Witness Testimony

Myriam Bohémier, a Quebec lawyer with over two decades of medico-legal experience, testified regarding her involvement in constitutional and administrative challenges to COVID-19 measures since October 2021. She described participating in judicial review proceedings contesting emergency decrees under the Public Health Act, as well as defending individuals in cases involving vaccine mandates, labour disputes, employment insurance denials, and professional disciplinary actions. She stated that frequent amendment or withdrawal of government measures prior to hearings resulted in cases being dismissed as theoretical, limiting substantive constitutional review.
She detailed litigation related to vaccine passports, mandatory vaccination policies for healthcare workers and federal employees, and family court disputes concerning vaccination of children. In child vaccination cases, she asserted that courts prioritized public health recommendations and urgency over full evidentiary hearings on consent and medical risk. She also described representing professionals who faced disciplinary proceedings for publicly criticizing government measures, and testified to receiving multiple investigation requests from the Quebec Bar syndic in connection with her advocacy and public commentary.
Bohémier further raised concerns regarding access to justice, financial barriers to prolonged litigation, union representation limitations, and the exclusion of vaccination status from anti-discrimination protections. She argued that courts deferred excessively to public health authorities and invoked concepts such as judicial notice and mootness in ways that, in her view, limited effective Charter protections. She recommended procedural reforms requiring governments to justify rights-infringing measures prior to implementation and advocated for broader reassessment of constitutional safeguards in emergency contexts.