The B.C. Supreme Court justice who endorsed restrictions on patients accessing private health care when public surgical queues are so long that they could suffer further harm has been excoriated in front of the Court of Appeal.
The lawyer for private clinics, which have existed since the last century, and two representative patients hammered Justice John Steeves for the lack of logic in his constitutional ruling and being wrong, wrong, wrong.
In two days of fierce criticism before a division of the province’s top court led by Chief Justice Robert Bauman, Geoff Cowper maintained Steeves understated the extent of waiting times, unfairly dealt with the evidence of doctors, gave too much deference to the government and ignored the widespread harm caused by the constraints on access to private care.
“He starts out wrong and he ends up wrong,” Cowper complained. “He didn’t pay attention to the proper questions.”
