The Shocking Truth About Wrongful Death Claims: An Open Letter to the Premier

Last weekend I attended sad visitation with the family of Donna Howell, perished at the age of 53 from generalized breast cancer.  Donna was one of those many patients of Eastern Health whose hormone receptor testing was bungled.  She didn’t get Tamoxifen.

It was not the time to tell Donna Howell’s husband Darryl the shocking truth:  Yes Premier, in your province it is cheaper to kill than to main.

But you already know this.  You were once a personal injury lawyer, and a very good one.  Once, you too revolted against the shocking truth that dead people are worth less in money damages than the living.  Your educated lawyer’s conscience still revolts at this truth.

In your province, the law of compensation for intangible losses surrounding death has not changed since the days when the British Empire permitted slavery.  Our still-existing law stems from a time when life was not just cheap, it was worthless.  But as an educated lawyer, you know this.

In the rest of Canada, the wrongful loss of the society and comfort of a loved one is compensated and has been for decades.  As an educated lawyer, you know this.

In the rest of Canada, the pain and suffering of a victim of wrongdoing is compensated even though the victim dies.  As an educated lawyer, you know this.

Many times have courts, even the Supreme Court of Canada, condemned the wrongful death laws we still enforce.  Courts have condemned the laws we enforce as inhuman, barbaric, anachronistic, and out of step with modern conceptions of fairness and justice.  As an educated lawyer, you know this.

As an educated lawyer, you know that modern conceptions of fairness and justice demand that of our laws of wrongful death be reformed.  Better to reform these laws in the Legislature; but the time has come for court-driven law reform if government fails in the task.  Many more like Donna will perish while court process grinds toward reform.

Donna’s husband Darryl Howell still has faith in your commitment to fairness and justice.  Others will wait and see.