Premier responds to health-firings report; retired judge to oversee payouts
VANCOUVER — Days before Tuesday’s election call, British Columbia’s premier again apologized for a scandal that saw eight people wrongly fired from the Health Ministry in 2012, including one man who later took his own life.
“Government has apologized, and it’s an absolutely sincere expression of regret,” Christy Clark said Friday, describing Roderick MacIsaac’s suicide as a tragedy. The co-op student was dismissed days before his work term ended, and found dead about four months later.
British Columbia’s ombudsman Jay Chalke said in a report released Thursday that neither MacIsaac nor the others who were fired did anything wrong and should not have lost their jobs after they were falsely accused of jeopardizing the privacy of residents and the ministry’s reputation.
When asked if she would take personal responsibility for the firings, Clark said politicians were not involved.