The sister of a University of Victoria co-op student who killed himself last year in the midst of a privacy-breach investigation made an emotional appeal Tuesday to the B.C. government for an apology and answers.
Linda Kayfish held hands with her husband, Doug Kayfish, and B.C. NDP Leader John Horgan at the legislature as she told reporters at a news conference about what her brother endured during the Health Ministry’s probe in 2012.
Roderick MacIsaac, 46, committed suicide in January 2013. The PhD student was working for the ministry, evaluating the province’s smoking-cessation program, when he was suspended Aug. 28, 2012, three days before his co-op term ended.
Kayfish said MacIsaac was interviewed intensively for a number of hours by three people, whom she could not identify, around the time he was suspended. “They had to break because he suffered some form of physical distress.”
On Sept. 6, he was fired, essentially ending his pursuit of a PhD. His thesis was based on his research for the ministry.
“Roderick did nothing to merit the treatment he received,” Kayfish said. “He was bullied and accused without the bother of a decent explanation. This is an injustice that should not go unchallenged in our society.”
MacIsaac committed suicide “not as an admission of guilt, nor [due to] financial distress, but in frustration,” she said.
“I just want answers. I would like a small apology.”
The investigation — which the Health Ministry says has cost about $3.4 million, including legal costs — led to the firing of seven employees and at least one contractor. It was related to allegations of conflict of interest, inappropriate conduct and data mismanagement in the ministry’s pharmaceutical services division. The government gave investigation files to the RCMP for review, but an official investigation is not underway.
Horgan called on Premier Christy Clark’s government to issue “a full and unequivocal apology” to MacIsaac’s family, and for the premier and deputy minister John Dyble, head of the public service, to provide explanations.
“Not one bit of data left the Ministry of Health. Not a sentence. Not a table,” Horgan said. “Two years of grief for families. Two years of expenditures unnecessarily. … All of that and the motivation is not known to me.”
Since the firings, three employees — Malcolm Maclure, co-director of research for the pharmaceutical services division; Bob Hart, former director of data access; and Ron Mattson, manager special projects for the PharmaCare branch — have settled wrongful-dismissal lawsuits out of court. Maclure and Hart were reinstated and Mattson, a View Royal councillor, retired.
Two civil suits remain unresolved: those of University of Victoria professor Rebecca Warburton, former co-director of research, and her husband, contractor William Warburton, a labour and health economist. The government filed a counter lawsuit. Nothing has been proven in court.
The grievances of three union employees — MacIsaac, senior researcher David Scott and senior economist Ramsay Hamdi — were settled through the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union.
MacIsaac’s grievance hearing was scheduled for late June 2013. On June 25, the BCGEU withdrew it and agreed to a payout for the remaining days in MacIsaac’s contract. With that he was “unfired.” On July 16, 2013, Kayfish was sent a cheque for $482.53.
“They did not address the points stated in the disciplinary action,” she said. “The cheque stub was their response. No answers. No explanation.”
In September 2013, the B.C. Coroners Service returned MacIsaac’s computer and cellphone. “No ministry data was reported found,” she said.
