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The B.C. government is complicating the constitutional challenge to Medicare by raising innumerable objections and claiming even statements by Health Ministers are irrelevant.

The marathon trial is bogged down in procedural disputes and B.C. Supreme Court Justice John Steeves is struggling to re-start it faced with the government’s unprecedented steps.

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He plans to sit well into next year but can’t yet schedule even a solid fortnight of witnesses because Victoria wants to constrain doctors’ testimony and restrict the information the two clinics and representative patients want to present to bolster their case.

There are two volumes totalling 664 pages of detailed evidentiary objections.

Most importantly, Victoria seeks to block much of the testimony of Dr. Brian Day, a founder of the Cambie Clinic in 1996 and the face of the dispute.

Government lawyer Jonathan Penner accused him of trying to politicize the trial based on a 60-page synopsis of what he will say.