The B.C. Appeal Court has changed a small part of a woman’s $1.4 million award for damages suffered when she was hit by a car after ICBC challenged the trial judge’s ruling on psilocybin treatments.

Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.

• Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.
• Get exclusive access to the Vancouver Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.
• Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.
• Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.
• Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.

Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.

• Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.
• Get exclusive access to the Vancouver Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.
• Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.
• Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.
• Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.

Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.

• Access articles from across Canada with one account.
• Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.
• Enjoy additional articles per month.
• Get email updates from your favourite authors.

Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.

• Access articles from across Canada with one account
• Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments
• Enjoy additional articles per month
• Get email updates from your favourite authors

Sign In or Create an Account

or View more offers

ICBC appealed the $35,000 that the B.C. Supreme Court awarded to Shelley Ann Roy-Noel for the treatments because it was awarded without conditions, despite the judge noting she would need Health Canada’s authorization to obtain the controlled drug, according to the Appeal Court judgment released Friday.

Crash victim’s psilocybin treatments only covered by ICBC if authorized: Appeal court Back to video

The trial judge noted she would need a Health Canada authorization and a doctor’s prescription to get the drug. But the judge, knowing Roy-Noel had been consuming the drug for her injuries from an unauthorized supplier for years, still ordered ICBC to pay her a lump sum without conditions.

Psilocybin, also known as magic mushrooms, is illegal except with Health Canada’s permission for medical reasons.

Appeal Court Justice Geoffrey Gomery sent the case back to the Supreme Court to include a provision that Roy-Noel is to receive the award only if she obtains the federal agency’s authorization.

He chose that option over eliminating the psilocybin award or having the Appeal Court determine whether she had obtained the authorization.

Gomery said the lower court judge was in a better position to judge whether Roy-Noel was likely to obtain the authorization than the Appeal Court was. It has been 21 months since Roy-Noel testified at her trial and when she appears again in Supreme Court, so whether or not she has obtained the authorization since then would settle the issue, he wrote.

His judgment was agreed to by Justice Joyce DeWitt-Van Oosten and Justice Michael Brundrett.

1. Advertisement 1

   Story continues below

   This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Roy-Noel, 45, suffered serious injuries in 2018 when a light truck rear-ended her car as she was getting out, including pain in an arm and her neck and head, tinnitus, dizziness, constant migraines and a greater sensitivity and diminished ability to cope with pain, as well as psychological conditions.

The trial judge wrote that she was at the young end of middle age and will live with her severe and disabling conditions for decades, imposing emotional suffering and destroying her “previous vital and enjoyable lifestyle.”

Roy-Noel had told the court she had been taking psilocybin, which she obtained from an unauthorized seller daily since late 2018, months after the accident. She testified she hadn’t regularly used the drug before the accident.

She found it relieved her migraines and dark thoughts and was “critical” for her to function, wrote Gomery.

Her claim was supported by an independent expert, Dr. Pamela Kryskow, and Gomery noted that ICBC didn’t deny during trial that psilocybin is the “subject of many promising mainstream medical trials and studies” for treating pain and psychoiogical conditions.

The trial judge granted her the cost of future psilocybin treatments if prescribed by a physician in compliance with Health Canada protocols.

ICBC’s “central complaint” was that the judge didn’t address the possibility that Roy-Noel may not obtain Health Canada authorization.

The judge contemplated that possibility, given that she had been consuming it unlawfully up to the time of trial and the possibility that she may not be successful in obtaining the authorization, but granted the full upfront award anyway, Gomery wrote.