Nouvelles
Telegraph-Journal
p. A4, vendredi, 21 novembre 2008
Francophone group seeks lengthy legal battle over reforms
Adam Huras
Doucet represents a Moncton-based francophone advocacy group that has launched a constitutional challenge to the health care administration reforms introduced by Health Minister Mike Murphy.
Doucet said Thursday he has been contacted only once by the province since notice of the court challenge was served. That was a request to extend the date for filing its defence, he said.
Defendants usually have 30 days to reply once a statement of claim is filed, which was submitted by Doucet at the end of October.
"We're still waiting for their statement of defence," Doucet said. "It has to be by the end of the month unless there is something else that they come up with."
A 10-day extension can be granted to the respondent in a court challenge, if a notice is filed stating they will defend their actions, Doucet said. The government has not done that as of yet.
"The only thing that we have heard from them was that we received a statement of particulars from the Justice Department," he said. "We answered that. They should be in the position now to file their statement of defence or take any other action they want."
The particulars of claim state the facts on which a claim relies and builds on initial lawsuit documents by expanding their meaning.
"It's a usual practice which just gives an additional five days to the defender to submit a statement of defence," Doucet said. "It has been done in almost every other case I have been involved in, there was nothing really surprising and nothing really came out of it from our end.
"Sometimes lawyers even use it to see what kind of evidence the other party has."
Retired Supreme Court justice and legal adviser to the Committee for Equality in Health Services Michel Bastarache said recently that stubbornness on the part of the province may mean the creation of a dual health-care system in the province.
The committee, which filed a lawsuit in the Court of Queen's Bench in
It objects primarily to the reforms eliminating the only francophone health authority in
"I think it all comes to a definition of equality," Bastarache said. "Is it just the fact of one person to be able to be served in his language, or is it for a whole community to have access to services of equal quality?
"Basically, we say from experience - especially in the area of education - we think that we need special institutions that are homogeneous."
Murphy maintains the move to two regional health authorities was necessary for the province's economic future as medical costs soar and