Commentary Commentaire penalized for refusing treatment. Welfare recipients who use alcohol or drugs could easily provide the answers necessary to escape detection by the CAGE test and therefore escape mandatory assessment and treatment. The Ontario government’s use of the CAGE test is an example of the state’s misapplication of science for the purpose of achieving ideologically motivated social change. Finally, the Ontario government claims that it has “given careful consideration to legal issues.” Yet it is silent on the issue of patient consent. The Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA) has outlined the requirements for valid consent based on Canadian law. 16 One element of valid consent is that it must be voluntary and, in the CMPA’s phrase,“free of any suggestion of duress or coercion.” The Ontario government plans to refer welfare recipients for a compulsory “professional, comprehensive assessment” and to demand that some recipients attend outpatient programs for mandatory treatment as a condition of receiving benefits. Both diagnosis and treatment will require the involvement of physicians and both could occur under duress and coercion.