The Harper government’s 2012 refugee policy reforms included new restrictions on claimants’ access to public healthcare. The reforms saved money, speeded up the determination process, and deterred “bogus” claimants. But they also offended the Charter rights of refugees, according to this summer’s startling decision by Federal Court Justice Anne Mactavish. Nadeem Esmail and Raj Sharma compare Canadian refugee health policies to those of other developed nations and wonder how the judge – or anyone – could find them “cruel and unusual”…