A Manitoba senator is pressing Prime Minister Paul Martin for an independent inquiry into Health Canada's decision to fire 3 scientists who have publicly criticized the department's drug review policies.
Shiv Chopra, Margaret Haydon and Gérard Lambert, who reviewed veterinary drugs, were fired July 14 while on stress leave from the department. All 3 have spoken out publicly about the department's drug approval process and what they call the “undue influence” of the pharmaceutical industry.
“I know these scientists to be dedicated public servants who placed their devotion to the protection of public health and safety ahead of their own careers,” Mira Spivak wrote in a July 15 letter to Martin. “They are whistleblowers who were ultimately shown to be correct in their scientific concerns.”
Spivak has asked Martin and Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh to stay the scientists' dismissals “pending an independent inquiry into their conduct and the conduct of Health Canada managers regarding their work.”
Health Canada spokesman Ryan Baker said the scientists' termination was “not because of anything they may have said publicly.”
Letters sent to the scientists at home stated that they had not completed drug review files and were being fired on that basis, Chopra said.
But the scientists, who have filed a grievance with the Public Service Alliance of Canada, believe they were fired because of their past whistle-blowing activities, particularly around Monsanto Canada's application for approval of a bovine growth hormone. The scientists testified before the Senate Agriculture Committee about their safety concerns regarding the Monsanto drug.
Spivak, who sat on that committee, noted that the 1999 committee report related the scientists' fear of reprisals. The senators asked the scientists to contact them if they felt they were suffering as a result of their testimony.
Conservative MP Pierre Polievre (Nepean-Carleton), who represents the riding where 2 of the scientists live, is also calling for an inquiry and has promised to raise the issue when Parliament reconvenes in October. — Laura Eggertson, CMAJ