Former Cape Dorset nurse feels vindicated after Makibi Timilak report

A former Cape Dorset nurse who spent years trying to expose a "troubled work environment" says she feels vindicated after a report on the death of a three-month-old baby was highly critical of Nunavut's Health Department.

"I wasn't making things up and I wasn't over-exaggerating," said Gwen Slade, who worked as a casual nurse in the Cape Dorset Health Centre until February 2012. "Just to be validated for the things that I had witnessed and had endured and uncovered, that was just stunning."

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Makibi Timilak died in April of 2012, hours after Debbie McKeown, a nurse at the Cape Dorset Health Centre, allegedly refused to see him.

Slade's efforts to expose the problems in the health centre led to a CBC investigation. The story prompted the Nunavut government to order an independent review, led by retired lawyer Katherine Peterson. 

Peterson's final report, released Monday, said "the Cape Dorset Health Centre was a troubled work environment long before the death of Baby Makibi."

Slade was surprised by the report's frankness.

"I did not expect it to be this thorough, and this honest and this integral and this transparent," she said.

Before Makibi's death, Slade filed numerous grievances to the Health Department and the Registered Nurses Association of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut against staff members at the health centre, including McKeown. 

McKeown was later promoted to running the health centre.

"It appears that the bureaucratic response to the concerns raised with the [Nunavut government] by Ms. Slade was defensive in nature," wrote Peterson in her report.

'Suspect from the outset'

"The credibility of Ms. Slade was treated as suspect from the outset," the report said, noting that no further investigations of care at the health centre were conducted until more than a year after the baby died. 

"Complaints had been made orally, in writing, by formal grievance, to supervisors and union officials well before the fatality occurred," the report said. 

"These concerns were not fully investigated and in some cases, the credibility of the complainants was entirely marginalized without investigation."

Before Slade's complaints, the report notes, another nurse working at the Cape Dorset Health Centre, Karen Rae, detailed her own concerns in a lengthy email to Heather Hackney, the director of health services for the Baffin region. 

'Workplace bullying'

In it, Rae made allegations about bullying, harassment, poor judgment, lack of support and managerial skills and bizarre behaviour by then health centre supervisor Susan Validen.   

There were also concerns about the security and safety of staff and complaints of drinking and socializing at the health centre. In one alleged instance, a premature infant receiving care at the health centre was brought to a party held by one of the nursing staff.

As a result, Validen was removed from the position of nurse-in-charge, but remained part of the nursing staff, the report said. 

"While it is clear that these actions provided some immediate relief from what appeared to be a dysfunctional work environment, serious issues remained, and sadly, were to resurface within months," read the report.

There were many other nurses that supported me in this. I'm just the one that's out there in front. They couldn't be out there in front because I'll tell you right now, they'd lose their jobs. Just like I did.–Gwen Slade, former nurse with the Cape Dorset Health Centre

For Slade, moving on since her experience in Cape Dorset has been difficult. 

She returned to her hometown of Thunder Bay, Ont., in February 2012. 

"It's hard when you don't have a job anymore and when your whole career has been just absolutely decimated," she said.

"There were many other nurses that supported me in this. I'm just the one that's out there in front. They couldn't be out there in front because I'll tell you right now, they'd lose their jobs. Just like I did. It's workplace bullying."

Slade filed a complaint with the Nunavut Human Rights Tribunal in June of this year.

She's also called for an independent coroner's inquest into the baby's death and into how Nunavut's chief coroner Padma Suramala handled the case.

"[The parents] didn't do anything wrong and I didn't do anything wrong," Slade said.

"I think that if an independent inquest is conducted, then all the facts will come out. And that's all anybody's ever asked for."