A long-awaited decision in a court case that sought to hold B.C. Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry and the province legally accountable for declaring a public health emergency which led to sweeping COVID-19 restrictions has ended in disappointment for the plaintiffs.

Justice David Crerar of the B.C. Supreme Court has refused to certify the proposed class-action lawsuit, which argued that Henry’s declaration of a public-health emergency was unnecessary and unconstitutional, thus making measures such as vaccine mandates unwarranted and unjustified under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

BREAKING: Bonnie Henry mislead pregnant and breastfeeding women about her precious COVID jabs?

My next post will be a longer version of evidence that shows she wasn’t alone. https://t.co/Gi9Wj4LxWc pic.twitter.com/xgZm2msyg9

— Drea Humphrey (@DreaHumphrey) June 23, 2024

Crerar called the case, filed by the Canadian Society for the Advancement of Science in Public Policy (CSASPP), “almost certainly the largest and most complex in Canadian legal history.” It was argued in over 30 days of hearings between December 2022 and May 2023.

Justice Crerar ruled that at this stage, it is not the role of the court “to decide whether the plaintiff’s claim is valid or not” and that the proposed action “collapsed under its own weight and ambition.”

He further noted that the claim, which alleged breaches of four sections of the Charter, “suffers from so many self-inflicted problems,” including numerous amendments to the pleadings and what Crerar called “vague” and “amorphous” class definitions.

CSASPP’s executive director, Kipling Warner, said in a statement posted to the society’s website that while the organization accepts responsibility to report “not exaggerating our victories, nor downplaying or concealing our failures,” they strongly disagree with the reasoning.

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According to Warner, the judge acknowledged that the pandemic restrictions imposed under Dr. Henry were “to a degree unseen since the Second World War,” and even conceded that “it is conceivable someone could challenge those measures through a legal proceeding.”

Still, the court ultimately sided with the Crown.

Crerar agreed with the province’s position that the society’s effort to challenge “some 50 to 70” health orders under three separate laws, on behalf of virtually “all four million adults in B.C.,” was too sprawling and inconsistent to proceed as a class action. He also described CSASPP’s repeated revisions as a form of procedural abuse, writing that the claim’s “ever-fluid approach” was one reason it “should not be certified.”

In his 144 page decision, Crerar faulted the plaintiffs for taking on a scope so large that it would have required “dozens to perhaps millions of individual sub-trials” to assess unique circumstances and damages, a process he said would have meant that “taxpayers would in effect finance the likely massive damages award that would then be payable back to themselves.”

While striking the claim, Crerar emphasized that the decision was not a personal indictment of either CSASPP or its counsel, Ms. Polina Furtula.

“She proved to be a persuasive and skilled advocate,” he wrote of the society’s lawyer, adding that “there is no indication that the Society and its principals advanced this claim in anything but good faith.”

WHERE IS BONNIE HENRY?

Fired, sick, disciplined?

Her automatic email response says she’s on an “extended leave.” pic.twitter.com/0wLTL0GCzX

— Drea Humphrey (@DreaHumphrey) June 2, 2025

Warner says that the society’s size and funding limitations, not the merits of the case, appeared to have been at the heart of the court’s refusal.

“He believed we did not have sufficient resources, primarily financial, to take on ‘the largest proposed class proceeding in Canadian history,” wrote Warner. He argued that “none of [the judge’s reasons] required several years of deliberation,” further adding that “justice delayed is justice denied.”

The decision leaves CSASPP weighing whether to appeal. “If we are to appeal the ruling, we have 30 days to do so,” Warner told supporters, noting that the society is analyzing its options.

While the judge’s decision may have cleared Dr. Henry from the immediate threat of this lawsuit, her current absence has raised questions. Since June, anyone attempting to contact B.C.’s “top doctor” has received an automatic reply stating: “I am currently on an extended leave and will not be monitoring my emails.”