{"id":231375,"date":"2019-09-17T23:57:54","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T03:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=231375"},"modified":"2025-01-21T01:25:56","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T06:25:56","slug":"freedom-of-expression-or-personal-attack-nurse-appeals-fine-for-facebook-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/09\/17\/freedom-of-expression-or-personal-attack-nurse-appeals-fine-for-facebook-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom of expression or personal attack? Nurse appeals fine for Facebook post"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Facebook<\/a>
Lawyers representing Strom and the nurses association painted very different pictures of how her Facebook comments should be regarded. (Pexels Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

REGINA \u2014 Saskatchewan’s highest court is to decide what’s next for a registered nurse who was fined $26,000 for criticizing her grandfather’s care on Facebook.<\/p>\n

Carolyn Strom from Prince Albert, Sask., was found guilty of professional misconduct by the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association in 2016.<\/p>\n

She has asked the province’s Court of Appeal to quash the disciplinary decision and fine. A panel of three judges heard arguments on Tuesday and reserved its ruling.<\/p>\n

Lawyers representing Strom and the nurses association painted very different pictures of how her Facebook comments should be regarded.<\/p>\n

The association’s lawyer argued Strom personally attacked an identifiable group without attempting to get all the facts about her grandfather’s care.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Strom’s lawyer said all his client did was make some staff members uncomfortable while exercising her right to freedom of expression.<\/p>\n

\u201cMs. Strom is guilty of nothing more serious than that,\u201d Marcus Davies told the court. \u201cApparently, she made an institution and some who worked there uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

In February 2015, weeks after her grandfather died, Strom wrote on Facebook that some unnamed staff at his long-term care facility in Macklin, Sask., were not up to speed on delivering end-of-life care. She also identified herself as a registered nurse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI challenge the people involved in decision making with that facility, to please get All Your Staff a refresher on the topic And More ? to those who made Grandpa’s last years less than desirable, Please Do Better Next Time!\u201d one comment read.<\/p>\n

Strom’s lawyer called the complaint against Strom manufactured and noted that the facility’s executive director made a photocopy of the nurse’s comments and circulated it among staff.<\/p>\n

He also argued that the disciplinary committee made many errors, including misquoting legal decisions and misrepresenting the outcomes of cases it relied on to reach its decision.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Roger Lepage, representing the nurses association, told court that Strom’s comments were beyond protection as freedom of expression, because they contained serious allegations against an identifiable group.<\/p>\n

He said her comments also couldn’t be considered debate, because the facility’s health-care workers couldn’t respond publicly about the specific care of a patient.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat she was engaging in was a one-sided attack on the reputation of a facility and an identifiable group of health workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lepage said a nurse who takes to social media to criticize care and damages an institution’s reputation without seeking to get all the facts first should be disciplined.<\/p>\n

The Saskatchewan Union of Nurses, Canadian Constitution Foundation and the BC Civil Liberties Association intervened in the case.<\/p>\n

Lepage rejected their arguments that nurses are being muzzled and that the discipline against Strom sends a warning to health-care workers about speaking out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is true is that Canadians would be harmed if nurses could just say what they want about medical establishments based on how they feel that day,\u201d Lepage argued.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanadians would lose trust in the health-care system and lose trust in the interest of all nurses.<\/p>\n

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\u201d<\/p>\n

He called Strom’s comments on Facebook \u201cfake news,\u201d but that was challenged by the judges, who noted Strom’s claims about the facility have not been proven false.<\/p>\n

The nurses union said the action against Strom has lowered the bar for a finding of professional misconduct.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this ruling is upheld and her $26,000 fine is upheld, it’s really sending a message that you can’t criticize anything about the health-care system if you are a nurse,\u201d added Megan Tweedie, a lawyer for the civil liberties group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

REGINA \u2014 Saskatchewan’s highest court is to decide what’s next for a registered nurse who was fined $26,000 for criticizing …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":217850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-stephanie-taylor","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231375"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286398,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231375\/revisions\/286398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}