Following a landmark 2006 settlement by the Canadian Human Rights Commission, all Canadian universities are required to meet “equity targets” in four under-represented groups – visible minorities, women, people with disabilities and indigenous people – when filling CRC positions. In her words, “the chief medical officer of health is not a decision maker,” but rather just “is an adviser and someone who recommends.”. Now these powers are obviously vast. A ranger can order a factory to clean up a toxic spill. This old complaint is against the employer and not against APUO. Amir Attaran is a professor in the Faculties of Law and Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Amir Attaran is a professor of Law and Medicine at the University of Ottawa. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. That cavernous legal mandate is enough, for example, to order masks worn, to order schools closed or to order businesses shuttered. The researcher spoke to the Citizen on the condition neither his name, nor the letter would be published, calling the grievance a private matter between him and the university, and saying he didn’t want to jeopardize the possibility of a positive resolution. He has staunchly refused to impose restrictions, instead telling partygoers to “knock it off” and adopting a “personal responsibility” approach to public health. “I do know that he re-activated an old complaint concerning racial discrimination when his position as Canada Research Chair was not renewed, though there are never any guarantees that such arrangements will be renewed. But there is more. That sounds thoughtful, except as the city’s public health guardian and not its chamber of commerce or mayor, weighing business interests is totally outside her wheelhouse—and illegal. Located at the heart of Canada’s capital. Some medical officers of health have shown courage and saved lives. Your life, and those of people you love, depend on them not chickening out. We have less than half the minimum required by a legally binding settlement, and that number has consistently gone down.\, “When I was first recruited here from Harvard on a CRC position, we met the target — in the first reporting year in 2009, we were in compliance — but in each subsequent reporting year, the number (of visible minorities) is lower than the past.”, The university said professor Attaran held a Tier 2 CRC in law, population health and global development policy for 10 years with the university, with the two five-year terms “the maximum allowed.”. The researcher sent the letter in June, and requested a meeting with university officials to discuss the issue. Sign up to receive the daily top stories from the National Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. Even so, Dr. De Villa has never found the courage to curb nonessential trips out of the home, as she herself called for a month ago. Consider Dr. Vera Etches, who is Ottawa’s medical officer of health. Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Amir Attaran is a lawyer, biomedical scientist, and Professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa. The university provided no further comment on the researcher. To contain what are quaintly called “communicable diseases”, or pandemic emergencies like COVID-19, the provincial legislatures have given medical officers of health legal powers that are expansive enough to issue orders across a whole city, region, or province—systemic orders, basically. The University of Ottawa is the largest bilingual (English-French) university in the world. Attaran described the fellow researcher as “a superstar” who has secured millions in grant money and led a variety of important research in the field of public health, who “deserved” promotion to a Tier 1 Chair “based solely on merit.”. The next issue of Posted Newsletter will soon be in your inbox. (C) to break the chain of transmission and prevent spread of the disease, and  ... Share on Twitter; Forward by Email He is still awaiting a response. Kenney, Shandro, and Hinshaw chose this. We encountered an issue signing you up. No wonder that no medical officer of health has ever been held personally liable by a court. The same goes for medical officers of health. APUO has offered to support him at the tribunal.”. Canadians deserve better. The law is crystal clear: “If a [public health] order is necessary, especially in circumstances where the risk is high,” explains Ontario’s Divisional Court, “then its financial impact is irrelevant”. In June 2020, Attaran wrote on Twitter: "In my experience as a brown guy at a bilingual university on the Quebec-Ontario border, there is plenty of racism, and more often than not when it speaks to me the first word is “Bonjour”." That subcommittee was struck by former university president Allan Rock, who acknowledged the diversity shortcoming in May, when a report identified the school as lagging behind other post-secondary institutions in meeting its CRC equity targets. Each is equipped with legal powers straight from provincial legislatures, just like the premier. Prof says he was denied promotion because of racial bias, launches lawsuit against University of Ottawa, Prof. Amir Attaran, a professor of law and medicine at the University of Ottawa in Ottawa, February 14, 2011, Ex-nurse forced into AA says his religious freedom, as an atheist, was violated: ‘We were told to pray’, Waterloo man rejected for job with note that said being Somali embodies ‘a culture of resistance to authority’, First lesson: You’re racist. When the province stepped in to shutter those businesses briefly she agreed—only to flip-flop again before the month was out. While some medical officers of health wrung their hands or muttered, “That’s a bad idea”, almost none took the initiative to lower the curtain on bars, restaurants, gyms, outsized gatherings and even strip clubs—which of course they had the power to do. This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. It never should have been this way. Amir Attaran, a constitutional and public health expert at the University of Ottawa, considers Trudeau’s response pathetically inadequate. He was caught by surprise at a union meeting last week when he was met with a motion for censure, and after the vote passed “with some debate,” the professor claims, he was asked to leave the room. Morally and legally, this is hard to understand. Photo by Jean Levac / Postmedia Network / Files A firefighter can order occupants out of a burning building. Amir Attaran is a biomedical scientist, a lawyer, and a professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa. A medical officer of health’s order can clearly target a specific individual or establishment, and they routinely impose these orders with little quarrel. 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4. This is clearly stated by the CRC,” stated Mailloux-Pulkinghorn. Catastrophe is guaranteed. (B) prohibit a person from engaging in the person’s occupation, or  Fear of personal liability is not an ethical reason for inaction when a giant city is in danger. Our collective agreement prohibits discrimination, we have a joint committee with the employer on equity, diversity and inclusion, and we have a subcommittee that is working on discrimination in the context of the Canada Research Chair program. “Generally, Tier 2 chairs are not meant to feed to Tier 1 chairs. OTTAWA – Well, one thing’s already clear, there’s no way the mighty Kenney Government will shut down its so-called inquiry into “anti-Alberta energy campaigns” on the say so of Progress Alberta, a small Edmonton-based research and activist organization. That is why our society entrusts them with sweeping legal powers. Attaran has also named his union in the grievance, alleging the APUO ratified a collective agreement in May that is “intentionally discriminatory,” according to the lawsuit. St. Joseph Communications uses cookies for personalization, to customize its online advertisements, and for other purposes. Prof. Amir Attaran, a professor of law and medicine at the University of Ottawa in Ottawa, February 14, 2011 Attaran is now getting totally ratioed on his attempts to defend the original Tweet, and Matt Gurney pointed out a big reason why it’s not going so well: “First, see his original tweet and his defence in combination. But perhaps the saddest case is Dr. Deena Hinshaw, who has done little to check Alberta’s gung-ho premier, Jason Kenney. University of Ottawa's Amir Attaran says Canada has capacity to manufacture vaccines in the country and claims to the contrary are false. Dr. Etches explains she is “advocating … because of the harm potentially to businesses”. © Copyright 2021 St. Joseph Communications. (D) to remove the source of infection; (ii) by order  Attaran suggested there has been some dissent in the union ranks over his grievance. That said, the day may come when the government’s leaders wish they had. Lately she joined the mayor to lobby against the closures and said, “We need something that allows people to stay open, not close and open”. Like firefighters watching a lashing inferno and nibbling donuts, they are abandoning their authority and moral duties in the pandemic. But he did not dare fire them during a pandemic and cause a giant scandal, any more than Donald Trump had the cojones to fire the troublesome Dr. Fauci. Amir Attaran and Lorian Hardcastle: Medical officers of health have the power to defy the government and impose the necessary public health measures to stop the second wave, By Amir Attaran and Lorian Hardcastle Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. It’s her abdication not to use them and self-demote into just an “adviser”. Where before their premiers courageously closed large gatherings and risky businesses like bars and gyms, the situation worsened when they ignorantly tried to keep their provinces open at all cost. “We are at 90 per cent of our target and will actually surpass it by year end,” wrote university spokeswoman Isabelle Mailloux-Pulkinghorn. Here are four things that must change. New cases are trending upwards, the percentage of positive tests is increasing, ICUs are becoming more full, and public health officials are increasingly unable to trace cases of COVID-19 back to particular sources—meaning it’s waiting to get you everywhere. Dr. de Villa pleaded last month with Ontario’s government to order people to stay at home except for essential trips, but when she was rebuffed, rather than order it herself, she refused. In the wrong hands they are capable of tremendous abuse. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. There was an error, please provide a valid email address. “The intent of funding Tier 2 chairs is to provide emerging researchers who have the potential to achieve international recognition in their fields with the support needed to ‘kick-start’ their research careers,” stated Anne-Marie Cenaiko of the national CRC program. “But in addition to that, they’re behind even other universities that missed all targets.”