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The B.C. government is opposing an application by the Pacific Newspaper Group to use a camera in the courtroom during a Vancouver trial that may have far-reaching implications for private medical care in Canada.

Jonathan Penner, a B.C. Justice Ministry lawyer representing the Medical Services Commission, indicated in an email that he had received instructions to oppose the application.

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The final decision will rest with the judge.

When the Health Ministry was contacted for comment, the ministry only responded with a brief email: “Permission to film any kind of court proceeding in British Columbia is rare and extraordinary. Ultimately, the court decides whether an application is granted.”

The Pacific Newspaper Group, which publishes The Vancouver Sun and The Province, made the application for a camera at the trial involving a six-year-old lawsuit that Vancouver’s Cambie Surgery Centre and a handful of patients launched against the government, arguing patients have a constitutional right to pay for medical care in private facilities when treatment is too slow in the public system because of lengthy waiting lists.