Researchers from across Canada gathered at the University of Ottawa on June 20 to discuss their insights on the Canada Health Act. The research roundtable was organized by the Canadian Health Coalition and the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics with support from St. Thomas University. In this panel, researchers Y.Y. Chen with the University of Ottawa, Martha Paynter with the University of New Brunswick and Marie Carpentier with Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) discuss how the Canada Health Act needs revisiting to address how it has excluded some people from health care. Watch for more videos of the panels of the Canada Health Act at 40 Research Roundtable on this Youtube channel. For more information, contact Tracy at tglynn@healthcoalition.ca. Video editing by Natalia Evdokimova.

After being denied health care because of her irregular immigration status, Nell Toussaint suffered severe health consequences including a stroke, an amputation and blindness. She fought courageously for equal access to health care, securing an historic ruling at the UN requiring Canada to ensure access to essential health care without discrimination. When Canada refused to comply, she challenged this in court, winning another important victory when the court rejected Canada’s attempt to have her claim dismissed. Sadly, Nell Toussaint died on January 9, 2023 with her legal claim unresolved and Canada continuing to refuse to comply with the UN ruling. Human rights and health care advocates along with her family, are committed to honouring Nell’s legacy by continuing her campaign for access to health care for all, regardless of immigration status, as a fundamental human right. Whendeann Gittens • Niece of the late Nell Toussaint Shalini Konanur • Human rights lawyer with South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario (SALCO) and Colour of Poverty/Colour of Change (interveners in Toussaint v Canada) Y.Y. Chen • Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa and co-counsel for a coalition of interveners in Toussaint v Canada Aditya Rao • Human rights lawyer and Human Rights Officer for CUPE

Speaker: Yin-Yuan Chen, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa (Common Law section) Commentator: Kathleen Hammond, Professor, Lincoln Alexander School of Law, Toronto Metropolitan University International migration puts people's sexual and reproductive health (SRH), particularly those of women and children, at increased risk. However, many international migrants are denied access to timely and adequate SRH information, goods, and services by governments and/or service providers. This workshop reviews the barriers frequently faced by migrants in accessing SRH care and highlights the incongruence between these barriers and international human rights norms, including the guarantee of the rights to health and non-discrimination. Particular attention will be paid to the views issued by the Human Rights Committee in 2018 in Toussaint v Canada, which found the Canadian government’s hindrance of migrants' access to health care a violation of the rights to life and equality based on immigration status. The implication of this case on migrants' health care entitlement in Canada will also be explored. Biographies Y.Y. Brandon Chen (MSW 2005, JD 2010, SJD 2020) is an assistant professor at University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, with expertise in health law, constitutional law, and immigration and refugee law. Trained as a lawyer and a social worker, his research leverages socio-legal studies, action research, and community engagement to critically examine health inequities facing noncitizens and racialized minorities. His published work has touched on such topics as migrant health care, the right to health, social determinants of health, medical tourism, and HIV/AIDS. Kathleen Hammond is an assistant professor at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law at Toronto Metropolitan University. Prior to joining Lincoln Law, she was a postdoctoral fellow with the Research Group on Health and Law at McGill University’s Faculty of Law and a visiting fellow with the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law and Policy at Harvard Law School. She holds a JD and BCL from McGill University. She completed an MPhil in Multi-Disciplinary Gender Studies and a PhD in Legal Sociology at the University of Cambridge where she was a Gates Cambridge scholar and a Commonwealth scholar. She teaches and researches in the areas of health law and policy, science and technology law, and gender and families.

Presented by Y.Y. Brandon Chen, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa. Presented as part of the Dalhousie Health Law Institute Seminar Series (http://www.dal.ca/hli/seminar-series).