Data on involuntary detention and treatment in BC is incomplete. This makes it hard to know how often it is used, who is experiences it, and what the impacts are. What can we learn from the information we do have?

On July 30, the BC Supreme Court publicly released a decision finding that BC’s Mental Health Act violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Court’s decision confirmed what people with lived and living experience have been saying for decades: BC’s approach to involuntary treatment violates human rights. The decision is almost 400 pages long, so we’ve created a summary of what the Judge found.

We had heard from people connected to long-term care systems that they were navigating deep fatigue, grief, and systemic distrust. We understood that participation needed to lead to something meaningful. But even with this grounding, the extent of the barriers challenged us. These conditions shape what is possible in engagement. They also reveal something important: the barriers to participation are not incidental. They are part of the system itself.

Collective care for Health Justice is a foundational approach to how we work. Our aim is to centre the wellbeing of the organizational community including the team members and everyone involved in our organization, by shifting away from oppressive and colonial practices.

On April 1 the BC government introduced a bill (Bill 16: 2026 Miscellaneous Statues Amendment Act) amending the Correction Act that, if passed, will have serious impacts. Bill 16 expands when provincial corrections officers are authorized to use physical force. It expressly authorizes corrections officers to use force to assist health care providers to administer involuntary treatment under the Mental Health Act.

You go to the hospital for care yet, care turns into torture if you are put into a locked room where you have nothing; no stimulation, no light, and no connection to loved ones. When you're ill you need to feel cared for by other human beings. You need to feel connected. A caring system should prioritize connection and recognize the person as a whole human being deserving of respect, dignity and compassion. The current system does not do this.

The Mental Health Review Board recently released its 2024/25 Annual Report, which provides us with some insights into how people detained under the Mental Health Act are accessing detention reviews. It also provides a window into how well this particular safeguard is working.

Two more independent reports documenting violations under BC’s Mental Health Act have been released since December. These reports from the Representative for Children and Youth and the Ombudsperson showed human rights violations and legal compliance violations.

On November 25th, 2025 the government introduced a bill (Bill 32) to amend the Mental Health Act, which passed in the legislature on December 2nd. There has been significant debate and confusion about the impact of the bill, so Health Justice has written this post to try to help people with lived and living experience understand what it means for them.

Binary ideas of gender, sex and sexuality have resulted in inequity for cis and trans women and girls; Two-Spirit, trans, and non-binary people; and other gender-diverse people. The health system, and mental health system in particular, has a long history of pathologizing people who do not conform to the current norms, social roles, and behaviours expected in relation to gender, or erasing and ignoring their health needs and concerns.

Collecting and having access to transparent data when considering who experiences involuntary treatment is not only useful in seeing the impacts and any potentially harmful trends in order to be able to address them, but also it is an incredibly important tool in combatting common misconceptions about those who are involuntarily treated. An absence of information can contribute to leaving space for people to perpetuate harmful stereotypes and hold damaging ideas of those who are being involuntarily treated. It can also create space for those in power to play off of people’s fears that are based in misconceptions instead of reality, leading to decisions being made without consulting people with lived experience expertise who are impacted by those decisions.

Despite what many may think due to the recent spotlight on the expansion of involuntary treatment in British Columbia, involuntary treatment for substance use already happens in B.C. Given these discussions about expanding involuntary treatment in B.C. and in other parts of Canada, it is crucial to examine the human rights violations within the existing involuntary treatment system, the lack of evidence to support its effectiveness and the potential harms and ethical concerns.

UNDRIP is not a magic bullet that will dismantle centuries of colonization and genocide, but it is an important tool that helps provide a baseline for the implementation of Indigenous rights in a meaningful way. When combined with the implementation of other human rights-based principles, BC can create a baseline for a mental health law that protects human rights and wellness for Indigenous people.

The lack of awareness and focus on brain injuries while in involuntary treatment by medical practitioners, including those in mental health, and by policy makers and legislative decision makers undermines the care that people with brain injuries need by jeopardizing their health further and violating human rights. The information graciously shared here is from a Lived Experience Expert that has been actively involved in brain injury awareness, research, community care, advocacy in BC, and navigation of their own medical journey. Learn more about what is missing in the care of someone with a brain injury, its impacts, and what is needed to improve care.

Current mainstream conceptions of mental health and mental health treatment have roots in colonialism, and those roots shape mental health services today. Yet, in the face of genocide, colonization, and racism, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people have and continue to resist the systemic suppression of Indigenous community and centre understandings of health and wellbeing.

The Mental Health Review Board recently released its 2023/24 Annual Report, which provides us with some insights into how people detained under the Mental Health Act are accessing detention reviews. Last year we highlighted that applications and review panel hearings unfortunately went down, but the good news was that fewer patients were conducting hearings without legal representation. Let’s look at how the latest numbers compare.

When basic rights are not respected, it has a negative impact on our overall health, including our mental health. Adequate safe and accessible mental health services, law, and policy are necessary to avoid human rights violations for someone with a mental health or substance use-related disability.

Guiding principles can help build a mental health and substance use health system that respects and supports human rights. This is something desperately needed in BC’s mental health system in order to support wellbeing.

How we talk about people with mental health or substance use health issues can either combat discrimination or it can reinforce stereotypes that have real impacts in people’s lives. Here are some ways to reduce stigma around mental health and substance use by challenging these ideas through how we think and what we say.