NDP Introduces ICBC Bill Saying "Psychiatric Conditions" Are "Minor Injuries"

Today the BC Government introduced their so called ‘minor’ injury Bill strippng the judicial rights of collision victims.
Despite their media soundbites to the contrary, the Government is calling many serious injuries “minor” even those that can have permanent consequences.
Included in their open ended list of “minor injuries” are “Psychological Conditions, Psychiatric Conditions and Pain Syndromes“.  Pain Syndromes by definition are long lasting and debilitating mental health conditions.
On its plain reading this definition of “minor” captures

• Chronic Depression
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Conversion Disorders
• Chronic Pain Syndromes
• Chronic physical injuries
• Disabling physical injuries
• All psychological “conditions”
• All psychiatric “conditions”

The Bill, if passed into law, will strip the judicial and compensatory rights to everyone in BC who suffers a “minor injury” at the hands of a careless driver after April 1 2019.  All this so careless drivers can pay less for their insurance.   Below is the government’s open-ended list of everyone who will be captured by this bill designed to beef up ICBC’s bottom line.  Note they can grow it whenever they want by ‘prescribing’ more injuries to the list and by prescribing criteria to call even permanent injuries minor –

“minor injury” means a physical or mental injury, whether or not chronic, that

(a) subject to subsection (2), does not result in a serious impairment or a permanent serious disfigurement of the claimant, and

(b) is one of the following:

(i) an abrasion, a contusion, a laceration, a sprain or a strain;

(ii) a pain syndrome;

(iii) a psychological or psychiatric condition;

(iv) a prescribed injury or an injury in a prescribed type or class of injury;

“permanent serious disfigurement”, in relation to a claimant, means a permanent disfigurement that, having regard to any prescribed criteria, significantly detracts from the claimant’s physical appearance;

“serious impairment”, in relation to a claimant, means a physical or mental impairment that

(a) is not resolved within 12 months, or another prescribed period, if any, after the date of an accident, and

(b) meets prescribed criteria.

(2) Subject to subsection (3) and the regulations, an injury that, at the time of the accident or when it first manifested, was an injury within the definition of “minor injury” in subsection (1) is deemed to be a minor injury if

(a) the claimant, without reasonable excuse, fails to seek a diagnosis or comply with treatment in accordance with a diagnostic and treatment protocol prescribed for the injury, and

(b) the injury

(i) results in a serious impairment or a permanent serious disfigurement of the claimant, or

(ii) develops into an injury other than an injury within the definition of “minor injury” in subsection (1).

(3) An injury is not deemed, under subsection (2), to be a minor injury if the claimant establishes that either of the circumstances referred to in subsection (2) (b) would have resulted even if the claimant had sought a diagnosis and complied with treatment in accordance with a diagnostic and treatment protocol prescribed for the injury.

(4) For the purposes of this Part, a minor injury includes a symptom or a condition associated with the injury whether or not the symptom or condition resolves within 12 months, or another prescribed period, if any, after the date of an accident.