British Columbia’s human rights commissioner says the province is the only place that she’s aware of in Canada that allows people to be detained by the state without explicit legal authority, timelines or oversight.
Kasari Govender says B.C.‘s approach to holding people under the Adult Guardianship Act is discriminatory, causing harms that disproportionally impact people with disabilities, who make up 94 per cent of those detained, along with seniors and homeless people.
Health authorities and Community Living BC have used the act to detain 300 vulnerable adults in emergency situations between 2018 and September 2023 when they were found to have been abused or neglected and seemed incapable of giving consent.
The commissioner’s latest report says the median length of detentions was six days, while the maximum was 212 days, and challenges in obtaining information about the process meant that one person could not find her detained spouse for three months.
Govender says the law does not explicitly authorize detention, leading to different practices across the province, with some authorities relying on a section of the act that allows them to transport people to a safe place, or to use “any other necessary measures” to help.
She has called on the government to make multiple changes, including updating the law, develop provincial regulations, policies or guidelines, as well as mandatory reporting requirements and provincial training.
“I have found that a significant number of vulnerable adults are being detained under this act through an opaque process with very little oversight. While adults are being held for their own safety, their rights to fair process, including knowing why they are being held against their will or what they can do about it, are often denied,” she said.
“While not every detention is unlawful, many are, and the harms disproportionately and unequally fall on people with disabilities, seniors and people who are unhoused.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 8, 2025
