CSAs Challenge the System of Exclusion: The Petition is filed

On September 24, 2018 CSAs filed a Petition in BC Supreme Court challenging the residency matching system which excludes international medical graduates (IMGs) including Canadians who study medicine abroad (CSAs) from competing for residency positions on the basis of individual merit, i.e., knowledge, skills, and other attributes relevant to the practice of medicine.  We are seeking a court order that CSAs be allowed to compete for the same residency positions on the same conditions as graduates from Canadian and American medical schools (CMGs). In addition, we have asked the court to make an order that:

1. the CAP, a mandatory assessment in BC which is not available to 80% of IMGs who have proven substantial equivalency by passing the MCCEE and NAC OSCE, be struck down;
2. return of service contracts imposed upon CSAs as a condition of access to residency are illegal and unconstitutional; and
3. the College of Physicians and Surgeons stop being inflexible and use reasonable discretion to determine whether or not requiring a CSA to take an English fluency test is necessary or reasonable.

 In addition, we are asking the court to declare that the College is failing in its duty as a gatekeeper of the medical profession by allowing discrimination of this nature and by allowing residency training to be used for an improper purpose.  Residency training was mandated for the purpose of ensuring that medical graduates have the necessary experience to practice medicine safely.  But residency training is being used by the universities to protect their own graduates at the expense of other Canadians who may be more qualified.  It is being used by the Ministry of Health to control the number of IMGs who can practice medicine and to coerce CSAs and other IMGs to practice in geographic locations and in disciplines that are underserviced.

 Here is a copy of the filed Petition.