An Ontario doctor who has been embroiled in legal proceedings for years over her critical commentary on the government’s response to COVID-19 in 2020 has sought leave to appeal with the Supreme Court of Canada to have “cautions” lifted from her otherwise spotless record.
Dr. Kulvinder Kaur Gill is challenging orders by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario to place cautions on her record as a physician based on her anti-lockdown social media posts made in the summer of 2020.
Gill is a physician practicing in Milton and Brampton, Ont., specializing in clinical immunology, microbiology, virology and vaccinology. She previously worked in the National Microbiology Laboratory, Canada’s highest security level-4 biosafety lab.
“The orders were made despite Dr. Gill providing the College with ample evidence in 2020 to support her position against catastrophic lockdowns,” lawyer Lisa Bildy of Libertas Law said in a statement.
In October, a divisional court denied her leave to appeal to the Ontario Court of Appeal to allow her to challenge the cautions ordered against her by the college in 2021.
The appeal cites that Gill’s freedom of expression and conscience guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, was “barely mentioned” by the committee when it issued the orders of cautions-in-person.
“A brief comment about the Committee having ‘no interest in shutting down free speech’ was made before proceeding to do exactly that,” Bildy’s statement said.
Gill faced seven complaints in total, all revolving around just a few posts. The complaints were levied by members of the public, not by any of Gill’s patients.
The posts were about the efficacy of COVID shots for ending lockdown measures, the necessity of the lockdowns. She also shared a post from a Harvard professor who questioned the measures in general.
Though the CPSO dropped a high-level investigation against Gill in September, the orders of caution, which have yet to be placed on her record, are still in place.
Bildy said that this case goes beyond Gill’s professional reputation and ordeal and has lasting consequences for medical professionals’ ability to challenge the status quo of government medical policy.
“Regulatory overreach into professionals’ speech is a growing problem. Publicly censuring professionals for expressing counter-narrative opinions comes at a cost,” Bildy told True North. “The costs are borne by the rest of the medical profession, as they prudently choose to keep silent in these censorious times on matters of medical, scientific and/or political controversy.”
She said that the public’s Charter right to hear opinions contrary to the government line are also endangered by the “regulatory overreach,” even if they “never appreciate the value” of the silenced speech.
After the Divisional Court’s decision to side with the college and leave the orders of caution in place, the Supreme Court of Canada released a decision in another case that Bildy thinks will help Gill’s appeal.
The case found that it’s “insufficient” for a regulatory body to just mention a Charter right violation but must demonstrate a “clear acknowledgement and analysis of that right,” Bildy noted.
Bildy argues that the college’s committee “didn’t even mention the charter” when it ordered the cautions against Gill.
“That’s not good enough. Administrative decision-makers must fully analyze and justify infringements of Charter rights, or else the courts should not be deferring to them, as the Divisional Court did here,” Bildy told True North. “Courts should apply a more stringent standard of review where the Charter is involved and fulfill their role as guardians of the Constitution.”
Courts will typically defer to the administrative decision-makers if it is found that its decisions were “reasonable.” Gill will argue that her comments should be argued on their merits and assess if the college was correct rather than acting within reason.
“We hope that the Supreme Court of Canada will use Dr. Gill’s case to restore the historic role of the courts as guardians of the constitution,” Bildy said in a statement.
Social media company X is funding Gill’s legal costs, following a pledge made by CEO to support people facing legal action over comments made on the platform.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario did not respond to True North’s requests for comment.
