Dr. Brian Day’s healthcare truth bomb (Book Review)

Note to readers: The views expressed in this review are those of the author and reflect his personal interpretation of the events and legal proceedings discussed. They should not be understood as factual assertions about the conduct or character of any judicial official. The publisher does not allege any misconduct or bias on the part of Justices or courts involved in this case.

Perusing the much-anticipated book from Dr. Brian Day, My Fight For Canadian Healthcare: A Thirty-Year Battle To Put Patients First, I fully expected Dr. Day to share with us his indictment of our country’s healthcare system. What I wasn’t expecting is that Day’s book would also prove to be an indictment of Canada’s justice system.

For those of you who may not be aware, the Vancouver-based orthopaedic surgeon and founder of the Cambie Surgery Centre, waged a 13-year battle with the British Columbia government, who wanted to shut down his private clinic — a facility that performed procedures on more than 5,000 patients a year, and one that the government continually referred patients to in order to reduce its own costs and reduce wait lists — all because Cambie was in violation of the Medicare Protection Act.

Forget about the Hippocratic Oath. As Day points out, what we’re clearly dealing with when it comes to elected officials and healthcare here in Canada is the Hypocritic Oath.

What this book isn’t is a recitation of the seventy-plus years of history and choices made by various governments of all political stripes — both federal and provincial — that have created our Canadian healthcare system as we know it today. Nor is Day’s book a policy nerd’s wet dream of the nuances and intricacies of the many pieces of legislation — like the Canada Health Act, for instance — that have been piled one on top of the other over the years, like some kind of madman’s Rubik’s Cube, that have led us to the edge of the abyss when it comes to the future of healthcare in our country.

Starting with his humble beginnings in Liverpool, England, where he and his family struggled to make ends meet in the aftermath of World War II, Day takes us on a kind of cook’s tour of his life and times. This is a man who went to school with Paul McCartney and George Harrison, who would later form — along with John Lennon and Ringo Starr — the world’s first great rock’n’roll band, The Beatles. Day also reveals how his father was murdered and how he learned to stick up for himself at an early age as an amateur boxer. But mostly, the good doctor focuses on his career standing up and fighting for his patients, spending the greatest part of the narrative on his courageous Charter challenge, which, had it been successful, would have changed the course of history and saved Medicare from the ignoble end it will ultimately now come to over the next few years.

As mentioned earlier, perhaps the most disturbing aspect of Day’s book is the way government and the justice system seemed to have been in cahoots. Reading the various transcripts and media accounts of the needlessly lengthy trial, one can’t help but wonder if the fix wasn’t in from the very beginning. It also didn’t help that the judge in charge of the proceedings was clearly, in my opinion, out of his element and shouldn’t have been the one listening to the arguments and counter-arguments under any circumstances.

Imagine if Angel Hernandez, the man generally considered to be the worst umpire in the history of Major League Baseball, had been chosen to hear Day’s case. This is a man who on a regular basis called balls strikes and strikes balls. Someone who called baserunners out when they were clearly safe and safe when they were clearly out. In Justice John Steeves, of the British Columbia Supreme Court, we had just such a man. In my view, he frequently misunderstood key facts, struggled to grasp expert evidence presented by both sides, and appeared dismissive of Day and the patient plaintiffs, all while showing a noticeably more receptive posture toward the government’s case.

So, it hardly came as a surprise when Justice Steeves ruled in favour of the government and against Day. What did come as a surprise is that the British Columbia Appeal Court also chose to uphold the status quo and rule against Day, innovation and patient choice. But then came the really big shock. The Supreme Court of Canada decided not to hear Day’s Charter challenge. There can be no bigger issue than that of Canadians having the right to pay for their own healthcare when government policies, funding, and wait lists make it impossible for patients to receive treatment in a timely fashion. And yet, the highest court in our country kicked the can down the road when asked to do right by the sick and dying.

In a 2007 speech to the Empire Club of Canada, Day said, “We need more than a visionary who can see how to solve our problems; we need a pioneer who can actually fix them.”

Unfortunately, after decades of lies, fairy tales, and just plain bullshit, it’s too late — even if a modern-day Tommy Douglas emerged from the shadows. Our so-called leaders and justice system have nuked Canada’s once great health care system to such an extent that even the socialist saviour from the prairies can no longer save us.

It’s over.

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Stephen Skyvington was the former manager of government relations for the Ontario Medical Association. His book, This May Hurt A Bit: Reinventing Canada's Health Care System, was published in 2019 by Dundurn Press.