Public watchdog wants transparency about health firings

A public watchdog is adding its voice to concerns about the provincial government's handling of the 2012 firing of seven health workers.

"We were actually given information that there was something going on at the ministry, probably at the same time the Auditor General got it," said Vincent Gogolek, Executive Director of the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association.

Seven employees were fired in 2012, in what the government has since admitted was a "regrettable mistake." It has already settled out-of-court with most of them. One of the researchers, University of Victoria co-op student Harold Roderick MacIsaac, later committed suicide.

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"We were just trying to track down more information because the person tipping us off made some allegations, named some names. We put in a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to get copies of contracts and communications around the contracts, just to get some idea of what was going on."

However, Gogolek's FOI request was refused, in part because of the RCMP investigation 

"[The government] said 'Releasing these records to you would harm the investigations; we're not giving them to you.'"

There are still many unanswered questions about what exactly happened, according to Gogolek.

"Just from what we saw with our FOI request — claims being made, taken back — there's just been a lot of confusion about what's going on. That may be confusion inside government, or maybe it's the fact that information is coming out that contradicts the previous public position."

Gogolek said it's important the public knows that proper procedures are being followed and has asked Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham to investigate the government's claims.

"What we have is a bunch of finger pointing. Everybody's apologizing, nobody's taking responsibility."

To hear the full interview, listen to the audio labelled B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association on health firings.