Doctor Prepared to Take Challenge of BC’s Public Health-Care Rules to Canada’s Top Court

Contact Your Elected Officials

A Vancouver surgeon who spent 11 years battling the ban on private health care in British Columbia is not giving up. The B.C. Supreme Court rejected Dr. Brian Day’s constitutional challenge, but he says he’s ready to fight the issue all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

An 880-page ruling by Justice John Steeves of the B.C. Supreme Court on Sept. 10, 2020 upheld that the province’s Medicare Protection Act (MPA) did not violate the Charter rights of patients who wished to pay for private care when they were forced to wait in the public system.

Day, owner of the for-profit Cambie Surgery Centre, led plaintiffs in the legal challenge to overturn MPA provisions that prohibit physicians from earning income from both the publicly funded system and private clinics and that also limit extra billing and ban health insurance for services already covered under the public plan.

In 2005, Dr. Jacques Chaoulli successfully challenged Quebec’s ban on private health care because the public system rationed the amount of care offered while legally banning the alternative of paying for services. In 2009, Day, who later became head of the Canadian Medical Association, launched a similar challenge in B.C.

“It sounds extreme, but it was literally about giving citizens in this province the same rights that Quebecers have under the Charter of Rights and the same rights that citizens in every other country already have,” Day said in an interview.

“One of our plaintiffs was a young man who waited 27 months for his surgery on the spine at the age of 15 or so. And he has ended up in a wheelchair paralyzed for life. His time that he waited was four times the maximum medically accepted time for surgery, and that has been condoned by the decision.”

Advocates for the status quo fear that the private system will take resources away from the public system and make it worse. The B.C. Health Coalition and Canadian Doctors for Medicare, which were intervenors in the case, applauded the decision.

“As a group of patients, doctors, and health-care advocates, we became involved in this case in order to defend and protect public health care,” said Edith MacHattie, co-chair of the BC Health Coalition.

“This is a victory for everyone who uses health care in Canada. Even though the attack had been launched in B.C., it took aim at the very heart of the Canada Health Act and every provincial health care insurance plan.”

BY LEE HARDING

Read Full Article on TheEpochTimes.com

The Thinking Conservative
The Thinking Conservativehttps://www.thethinkingconservative.com/
The goal of THE THINKING CONSERVATIVE is to help us educate ourselves on conservative topics of importance to our freedom and our pursuit of happiness. We do this by sharing conservative opinions on all kinds of subjects, from all types of people, and all kinds of media, in a way that will challenge our perceptions and help us to make educated choices.

Why the Trump Administration is Sitting on the Epstein Files

President Trump, AG Bondi, and FBI Dir. Patel have the advantage over us in that they see the big overall picture when it comes to the Epstein List.

Trump’s “Major Statement” On Russia Is A Clumsy Attempt To Thread The Needle

The “major statement” on Russia Trump hyped up turned out to be an attempt to thread the needle between escalating US involvement in Ukrainian and walking away from it.

AI Takes Customer Service from Doublespeak to Triplespeak

Corporations are replacing customer service agents with AI agents. Here's a real-life example of attempting to use AI to have my internet restored.

The Left’s Descent into Extremism  

The political left, from mainstream Dems to radical Antifa, have embraced extremism, alienating swaths of the public and undermining their own influence.

Roger Stone Speaks About Trump at Turning Point USA

Longtime Donald Trump friend, Roger Stone, gave a speech at the 2025 TPUSA convention offering his take on the recent Epstein List controversy.

Border Czar Says Physical Appearance ‘Can’t Be the Sole Reason’ to Detain Someone

Border czar Homan said comments were “taken out of context” and federal immigration enforcement agents can't detain people based on physical appearances alone.

Capacity of US Coal-Fired Power Plants to Fall Over 15 Percent by 2028

Total operating capacity of coal-fired power plants in US is set to drop to 145 GW by end of 2028, a 15% decline from the 172 GW in operation as of May.

Violence Against ICE Escalates Across America

ICE officers face increased confrontation on the street, which crosses the line between free speech and physical violence.

International Buyers Purchased $56 Billion Worth of US Homes in 1 Year

Foreign buyers purchased $56 billion worth of existing homes in the US between April 2024 and March 2025, up by 33.2% from the previous 12 months.

Pharma Imports Could Face Tariffs by End of the Month, Trump Says

US will institute tariffs on pharmaceutical imports “probably at the end of the month,” President Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews.

RFK Jr. Fires Top Aides, Appoints New Acting Chief of Staff

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has fired several top advisers, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) confirmed on July 16.

Trump Says He Will Impose Tariffs of More Than 10 Percent on Smaller Nations

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he intends to impose tariff rates of more than 10 percent on imports from “smaller nations.”

Trump Announces Trade Deal With Indonesia

The US and Indonesia have reached a trade agreement, President Trump announced on social media. “Great deal, for everybody, just made with Indonesia".
spot_img

Related Articles