Legislation will ban incarceration under Health Act after Manitoba woman with TB jailed
CBC investigation found Geraldine Mason spent month in jail after missing tuberculosis medication
The Manitoba government has introduced legislation to further ensure a person with a communicable disease like tuberculosis can't be detained in a jail for public health reasons.
Geraldine Mason, a 36-year-old from God's Lake First Nation, spent a month in jail after she was detained for tuberculosis treatment under the Public Health Act.
"Folks should not be put in jail to receive health care," Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said Wednesday.
"And I want Geraldine Mason and others to know that we are sincerely sorry that this happened to them."
The details of the bill were released Wednesday after it was first introduced last week by the NDP government.
It comes after CBC reported Mason was arrested under the Public Health Act on Oct. 27 of last year and was ordered by a judicial justice of the peace to spend three months behind bars.
Under existing provincial legislation, a medical officer of health can apply to a court to apprehend anyone they believe is a threat to public health.
In Mason's case, a medical officer said she wasn't consistently taking the medication needed to cure her tuberculosis, an infectious disease that can be fatal if not treated, according to an apprehension order obtained by CBC News.
There was no public hearing and Mason did not have a lawyer present when the detention order was made.
Under the new legislation, any detention order would have to be heard by a provincial court judge at a public hearing.
Leif Jensen, a legal aid lawyer who works at the University of Manitoba's community law centre and was Mason's lawyer, welcomes the change.
"Where liberty is at issue, when we're putting someone in detention, whether it's in a hospital or jail or even in their own home … having the maximum amount of procedural fairness is important, and a provincial court justice can provide that," Jensen said.
He said while the legislation is a step in the right direction, he's waiting to read all the new regulations to fully understand the impact of the changes.
But he's happy to see the impact Mason's story had.
"I still don't really understand how that could have happened — how she could have been detained in a prison instead of in a hospital," said Jensen.
"It was so obvious that what happened to her should not have happened."
Legislation takes directive step further: minister
After CBC published Mason's story in December, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew immediately ordered a directive to prevent similar situations.
"I said, 'Get me an order ensuring that nobody is ever jailed for having tuberculosis again,'" Kinew said on Dec. 2.
The directive, signed by Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba's chief provincial public health officer, said that if a person must be detained to protect public health, they must be sent to a health facility.
The new bill, which amends the Public Health Act, takes that directive a step further, the health minister said.
"This legislation is necessary in order to ensure that no one is placed in jail to receive health care," said Asagwara.
"We know that by way of law, we need to make sure that we take a public-health approach to this issue."
Asagwara said the practice of incarcerating people for health reasons has gone on for too long and has disproportionately affected Indigenous people.
"That is a shameful part of our history, and we intend to keep that practice in our history," they said.
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