archives
Hospitals as Charitable Institutions
Notre-Dame Hospital Dispensary Rules (1899)
Transcript (French text)
Articles 112 and 113 of the Notre-Dame Hospital Dispensary Rules
Section XIII
Dispensaires
- Les malades pauvres et incapables de payer les soins d’un médecin sont seuls admis à se faire traiter dans les dispensaires. Les consultations leurs sont données gratuitement. Tous les autres malades doivent être refusés.
- Tous les malades qui désirent se faire traiter aux dispensaires doivent présenter des certificats d’indigence.
Notre-Dame Hospital Archives
The Public Charities Act
An Act to Establish the Quebec Bureau of Public Charities, 1921, Statutes of Quebec, Chapter 79.
View the original document (pdf)
Humiliating Investigations
The Public Charities Act did nothing to protect the privacy of poor families, who were subjected to meticulous and humiliating investigations. Consider the following case from 1936, involving a destitute child who received treatment at the Sainte-Justine Hospital. The boy lived on Ontario Street in Montreal with his four siblings and their mother. His parents were separated. When the Great Depression hit, his father had left Montreal with four other siblings, bound for Notre-Dame-du-Nord in Abitibi, where the family had lived for several years.
Excerpt from a public assistance file, 1936, BAnQ-Montréal, District of Montreal Circuit Court fonds, Assistance Publique, TL38, S27.
View the original document (pdf)
Synopsis
When the child was admitted to hospital, his mother stated that she was too poor to pay for treatment and that she was no longer in touch with her husband. To determine whether the boy and his mother qualified as destitute, the hospital had to locate the father to see if he was capable of meeting his legal obligations. The father eventually confirmed that he was unable to pay the hospital bills. In accordance with the Public Charities Act, the hospital then asked the municipality of Notre-Dame-du-Nord to cover the cost of the child’s hospitalization. Among the documents filed with the court were a report from the Social Services Department at the Sainte-Justine Hospital and a sworn statement from the mayor of Notre-Dame-du-Nord. Judge Desmarais ultimately recognized the father as destitute and ordered the municipality to pay its share of the child’s hospital costs.
