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Articles: Health Canada fires 3 scientists

Posted by admin on Thursday, July 15, 2004 - 02:48 AM

Three senior Health Canada scientists known for questioning the department's commitment to veterinary drug safety have been fired.
However, Health Canada says the reason for the termination of Shiv Chopra, Margaret Haydon and Gerard Lambert has nothing to do with their outspokenness. "It is not because of anything they may have said publicly," said Ryan Baker, spokesperson for Health Canada. He did not outline the reasons for their dismissals, saying that the information is personal and protected by the federal Privacy Act. Steve Hindle, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, says Health Canada's public statement belies the truth. "This is retribution for having spoken out about what's going on at Health Canada and the concerns they have around the safety of drugs for veterinary use," he said. The firing is the latest in a series of conflicts between Health Canada and the scientists who worked in the veterinary drugs directorate. Last year a memo revealed that they warned their superiors that the department's strategy to fight BSE was inadequate. In 2001, Chopra and Haydon said the department was leaning on them to approve a drug that would be used in chickens and cows that could lead to antibiotic resistance in people. Health Canada officials denied it. That year, Chopra also accused Health Canada of media hype by overstating the danger to Canadians posed by bio-terrorism agents such as anthrax. In 1998, Haydon and Chopra spoke out publicly about being pushed to approve drugs without enough assurances of safety from manufacturers. They were reprimanded by the department, but the Federal Court ruled in the scientists' favour, saying their outcry was in the public interest. Michael McBane of the Canadian Health Coalition, a public-interest watchdog group, said the firings will send shivers through the public service. "This is really serious because Margaret and Shiv, they were kind of the last few scientists at Health Canada who were really looking out for health safety. "Margaret in particular was very involved in recent years around the BSE issue and was speaking out in terms of the real risks and dangers we were facing and she was disciplined for that as well," McBane said. "It will send a real serious signal throughout the public service that there's no such thing as protecting the public interest. You serve the minister and the minister in turn is serving industry," he added. Legislation to protect whistle-blowers was introduced this year as part of Prime Minister Paul Martin's pledge to clean up government in light of the sponsorship scandal. However, Hindle said that in fact, the legislation does not adequately spell out the basis on which public servants are protected. "The legislation didn't really say people had the right to speak publicly about issues that caused some concern, concerns about health and safety of Canadians," he said. Hindle's organization, which has represented Chopra, Haydon and Lambert in the past, will do so again, he said. "We'll have to establish the facts, and part of the facts will be that these people have a reputation as whistle-blowers, they've been in the public eye, and the managers in the department have tried to impose discipline on them in the past." That discipline included verbal and written reprimands and attempts to suspend them (Chopra was suspended for five days in 2002). Hindle said the scientists will have to file a grievance with Health Canada. The institute can then make the case that the discipline imposed was too severe and that their jobs should be reinstated, he said. The Public Service Staff Relations Board will decide. If the scientists are not satisfied, they could pursue the case in Federal Court, he said.

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