. “There is a systemic problem with not enough visible minorities, women, disabled and aboriginal people getting into Canada Research Chairs, not just in this university, but across the country,” said Attaran, who has filed the suit against both the university and the Association of Professors of the University of Ottawa. They seem not to notice the long QUOTATION from a pollster whose data show that Cons are, comparatively, less educated. Thus Doug Ford, Jason Kenney and Brian Pallister met no significant resistance in opening their provinces, and keeping them open as the number of COVID-19 cases shot into the stratosphere. Amir Attaran is a biomedical scientist, a lawyer, and a professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa. “At the University of Ottawa, we are not doing as well as we aspire to do in terms of the diversity among shareholders,” Rock said at the time. She feared that “broad changes … may exceed my authority and therefore render me personally liable”. There is a lesson in that, because if Canadians are going to get through COVID-19 intact, Canada’s medical officers of health must find the morality and courage to stare down the politicians making dangerous errors. In the letter, the researcher raised questions over the denial of his promotion, questioned administration on how Canada Research Chairs are appointed and renewed, and voiced his own concern, which he shares with Attaran, over the low level of representation for visible minorities among University of Ottawa CRC appointees. While Dr. Hinshaw has expressed “concern” and made recommendations, she seems unwilling to rock Kenney’s boat. Amir Attaran, a professor of law and medicine at the University of Ottawa, sent out a string of tweets on Wednesday saying the provincial government is purely at fault and Alberta should pay for the hospitals. None of these officials needs to ask the government, much less the premier, for permission to act. Those two brave, ethical medical officers of health took a risk, knowing that Premier Doug Ford disagreed with their orders. Law professor Amir Attaran, who was recruited from Harvard in 2005 with a prestigious Canada Research Chair professorship, believes the university’s decision to deny him a renewal of that position was not based on merit, and claims the denial is evidence of discriminatory practices. Biography. If you don't see it please check your junk folder. “There are more than 3,000 academics and exceptional researchers at the University of Ottawa and we have only 77 CRC chairs.”, While the university said it has appointed 14 women to CRCs (toward an equity target of 19 chairs), the university would not share exact numbers of visible minorities (target of nine chairs), people with disabilities (target of two chairs) or aboriginal people (one chair), invoking the Privacy Act, which, according to Mailloux-Pulkinghorn, “prohibits disclosure of small numbers for each designated group.”. But their courage wheezes out when it comes to issuing orders broadly. You don’t need to be a lawyer to grasp this, and Alberta’s law is pretty typical in saying that a medical officer of health: (i) take whatever steps the medical officer of health considers necessary  A letter signed by over 70 doctors asking for a two week lockdown to damp down the cases and allow contact tracers to catch up was ignored. (C) prohibit a person from having contact with other persons or any class of persons. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Manitoba, did not impose new restrictions until case rates skyrocketed and doctors warned of “potential horror”, is now finding it waited too long. The University of Ottawa defends its efforts, saying as of Nov. 1, it had “almost“ met its target for visible minorities obtaining Canada Research Chairs. And the fear is overblown: for Dr. De Villa to be personally liable, angry Torontonians would have to persuade a court that she intentionally flouted the law and acted out of malice or bad faith rather than health protection—which is just impossible. The legal powers are there in abundance; it’s just the courage that’s not. The laws vary from place to place of course, but not vastly. 27 M. Friedman, H. den Besten, and A. Attaran, “Out-Licensing: A Practical Approach to Improving Access to Medicines in Poor Countries,” Lancet 2003, no. Not only is that wrong, but it is dangerously foolish: the legislature gave Dr. Hinshaw the decision-making powers we quoted earlier in this article. 'There is a systemic problem with not enough visible minorities, women, disabled and aboriginal people getting into Canada Research Chairs,' Amir Attaran said. Amir held the position for two five-year terms – the maximum amount of time that it is possible to have a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair. First, the COVID mess is … Please try again. To reach compliance with current targets, the University of Ottawa should fill nine of its 77 CRC positions with visible minorities. The fight against COVID-19 is in a new, unprecedentedly dangerous phase. These medical milquetoasts deserve at least as much scrutiny for the current predicament as the premiers—and arguably more, considering that public health is their only job—so it is important to discard their haloes and hold them accountable. “The program expects that institutions, when managing their CRC allocations, will develop a succession plan for their Tier 2 chairs to help them transition to a regular faculty position after the end of their terms.”, Attaran “is a full professor with all the privileges and responsibilities that entails,” wrote Mailloux-Pulkinghorn. Despite this, Attaran claims all three fellow CRCs in his faculty — who are all white — were advanced to Tier 1 positions at the conclusion of their Tier 2 term. Weirdly it’s even been promised: Alberta’s premier, Jason Kenney, has pledged the province will not shut down businesses before the province reaches “absolute catastrophe”. Dekker would not confirm the sanction, nor disclose any internal union matters, citing a confidentiality agreement, while noting Attaran is also bound by the same agreement. