Today the Court of Appeal (Chambers), allowed the application of Canadian Doctors for Medicare, the BC Friends of Medicare Society, and Individual Doctors and Patients Supporting Medicare to intervene in an appeal.
This is an appeal from the decision of Justice Steeves' who upheld the constitutional validity of sections of the Medicare Protection Act. This Act is the Province’s most comprehensive health and social benefit scheme through which the Province seeks to safeguard the lives and health of all British Columbians. The trial decision is available here.
The appellants are two private clinics and four individuals who challenged the constitutional validity of the provisions in a proceeding that began in 2009. I have been privileged to act since 2009 for this coalition of intervenors representing some of the most vulnerable beneficiaries of BC’s universal public healthcare system, who together with many others depend on the benefits and protections afforded by the law, and stand the most to lose if those benefits and protections, are struck down. I am also privileged to act for physician providers of healthcare committed to the principles of universality and equitable access who, together with their patients, would shoulder the damaging consequences if BC’s publicly funded single payer Medicare system is undermined or dismantled.
The decision on intervenor standing is available here.