Mr. Speaker, with the Quarantine Act, in order to avoid epidemics and the spread of communicable diseases, the government is aiming at requiring individuals with symptoms to undergo a certain examination. Our colleague knows that there are ways of challenging this and that judicial authorization is needed, as I mentioned. The committee amended various provisions in the legislation to refer to reasonable grounds on the part of the screening officer or environmental health officer.
What I was alluding to is the fact that the Supreme Court has determined that an individual cannot be compelled to undergo treatment. This does not have the same connotation or significance as what the member was talking about. The federal government says that it is responsible for quarantines related to public health because it does not want an individual to be a carrier spreading diseases listed in Schedule 1.
There was a case that was litigated a few years ago regarding parents who were Jehovah's Witnesses and refused to allow their child to have blood transfusions. In broad terms, the Supreme Court determined than an individual cannot be forced to undergo treatment. However, one can also not contribute to a person's death. In regard to medical treatment, what I was referring to in my speech was a Supreme Court decision about forcing an individual to undergo medical treatment.