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Daphne is a civil litigator specializing in health law. Focused on advising and representing healthcare providers and their employees, Daphne is known for her ability to resolve difficult and complex cases. She has a strong track record of achieving creative and confidential settlements for her clients while preserving reputations and community relationships.
Daphne has particular expertise in issues involving the treatment of children and youth, consent and capacity, and end of life issues. She appears before administrative tribunals such as the Consent and Capacity Board and the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board, and has appeared before Courts at all levels including the Supreme Court of Canada.
Experience
Defends hospitals and their employees in medical malpractice lawsuits on retainer with the Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (HIROC).
Acts as counsel for healthcare facilities at coroner's inquests by direct retainer, including those involving multiple deaths.
Provides ongoing advice, legal support and policy review on matters that include capacity and consent to treatment, child and adolescent health and end-of-life issues.
Acts as counsel to health providers in hearings before the Consent and Capacity Board and related appeals.
Retained frequently as counsel to individual health providers involved in complaints or disciplinary hearings before their professional bodies, and in reviews of those decisions by the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board.
Successfully argued the early and authoritative cases granting summary judgment dismissing cases against hospitals and physicians on the basis of absence of expert opinion – Barber v. Mustard [1993 O.J. No. 2872]; Claus v. Wolfman, 2000 CanLII 22728 (OCA); Reid v. Livingstone, 2004 CanLII 13020 (ONSC).
Appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada in Starson v. Swayze, 2003 SCC 32, as counsel to the intervenor, The Schizophrenia Society of Canada.
Represented Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre during the first stage of the Rasouli litigation, after which the hospital was no longer a party (Cuthbertson v. Rasouli, 2013 SCC 53; upholding 2011 ONCA 482; upholding 2011 ONSC 1500).
Represented the applicant hospital in the case of Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation v. D.H., 2014 ONCJ 603, regarding a parent refusing chemotherapy for a First Nations child in favour of traditional medicines.
Represented St. Mary’s General Hospital in the case of Ferreira v. St. Mary’s General Hospital, 2018 ONCA 247, an end of life case in which the Hospital was awarded substantial indemnity costs against a lawyer who improperly interfered with a family’s decision to withdraw life support from a critically brain injured patient.
Represented Humber River Hospital in the case of Ouanounou v. Humber River Hospital et al, 2018 ONSC 6511, concerning a religious objection to a declaration of death by neurological criteria “brain death”.
Co-presenter, University of Ottawa Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics, re "Futility Disputes and the End of Life – Recent Legal Developments", November 18, 2020
PRÉSENTATION
Guest Lecturer, University of Toronto, Masters in Bioethics course re "End of Life Issues – Recent Legal Developments", November 12, 2020
PRÉSENTATION
Speaker, Medicine Grand Rounds, Trillium Health Partners, "Is Consent Required for a no-CPR Order?", November 3, 2020
PRÉSENTATION
Co-presenter, "Legal/human rights issues and Substance Use Disorder", at annual META:PHI (Mentoring, Education, and Clinical Tools for Addiction: Primary Care-Hospital Integration) Conference, September 25, 2020
PRÉSENTATION
Speaker, Medicine Grand Rounds, St. Joseph's Health Centre (Toronto), "Is Consent Required for a no-CPR Order?", September 23, 2020
PRÉSENTATION
Co-instructor, Osgoode Certificate in Health Law, Module 5 re Ethical Issues in Healthcare, MaiD - the Legal Framework, April 8, 2020
PRÉSENTATION
Speaker, Ontario Bar Association Health Law Institute, re Key Constitutional and Human Rights Issues in Health Law and Practice – "Living and Dying with the Charter", Feb. 4, 2020
PRÉSENTATION
Presenter, “Managing Student Health Information in a School Setting,” Conference of Independent Schools (CIS) Law Symposium, February 2019.
PRÉSENTATION
Presenter, "End of Life Treatment Disagreements – the Legal Framework in Ontario,” Cambridge Memorial Hospital Medical Advisory Committee, January 2019
PRÉSENTATION
Co-Panelist, “Threats to the Concept of Brain Death: Legal Coherence,” Critical Care Canada Forum, November 2018.
PRÉSENTATION
Guest Lecturer, University of Toronto Masters in Bioethics Class: Legal/Ethical Issues in Health Care at End of Life, November 2018.
