SML’s Grey Areas newsletter has been in publication since July 1992 and discusses the latest developments in professional regulation. New issues are published monthly – subscribe below to learn more about recent studies, case law and legislative updates in the regulatory world. Explore our catalogue below.
Issues published before 2020 can be found on CanLII.
The Canadian regulatory world has waited impatiently for the decision of the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal in the case of Strom v. Saskatchewan Registered Nurses’ Association. The decision finally came down this week. It provides some guidance but leaves many questions unanswered.
An all-party Steering Committee has issued recommendations for the modernization of the regulation of health professions in British Columbia. The report flows from a review by Harry Cayton of the regulatory structure and extensive consultations on an earlier document from the Steering Committee.
What is the primary purpose of the complaints process of a regulator of a profession? A likely answer would be: to protect the public from an incompetent or unethical practitioner. Most regulators might also say that the nature of the process is such that participants are rarely happy with the outcome.
Practitioners are expected to obey the law. Especially laws that apply to their practice or reflect on their integrity. However, a recurring issue arises as to how involved regulators should become in enforcing the laws of other entities (e.g., government, other regulatory bodies). Typically, they enforce their own laws.
Regulators have struggled for years balancing the concepts of parity and changing societal expectations. The principle of parity says that the sanction for a particular type of misconduct should be consistent with that imposed in prior decisions. However, changing societal expectations suggests that some sanctioning ranges are no longer suitable. Attempts to go above the previous range for sanctions, especially
Regulating the protection of client privacy / confidentiality is now a shared responsibility between professional regulators and privacy commissioners. In recent years privacy commissioners have taken the lead in this area by providing more detailed guidance to practitioners and by operating well-known and comprehensive enforcement mechanisms. This is not to say that professional regulators have no role at all. As