on the biblical definition of marriage out of Genesis 1.
A video shows him standing on top of a step stool before being handcuffed and led away by police as a crowd watched. One person can be heard gasping in shock.
"For a man preaching about Christianity!" a woman says in the video, critical of police action.
He was later released.
"I wasn't making any homophobic comments. I was just defining marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman," he said, according to The Daily Mail. "I was only saying what the Bible says – I wasn't wanting to hurt anyone or cause offense. I was doing what my job description says, which is to preach the gospel in open air as well as in a church building.
"When the police approached me, I explained that I was exercising my religious liberty and my conscience. I was forcibly pulled down from the steps and suffered some injury to my wrist and to my elbow. I do believe I was treated shamefully. It should never have happened."
Christian Concern, a UK-based organization that defends people of faith, criticized the arrest. Police had received three complaints about Sherwood, Christian Concern said.
The organization called it a "brutal arrest."
"There is an idea that if people are offended, you should arrest someone, but in this country, we also have freedom of speech," Andrea Williams of Christian Concern told The Daily Mail.
Sherwood was arrested after preaching "on the final verses in Genesis 1, where it says that God created mankind in his own image," Christian Concern reported.
Peter Simpson, the pastor of Penn Free Methodist Church in Buckinghamshire and a friend of Sherwood, also defended the minister.
"Everything he said was Bible-based," Simpson said, according to The Daily Mail. "He was not saying anything abusive; he is a Christian minister. There did not seem to be any recognition from the police that Christian ministers and such views exist. If there was a Pride parade in Uxbridge, the police would support it even if Christians were offended. You don't have to be an evangelical Christian to be shocked by this. Anyone who cares about liberty should be concerned about what happened in Uxbridge."
Uxbridge, UK
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