Calgary – The Canadian Constitution Foundation is launching a TV and radio ad campaign today to help raise public awareness about an upcoming historic court challenge to the government’s health care monopoly.
“Our ad campaign will inform Canadians that this legal challenge is about ending real suffering by real people who are currently languishing on government health care waiting lists,” said CCF Executive Director Marni Soupcoff.
The CCF’s 60-second TV and radio spots focus on one of the plaintiffs in the court challenge,
Walid Khalfallah, a teenager who became paralyzed after waiting more than two years
for back surgery.
“We’re arguing that people like Walid have a Charter-guaranteed right to health care choice,” said Soupcoff. “It’s time to end the government health care monopoly that prevents them from exercising that right.”
The groundbreaking case, which is set to commence on March 2, in British Columbia, involves the Cambie Surgery Centre and four patients — each of whom experienced real harm while on waiting lists — who are suing the British Columbia Attorney General in an attempt to end the ban on accessing health care outside the government system.
The CCF is supporting the plaintiffs.