WINNIPEG (TREATY 1) - Manitoba Health Coalition Provincial Director Thomas Linner said:

This morning, the British Columbia Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed Dr. Brian Day’s appeal of the lower court’s ruling on the Cambie Case, re-affirming that provincial laws which limit a two-tier health care system do not contravene the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In fact, the court ruled that the provisions of  BC’s Medicare Protection Act challenged by Cambie Surgeries are “necessary to preserve a publicly funded system delivering necessary services based on need and not ability to pay”.

This case—the trial, the appeal and the rulings—has reiterated what public health care advocates have always known: profit has no place in health care. Private, for-profit health care siphons medical staff and resources from the public system, resulting in worsening wait times and declining care for everyone but the wealthiest among us. But ultimately, this case was never about patients, it was simply about increasing the profits of those who seek to capitalize on the health care needs of Canadians. 

While it is likely that this case will be appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, this decision should be seen as a rebuke of the tried and true practice of governments focused on private profit over public health care that cut and defund services, allow them to slip into chaos and then sell privatization as a silver bullet. 

The Manitoba Health Coalition and public health care advocates all across this country will continue our fight to protect, strengthen and expand our public health care system for all. We would like to express our gratitude to intervenors in the case, the British Columbia Health Coalition and Canadian Doctors for Medicare.