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. The collective agreement contains mandatory equity provisions for women but, according to Attaran, those provisions are “merely optional” for visible minorities, people with disabilities and indigenous people. Canada’s On Fire, So Why Aren’t They Acting? Attaran claims — in contradiction to the university’s statement of reaching 90 per cent of that target — “We only have four (visible minorities). Likewise close to Niagara Falls, the medical officer of health ordered farmers to empty overcrowded bunkhouses and make safe quarters for migrant farmworkers. In Canada, the law gives public health and safety officials the power—indeed, the duty—to call out and stop disasters before they happen. Dekker said APUO “is working in various ways to tackle discrimination at the University of Ottawa. The suit claims Attaran was “systemically denied equal inclusion” in the university’s CRC program. Amir Attaran—professor in the Faculty of Law and School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa—said: “They acted callously, they acted in a way they knew was unsafe, they acted with hatred, they acted with negligence and they killed a woman after uttering racist comments.” Rather the more surprising—and perilous—problem is underzealous abuse, because most medical officers of health are only rarely using their powers in the second wave, or worse, they are doing so only with the consent of politicians. Where medical officers of health have had their COVID-19 orders challenged in court in Ontario and Newfoundland, they have won. Amir Attaran: Canada is mismanaging its most significant peacetime crisis in a century and the seeds of our failure are everywhere. Other medical officers of health, like Dr. Eileen de Villa in Toronto, have issued some gentle closure orders, but shied away from doing everything they say is necessary. At the time, the University of Ottawa said it, unlike other universities, was required to consider a candidate’s bilingualism in addition to other merit-based criteria. She argued against closing bars, restaurants, and other infection hotspots mere days before the city shattered its record for daily COVID-19 cases in October. … APUO president Jennifer Dekker said she was “not aware” of a discrimination lawsuit when contacted by the Citizen. The university confirmed his research chair has not been renewed, and Mailloux-Pulkinghorn wrote, “A peer-review process determined that there were not sufficient grounds to renew his chair.”. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings. © 2021 National Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. — Amir Attaran (@profamirattaran) July 6, 2019 UPDATE: Hundreds of Conservative trolls are irked by my tweet. “Viral evolution can’t be bargained with,” Amir Attaran, a biologist and professor of law and medicine at the University of Ottawa, said in a recent Twitter thread. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. Every province in Canada equips their medical officers of health with the power to make systemic orders. By Amir Attaran May 31, 2020 Meanwhile, Alberta hit a record-breaking 919 cases in a single day and called off contact tracing outside of high priority settings such as hospitals, schools, or continuing care. First, the COVID mess is Alberta’s own making, after ignoring mountains of advice. So who are these mighty men and women? Google Scholar His views are rooted in western ideas, stem from our most ancient myths and legends, and embrace the Christian hero story of self-sacrifice as the ultimate strength. ... Twitter… Where there is a “public health emergency” such as COVID-19, a medical officer of health has a blank cheque to “take whatever other steps are, in [his or her] opinion, necessary in order to lessen the impact of the public health emergency.” Legal language tantamount to this is found in other provinces too (not just Alberta) and it authorizes a medical officer of health to order any steps at all, so long as it rests on a good faith medical opinion. (A) prohibit a person from attending a school,  Except that many appear to be unwilling to flex their regulatory muscles. A police officer can order a disorderly crowd to disperse. In April, Rock appointed Martine Lagacé, a professor in the communication department, to head up a Diversity and Equity Office that will report directly to the president on diversity and equity issues. Police instructor pushes new recruits to face subconscious biases head-on, tap here to see other videos from our team. “We’re now a decade past that point and the CRC program is still not meeting those targets, and of all universities in English Canada, University of Ottawa is the worst – they’re batting zero-for-four on those targets,” said Attaran. The short answer is, an awful lot, almost everything needed to squash the second wave. 9354 ( 2003): 341 –344. “We have to redouble our efforts because equity and diversity are important to us as a university and a community.”