Flawed investigations and rushed decision-making led to the wrongful firing of seven drug researchers — one of whom later took his own life, a new report shows.
Ombudsperson Jay Chalke concludes in a 488-page report that researchers unfairly suffered significant personal, financial and professional harm.
He calls for government to make “goodwill” payments ranging from $15,000 to $125,000, and in some cases, provide written apologies to the people affected.
He also recommends the province establish a $500,000 scholarship endowment at the University of Victoria to honor the memory of researcher Roderick MacIsaac, who committed suicide. Chalke concluded that MacIsaac did nothing wrong.
The report says the case began with a complaint that was “almost entirely inaccurate” and was never properly assessed by investigators.
“With limited knowledge, investigators very quickly drew adverse conclusions and the momentum grew,” Chalke states in a news release.
Officials then acted on the work of investigators and wrongly concluded that employees’ conduct warranted dismissals, he found.
“This breakdown happened in part because a number of government controls and practices were not followed,” Chalke said. “Investigators did not bring an open mind and the investigative process was unfair.
“The dismissals were rushed, the human resources process effectively collapsed and there was confusion about the scope of the legal advice provided — all of which resulted in terminations that were unjustified.”
Chalke says the decision to fire six health ministry employees was made by former deputy health minister Graham Whitmarsh without any political interference. A seventh employee was constructively dismissed. The government also suspended or terminated a number of ministry contracts, costing at least one other researcher a job and many had their livelihoods seriously affected.
The government announced four of the dismissals and three suspensions in 2012 and said they had asked the RCMP to investigate.
Chalke said it was wrong to mention the RCMP because the force had told the ministry that they would not even make a decision about whether to investigate until a final report was received from the ministry.
“This was an important decision, and the hurried way it was made led to a bad choice being made,” Chalke said.
The researchers were fired in 2012 after Ministry of Health publicly alleged a privacy breach and contract irregularities, claiming an RCMP investigation was underway.
Three months later, MacIsaac, a University of Victoria PhD student committed suicide.
When his family asked for answers, the government conceded the firing was wrong and heavy-handed and that the data had only ever been used for research purposes.
— with files from Cindy E. Harnett
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