PRÉSENTATION
Co-Panelist, “End-of-Life Treatment Disagreements: The Legal Framework,” a workshop for critical care physicians and ethicists in the GTA, organized by Southlake Regional Health Centre, October 2018
PRÉSENTATION
Presenter, “Advance Directives and Health Care Consent – the Legal Framework in Ontario,” Medical Advisory Committee of Grand River Hospital and St. Mary’s General Hospital, October 2018
PRÉSENTATION
Presenter, “The Importance of Documentation,” Grand River Hospital OR and PACU staff, October 2018
PRÉSENTATION
Co-panelist, "Trials Should Not Take Six Weeks or More," Law Society of Ontario, June 2018
PRÉSENTATION
Guest speaker, "College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) Policy on End-of-Life Care," Trillium Health Partners during National Hospice Care Week, May 2018
PRÉSENTATION
Co-presenter, "Ethical Issues in Health Care, with a Focus on Physician-Assisted Dying," Osgoode Certificate in Health Law, April 2018
PRÉSENTATION
Presenter, "An Update on Recent End-of-Life Cases," Medico-Legal Society of Toronto (MLST), April 2018
PRÉSENTATION
Panelist, "Physicians' Duty to Provide Effective Referrals, and the Case of The Christian Medical and Dental Society of Canada v. College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, 2018 ONSC 579," University of Toronto Health Law Club, March 2018
PRÉSENTATION
Moderator and panelist, "Medical Assistance in Dying," Ontario Bar Association’s Institute, February 2018
PRÉSENTATION
Presenter, "Ethics Issues in Healthcare — End of Life," Osgoode Certificate in Health Law, February 2018
PRÉSENTATION
Guest lecturer, "Legal and Ethical Issues at the End of Life in Canada," University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics Master’s Program, November 2017
PRÉSENTATION
Co-presenter, “Death by Choice: Medically Assisted Dying in Canada,” Toronto Lawyers Association, October 2017
PRÉSENTATION
Co-presenter, “Medical Assistance in Dying — Where Are We Now and What Lies Ahead?,” (MLST), October 2017
PRÉSENTATION
Panelist, “Aboriginal Rights and the Best Interests of the Child: Hamilton Health Sciences v. D.H.,” University of Toronto Faculty of Law – Health Law, Ethics and Policy Seminar Series, September 2017
PRÉSENTATION
Co-instructor, “Ethical Issues in Healthcare — End of Life,” Osgoode Certificate in Health Law, April 2017
PRÉSENTATION
Presenter, “QCIPA — Legislative Overview: Governance Implications,” Ontario Hospital Association’s (OHA) Governance Centre of Excellence, April 2017
PRÉSENTATION
Presenter, “The Ethical Dimensions of Health Law Practice — Working with Vulnerable Clients and Patient Populations,” OBA Institute, February 2017
PRÉSENTATION
Program chair and planner, “Medical Assistance in Dying — the Medical Perspective on the New Normal,” MLST, February 2017
PRÉSENTATION
Presenter, "Ontario's Legislative Framework and Update," OHA Medical Assistance in Dying Conference, December 2016
PRÉSENTATION
Presenter, "Discontinuing Technological Support in the Conscious Pediatric Patient," Sick Kids Ethics Rounds, November 2016
PRÉSENTATION
Guest lecturer, "Legal and Ethical Issues at the End of Life in Canada," University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics Master’s Program, University of Toronto, October 2016
PRÉSENTATION
Panel chair, "Providers and Patients at the Floodgates," Conference on Medical Assistance in Dying, University of Ottawa Centre for Health Law Policy and Ethics, October 2016
PRÉSENTATION
Panelist, "Medical Assistance in Dying — Practical Considerations," OHA webcast, September 2016
PRÉSENTATION
Presenter, "The Board's Ethical Dilemma in Medical Assistance in Dying," OHA's Health Leadership Summit, September 2016
PRÉSENTATION
Panelist, "Medical Assistance in Dying: The Role of the Board," OHA webcast, June 2016
PRÉSENTATION
Panelist, "Medical Assistance in Dying: What Hospitals Need to Know," OHA webcast, June 2016
PRÉSENTATION
Participant, "Legal Ethics and Practice for the Last Stages of Life," Law Reform Commission of Ontario's Roundtable, June 2016
PRÉSENTATION
Co-presenter, "Ethical Issues in Health Care — End of Life," Osgoode Certificate in Health Law, April 2016
PRÉSENTATION
Co-presenter, "Treatment of Children and Adolescents — Hot Topics," HIROC webinar, April 2016
PRÉSENTATION
Presenter, "Physician-Assisted Death in Ontario — What Do I Need to Know Now?," MLST audioconference, March 2016
PRÉSENTATION
Conference chair and speaker, "Legal Updates and Guidance" and "Physician-Assisted Dying: Updates and Developments,” OHA Partners in End of Life Care Conference, May 2016
PRÉSENTATION
Speaker, "Consent Conversations Before Major Surgery," Trillium Health Partners Regional Ethics Program’s Joint Ethics/Neuroscience Rounds, April 2016
PRÉSENTATION
Panelist, "Interim Requests for Physician-Assisted Death in Ontario: The Legal Framework", OHA webcast, March 2016
PRÉSENTATION
Co-Author, "Physician-Assisted Death In Canada: The Next Four Months", Health Law Bulletin, January 2016
PUBLICATION
Beyond Our Walls
Professional Involvement
Member of the executive (2010-2017) and member of council (2007-2017), Medico-Legal Society of Toronto
Member, Ontario Bar Association (health law section)
Member, The Advocates' Society
Awards & Recognitions
Recognized in the 2023 edition (and since 2021) of Chambers Canada — Canada's Leading Lawyers for Business (Healthcare: Contentious (Nationwide)).
Recognized in the 2023 edition (and since 2013) of The Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory (Medical Negligence) and the 2022 edition (Personal Injury).
Selected by peers for inclusion in the 2022 (and since 2009) edition of The Best Lawyers in Canada® (Health Care Law; Medical Negligence; Personal Injury Litigation).
Recognized in the 2022 edition (and since 2018) of Benchmark Canada – The Definitive Guide to Canada’s Leading Litigation Firms & Attorneys as a Litigation Star (Health Law).
Recognized in the 2021 edition of Lexpert Special Edition: Health Sciences.
2019 Recipient of the Ontario Bar Association Susan Hilary Davidson Memorial Award for Excellence in Health Law
Bar Admission & Education
Ontario, 1986
LLB,
Université d'Ottawa, 1984
BA (Hons.),
McMaster University, 1981
BSc,
McMaster University, 1979
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