The B.C. Court of Appeal has an unenviable job parsing the 880-page decision involving the constitutionality of provisions in the Medicare Protection Act restricting private health care.
And both senior governments exacerbated it by continuing to muddy the waters during last week’s appeal as they did throughout the marathon 198-day trial conducted by B.C. Supreme Court Justice John Steeves.
Since 2009 when proceedings started — which tells you how much politicking and busy-work has occurred — this case has been treated as a time-bomb that the two governments want defused by any means necessary.
Some of issues were before the Supreme Court of Canada in a 2005 Quebec case, known as Chaoulli, when the high bench ruled that access to a waiting list was not access to timely health care.
