Another chapter has ended in the botched Health Ministry investigation that led to the firings of eight drug researchers in 2012, but the sorry saga is far from over. There are still too many questions, too many loose ends and too little accountability.
The B.C. government announced Tuesday it had settled with Rebecca and William Warburton, who had launched wrongful dismissal and defamation lawsuits against the province and former health minister Margaret MacDiarmid. Details of the agreement were not revealed, but the Warburtons said it included a sizable amount of money and they are free to continue their research.
The Warburtons were among the researchers fired in September 2012 after MacDiarmid, on her first day in her new portfolio, announced that an investigation had revealed serious allegations of inappropriate data access and conflicts of interest.
“This was the first thing I was briefed on, and my reaction was disbelief. I was shocked,” she said. She offered no details, no explanations, other than to say the RCMP would be asked to investigate, which never happened.
Subsequent investigations were themselves flawed or woefully constrained, turning up little more than the fact that basic human-resources rules were violated, which was already painfully obvious.
With the Warburton settlement, all of the researchers have been apologized to and exonerated. The clouds that have hung over those people have finally dissipated, but the scandal remains a black mark against the Christy Clark government. The stain is not because of the original error, but because of a pervasive cloak of secrecy.
In her investigation, the privacy commissioner found sloppy handling of data, of the kind that probably happens in offices large and small every day. And the Warburtons acknowledged that they breached some rules and procedures, but with the intention of furthering their research, not for personal gain.
In a news conference in January 2013, MacDiarmid revealed some details of the data breaches, but emphasized that no one gained financially and that the chance of public or personal harm was small.
It was the kind of situation that could likely have been resolved with reprimands, some policy changes and closer monitoring. Instead, the issue morphed from a minor lapse in procedures to one of monumental bungling on the part of Health Ministry management.
A distinct whiff of protecting bureaucratic and political posteriors hangs about this case. The government did not appear to give the victims the same level of protection it afforded the people who fired them.
The latest settlement clears the way for Ombudsperson Jay Chalke to complete his investigation. We hope Chalke will be able to answer the many questions that linger, not for revenge or to shame those responsible, but to ensure similar things don’t happen in the future.
This is one of the worst blunders in the history of Canadian public service, and yet no one has been called to account; no one has explained what really happened and why. Chalke should have full co-operation and should not have to pry the truth out one grudging piece at a time.
Without a full explanation, British Columbians can be forgiven for believing there’s something rotten in government, that self-serving strategy was given priority over public good, that deliberate attempts were made to keep the truth from public view.
