Cambie Surgeries Corp., a private clinic in British Columbia, has been ordered to pay the provincial government's legal costs after an unsuccessful constitutional challenge of Canada's public healthcare system. The clinic's lawsuit, launched in 2009, argued that the province's Medicare Protection Act unfairly prevented access to private healthcare when the public system was unable to provide timely care. The case spanned years and involved multiple courts, ultimately being dismissed by the Supreme Court of Canada. The judge ruled that Cambie Surgeries' financial interest in the outcome of the case outweighed any public-interest claims, leading to the order for them to cover the B.C. government's substantial legal expenses.
VANCOUVER — A private medical clinic that launched an unsuccessful constitutional challenge of Canada's public health care system must pay the B.C. government's legal costs , after what a judge calls a"gruelling marathon" of a case.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Lynn Whately ruled Monday that Cambie Surgeries should pay the Attorney General of British Columbia's trial costs, calling the long-running litigation"prodigiously lengthy and complex." The court ruling says the government argued that Cambie Surgeries was a"well-resourced" party that had a financial stake in the outcome of the case, rather than a public-interest litigant going to bat for patients let down by the public health care system.
Whately found that the case"involved matters of great importance to all British Columbians, not only in a legal sense, but in terms of the practical, day-to-day impact on access to health care, the funding of health care services, and the principles that uphold our public health care system."
PUBLIC HEALTHCARE PRIVATE HEALTHCARE LEGAL COSTS CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGE BRITISH COLUMBIA
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