The wounds have not yet healed from the 2012 firings scandal that darkened Margaret MacDiarmid’s tenure as B.C.’s health minister. The scars persist for the province, for the B.C. Liberal party, for quality health research and especially for the people involved.
Don’t fault MacDiarmid. She was blindsided on her first day as health minister when Graham Whitmarsh, the deputy minister, briefed her about allegations of serious misconduct by health researchers, citing months of investigating by the ministry. The allegations were based, as it turned out, on almost completely inaccurate information.
The toll was heavy. Seven people were fired, research projects were damaged, at least one company folded with the loss of 10 jobs, and co-op student Roderick MacIsaac, seeing no hope of salvaging his career, killed himself.
The allegations were followed by a process that Ombudsperson Jay Chalke, in his 2017 report, called “chaotic” and “unorganized,” and completely lacking in objectivity.
The government, which had already issued some apologies and had compensated or reinstated those involved, agreed to implement Chalke’s 41 recommendations.
MacDiarmid, quoted in an article published Sunday in the Times Colonist, admits it’s likely she was naïve, but that she trusted her deputy minister.
And so she should have. The role of senior bureaucrats is to provide cabinet ministers with accurate and complete information. If they can’t be trusted, the process of governing is seriously eroded.
We might never know exactly what happened, and that’s a pity. We cannot trust government unless it is characterized by openness and honest accountability.
