The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal has partly allowed an appeal by overturning a designation of a paramedic applicant as a vexatious litigant, while dismissing her challenge to registration requirements under provincial labour mobility legislation.
The appellant applied for paramedic registration in Nova Scotia in 2021. The College of Paramedics of Nova Scotia’s Registration Committee denied the application in May 2022, citing concerns about the applicant’s character based on allegedly Islamophobic public posts made several years earlier during a federal election campaign.
It noted the paramedic has publicly posted that Islam is “pure evil” and “has no place in Canadian society.”
The committee found reason for concern “about [the applicant’s] ability to provide the required level of compassionate and empathetic care to Muslim Nova Scotians,” according to the decision. The committee determined that “those in the Muslim Nova Scotia community would question [the applicant’s] licensure with the College and may experience discomfort upon receiving her care.”
Paramedic appealed
The applicant appealed to the Registration Appeal Committee, but disputed a procedural ruling and the hearing was adjourned at her request. She subsequently sued the appeal committee panelists for damages, after which the panelists withdrew from the appeal. The appeal has not yet been heard.
After becoming registered as a paramedic in New Brunswick in January 2023, the applicant sought registration in Nova Scotia under the Patient Access to Care Act and the Canadian Free Trade Agreement. The college informed her she must file a completed application as an inter-provincial applicant, which she did not do.
The applicant maintained her 2021 application should suffice and that the Patient Access to Care Act required immediate registration without further process. She applied twice to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia for orders compelling the college to register and license her.
First application dismissed
A justice dismissed the first application because the applicant had not filed a completed application as an inter-provincial registrant. A second justice dismissed a similar application for the same reasons and designated the applicant as a vexatious litigant.
On appeal, the applicant argued her 2021 application should suffice for registration and that the Patient Access to Care Act and Canadian Free Trade Agreement entitled her to immediate registration without further assessment. The college’s registrar contended the application was premature without a completed inter-provincial application and constituted an abuse of process.
The Court of Appeal found the applicant’s 2021 application did not trigger the provisions of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement. “The applicant’s 2021 application merged into the resulting decision,” the court said, noting that application was “spent” after the Registration Committee’s decision.
New application required
The court determined the applicant must file a new completed application as an inter-provincial registrant. All relevant statutes require a completed application, the court found, and the record showed the applicant had not filed one despite being provided with the necessary information and links to the application process.
The court also held that the applicant’s judicial review application was barred by issue estoppel, as it attempted to relitigate matters already decided by the first justice. “Such attempted re-litigation is an abuse of process,” the court said.
Vexatious litigant designation
However, the court overturned the vexatious litigant designation. “Existing procedures permit the control of [the applicant’s] litigious excess without having to declare she is a vexatious litigant,” the court said.
The court noted the applicant “is not the classic vexatious litigant who uses the court’s podium for indiscriminate harassment. She has an intrepid ambition to be a paramedic. Her only litigious activity has been to promote her objective to practice paramedicine in Nova Scotia.”
The court outlined two legal avenues available: reactivating her appeal from the Registration Committee’s 2022 decision, or filing a completed application as a New Brunswick registrant. The court emphasized that neither avenue escapes the criterion of character assessment.
“In whichever forum [the applicant] proceeds, she must address head-on the impact of her allegedly Islamophobic posts on the quality of care she would offer to Muslim patients,” the court said.
The appeal was partly allowed to overturn the vexatious litigant designation and otherwise dismissed without costs. The college’s motion under the Judicature Act was adjourned without dismissal.
For more information, see (Plaintiff) v. Registrar of the College of Paramedics of Nova Scotia, 2025 NSCA 83 (CanLII).
