Lawyer says Eastern Health slow to settle breast cancer lawsuit

On the eve of the release of the report from the inquiry into faulty breast cancer testing, a lawyer who represents hundreds of victims in the scandal says Eastern Health is slowing down attempts to settle a class action lawsuit.

The provincial government announced Friday it will release the report by Justice Margaret Cameron to the public on Monday. The government itself was to receive the report on Saturday. The report is based on testimony from dozens of witnesses between March and October on how almost 400 breast cancer patients received the wrong results on hormone receptor tests.

Premier Danny Williams told reporters last spring that Eastern Health couldn't win a class action lawsuit and that lawyers should settle it and not put patients and their families through any more anguish.

However Ches Crosbie, the patients' lawyer, said that's not the message he's getting behind closed doors.

"We've been talking and there's been some degree of co-operation. But that can only go so far if they're not willing to say, 'Yes, we are liable.' And so far, they haven't said that," he said.

Crosbie said the original plan was to ask a judge to look at a handful of individual cases and give the lawyers an idea of what the settlement should be. However he said that would take too long, and some cancer patients don't have time on their side.

"Admit you did wrong. Admit that you must pay the class members who are injured. And let's get the process going of trying to arrive at an overall global settlement," he said.

Crosbie is now pushing to get to an outside mediator involved, and says unless there's an admission of liability, Eastern Health will have learned nothing from the breast cancer mistakes and the resulting public inquiry.

Crosbie wouldn't say how much money he's looking for, except that it's in the tens of millions of dollars.