B.C. is using taxpayer money to outlast plaintiffs in health-care trial: critic
VANCOUVER — The British Columbia government is being accused of using a vast supply of taxpayers’ dollars to win a legal war of attrition against advocates for two-tier health care by the man who has become the face of privatized medicine in Canada.
Dr. Brian Day, an orthopedic surgeon and owner of Cambie Surgery Centre in Vancouver, said he believes the government is trying to delay a B.C. Supreme Court trial to whittle down the resources of those in favour of private care, who launched the lawsuit.
But the federal government is blaming the delay on the plaintiffs, consisting of Day’s clinic and a group of patients, accusing them of submitting new documents at the last minute that have led to unanticipated procedural problems.
Day said private health advocates are trying to raise more money to continue the fight, which is scheduled to resume in September after an almost five-month adjournment. The trial began last September.