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The Ontario government has opened the possibility of appealing a court ruling — which allowed a young aboriginal girl with leukemia to abandon chemotherapy — after an unusual, belated decision to get involved in the contentious case.

The province has obtained a lengthy extension to the appeal period for a ruling that said the girl’s family had a constitutional right to treat her with traditional native remedies, and in the process reject conventional therapy.

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It now has until March 13 to intervene and challenge that decision in the Court of Appeal.

For the time being, though, the government says it is involved in talks with the family over the “most respectful and effective ways” to care for the girl, whose identity is subject to a publication ban.

After Justice Gethin Edward issued his decision last Nov. 14, Hamilton Health Sciences Centre, the hospital that launched the case, announced it would not appeal.