In Francis v Newfoundland and Labrador Pharmacy Board, 2018 NLSC 248, http://canlii.ca/t/hwgdr a group of pharmacists tried a second time to challenge the validity of provisions in the regulator’s standards of practice and by-laws. Their challenge was that the provisions dealing with the following were too vague and were unenforceable:
- A requirement for pharmacies to be connected to a provincial database;
- A requirement to have equipment to scan documents;
- A requirement for pharmacists to have a patient consultation area;
- The authority for the regulator to issue a conditional licence as one of its registration options;
- Adding the charging of excessive fees to the definition of professional misconduct; and
- Adding practising in a conflict of interest to the definition of professional misconduct.
In a previous application for an interim injunction to prevent the provisions from taking effect, a court had upheld each of these provisions either on their merits or because the issue was moot for the practitioners bringing the proceeding: Francis v Newfoundland and Labrador Pharmacy Board, 2016 CanLII 97222 (NL SC), <http://canlii.ca/t/gx7bn>. In the present case the Court held that the practitioners could not re-litigate the issues in a different proceeding.