. Amir Attaran is an Professor in the Faculties of Law and School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa. Most Canadians would be horrified if they dithered and pleaded with government, rather than acting with full speed to prevent disasters. Meanwhile in Ontario, the Toronto Star reported that politicians rejected the advice of the government, academic, and hospital scientists by setting the threshold for COVID-19 restrictions four times higher than they recommended, and when that dangerous decision became controversial, the politicians falsely blamed the scientists. — Amir Attaran (@profamirattaran) February 8, 2020 Peterson’s message is one that so many who hear it can relate to, and he’s travelled the world speaking to sold-out audiences. In a separate but related discrimination complaint, Attaran cited a critical letter sent from his fellow researcher addressed to incoming University of Ottawa president Jacques Frémont. Join the mailing list to receive daily email updates. (A) to suppress the disease in those who may already have been infected with it,  Professor Attaran is by training both a lawyer (LL.B., Vancouver) and a biologist (D. Phil, Oxford; M.S., Caltech; B.A., Berkeley), whose research covers the gamut of both fields to explore different drivers of human well-being. Amir Attaran drew attention on Twitter last week with a number of comments regarding the province's pandemic plans. “With regards to women who hold a CRC, we are at 75 per cent of our target and are confident that we will reach the 100 per cent mark by the middle of next year; finally, with regards to other two designated groups, the selection committees pursue their recruitment efforts since uOttawa is committed to meet those targets as well.”, Last week, following a full review of the CRC program at the 15-year mark, the national steering committee identified the diversity issue as a “high priority.”, The committee said future changes to the program would ensure the “equity gap” is addressed and, in the meantime, invited institutions to “sustain, review and intensify their efforts in order to address, as soon as possible, the under-representation in the program of individuals from the four designated groups.”. — Amir Attaran (@profamirattaran) July 7, 2019. Canada’s provincial and local medical officers of health, of course. Attaran believes his case is supported by the similar experience of a fellow CRC chair, who is also a visible minority, and was likewise recently denied advancement of his university-appointed CRC at the conclusion of his term. Much like Dr. Tony Fauci staring down Donald Trump, each of these officials has a moral duty to speak truth to power and an ethical duty as a physician to follow science rather than political whim. Why? November 13, 2020, Ford arrives at a press conference at Queen's Park during the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto on Nov. 3, 2020 (CP/Nathan Denette), Amir Attaran is a lawyer, biomedical scientist, and Professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa, Lorian Hardcastle is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law and Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. None of the allegations against the university or the union has been tested in court. The national CRC program said each individual institution is solely responsible for CRC recruitment and decision-making, but stated Tier 2 chairs are not meant to be a “feeder group” to Tier 1 chairs. Simply put, the medical officers of health are chickening out. They can order just about anything to shut down a pandemic, without asking permission, and whether or not the government agrees. A University of Ottawa professor who alleges he was denied a prestigious Canada Research Chair promotion based on racial bias has launched a discrimination lawsuit against the school through Ontario’s Human Rights Tribunal. But unlike Dr. Fauci, they have the superpower to make their word law. Amir Attaran, a University of Ottawa professor of law and public health, says it was inevitable the coronavirus variant would find its way into Canada. These provinces employ dozens of men and women who have the authority to defy the government and impose the necessary public health measures. for any period and subject to any conditions that the medical officer of health considers appropriate …. Amir Attaran, Professor of Law & Medicine at the University of Ottawa, says he's personally embarrassed to be associated with the school. Read more about cookies here. Unauthorized distribution, transmission or republication strictly prohibited. (B) to protect those who have not already been exposed to the disease,  In the Peel region outside Toronto, for example, the medical officer of health prohibited wedding receptions, restricted restaurants and bars to seating people from the same household, and closed meeting and event spaces. Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec are measuring cases at rates worse than much of the United States. He’s … But overzealous abuse has not proved to be today’s problem. 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