Case information

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Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

In recent years, the life of Georges Zeliotis has been riddled with various health problems: heart surgery and several hip operations. The serious difficulties encountered in getting timely operations have led the Appellant Zeliotis to denounce the delays in the health system. The Appellant Chaoulli a physician, has been for several years fighting for the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec to cover the home medical treatment he provides and to grant him the right to set up a private and autonomous hospital. The fundamental mission of the current Quebec health scheme is to establish a public system of health services available and accessible to all Quebec residents. The Appellants want to be given the right to obtain private insurance coverage for costs related to private health and hospital services.

The Appellants filed in the Superior Court of Quebec a motion for a declaratory judgment that article 15 of the Health Insurance Act and article 11 of the Hospital Insurance Act are unconstitutional and invalid. The challenged provisions prohibit private insurers from covering health services which are insured by the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec. The Appellants argued that these two provisions violate their right to life, liberty and security of the person set out in section 7 of the Canadian Charter and their right to life and to personal security and freedom set out in article 1 of the Quebec Charter.

The Superior Court held that the challenged provisions do not contravene section 7 of the Canadian Charter and, consequently, dismissed the motion. An appeal lodged against this decision has also been dismissed by the Court of Appeal of Quebec.