Emergency Motion Debate

March 14, 2011

Mr. Anderson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When he tables those documents, I would ask that everyone read them. It’s a very good read, I must say.

The hon. opposition leader has first-hand knowledge. He’s been through a situation where he lost his job for speaking out. The Member for Edmonton-Meadowlark got kicked out of caucus for speaking out about health care and for not retracting his comments. As someone who’s coming into this – obviously, I have no background in medicine, any of those things. The thing is that when I came in to join this party over on the other side of the House there, the PC government, I have to say that, you know, I was excited. I really was. I mean, I really felt that here was an opportunity to contribute. I met some of the members over there, awesome people, you know: the Justice minister for example, the Member for Athabasca-Redwater, from Calgary-North Hill, and others. I mean, these are awesome people that, for my part any-way, I still call friends and respect a great deal.

There is an insidious culture that I was not aware of. I don’t know who all over on that side of the House is involved in that culture. I really don’t know. I do hope that it is a small group, if any, of people over there. I hope, you know, that if there are folks over there, hopefully it’s just people under them, who report to them, and that maybe they’ve been kept out of the loop. I don’t know if the minister of health is involved. I don’t know if the Premier had any knowledge. I don’t know, and Albertans don’t know.

That’s the point, Mr. Speaker. There are a lot of things going on that just aren’t right. You see it every day right now in the allegations coming forward. You’re right; they are just allegations. They are. But there is evidence because people keep coming forward. Has it been proven beyond a reasonable doubt? Has it been proven in a court of law? No, not yet. It hasn’t.

What clearly has come to light is simply this. Look, I was in that room behind there when the Member for Edmonton-Meadowlark let me hear the phone message that he had on his cellphone, and it clearly was a doctor warning this member, after a call from the Member for Edmonton-Rutherford to the head of the AMA, that, you know, he was essentially trying to drum up sup-port to look into the mental state of this member. That’s a fact. I heard it. [interjection] I heard it on the phone. You can deny it all you want. You haven’t heard it on the phone. I have heard it on the phone. [interjection] Good. Well, there you go. That is exactly what was said.

The fact of the matter is that that’s the culture of intimidation we’re talking about. That’s evidence. Now, does it prove that everything that we’re saying is true? Does it prove everything that the Member for Edmonton-Meadowlark has alleged in this House? No, it doesn’t. But it’s a start. It is evidence; there’s no doubt about that. It’s evidence, and a judicial inquiry should be given the opportunity to see if there is anything to these allegations.

We have Dr. Fanning on the CBC just a few moments ago com-ing forward and saying: I need to step forward now and take a risk because I don’t like what’s happening in our health care system, and people need to know about the culture of fear and intimidation that exists. They’re all using that wording. They’re all using that.

There was the quote from a woman doctor. Her face was blacked out, but the CBC was talking with her, and she said that there was a culture of suppression and even vindictiveness, that when she started speaking out and advocating for her patients, she was demoted, marginalized, and eventually fired. And here’s the kicker. Her mental sanity, her mental state was questioned by the health authorities.

Are we seeing a pattern here? We saw this with the allegations of Dr. McNamee. Those need to be looked into. These are all pieces of evidence, and I don’t know where the puzzle leads. Hopefully, it’s just a couple of, you know, tyrannical bureaucrats that are running around making a mess of things, and their stupid-ity is causing great shame upon the entire health care system. Maybe it’s just a couple of people. Well, let’s find those people. Let’s make sure that they are not in a position of trust anymore. Let’s clear everyone’s name in this House from wrongdoing, if that’s the case, if there was no wrongdoing by any member of this House. I hope that’s the case. I really do. I know that the vast majority of the members opposite – I just cannot fathom that they would be involved in something like this.

I’ll tell you what I do believe. There’s no doubt in my mind, let’s put it that way, that there is a culture of fear and intimidation out there. I don’t know who is involved. All I know is that we keep getting e-mails from this good doctor.

The Member for Calgary-Fish Creek said, you know, Dr. Y. Well, we have to say Dr. Y. The members opposite were laughing at that. We have to say that because he asked us to. He says: as I do not consider myself immune to reprisal from those within the government and Alberta Health Services, I respectfully ask that you keep my identity secret if you wish to refer to this letter in any way. We did look him up. He is a credible senior physician in this province, someone who’s been around a long time, someone that, if you knew, you’d say: wow, that guy is not lying.

These are serious allegations. There is no doubt. But there is serious evidence to say that something is the matter here. If we bury our heads in the sand right now, hon. members across the way, and close our ears – you know, see no evil; hear no evil – and pretend it’s not happening, then what happens is that you become culpable in this. You become culpable in the wrong-doing. Your job is to protect the trust that Albertans place in their health care system. These are your constituents. These are your constituents. It’s just a matter of calling a public inquiry and giving this former or current justice the right, the power to subpoena witnesses, the power to compel documents that are relevant to his investigation. These are things that a judicial inquiry is suited to do.

You can’t ask the Health Quality Council to look into potential wrongdoing like this, into allegations of wrongdoing. That’s not what they’re qualified to do. They’re qualified to look into issues of health quality, so they should be and they are investigating the 322 cases of suboptimal outcomes, I guess you would say, in the emergency rooms. They’re investigating the long cancer waits and whether or not people may have passed on while sitting on those wait-lists. That’s what they’re qualified to do. They look at the system. They kind of take it apart and say: “Okay. Why are these long wait-lists happening?” Then they make recommendations to stop it from happening again.

But that’s not what a public inquiry is for. A public inquiry gives these justices the powers they need to find the truth, to get to the bottom of it, to look into the wrongdoing. That’s something we can’t ask the good doctors at the Health Quality Council to do. They don’t have the tools to do that nor the expertise. We all know that. The Minister of Justice knows that. The former Minister of Justice, who’s running for the leadership, knows that. The hon. Member for Calgary-Egmont, who just got up before me, knows that. This is absolutely tailor-made. You could not get a better, a more relevant, a more appropriate situation to call a pub-lic inquiry than what we have right now.

Let’s just clear the air. Let’s all clear the air here. If you’ve got nothing to hide – and I honestly believe that the majority of the government members, if not all of the government members, have nothing to hide. If that’s the case, let’s call the inquiry. Let’s get it all out in the open. Let’s find the people who are responsible for these allegations if they, in fact, are true. They’re still alleged. But if they are true, let’s find the people responsible, and let’s relieve them of their duties. Let’s make sure that they are not allowed to perpetuate this culture of fear and intimidation over and over and over again.

You listened to the letter that the hon. Member for Calgary-Fish Creek received at 10 a.m. today. He says: we had noticed the problems worsening over time, and the ongoing lack of leadership was evident; there are so many of us wanting to do the right thing for patients but who are working in fear of retribution if we speak out, and this culture continues to this day, and it causes moral distress as we are placed in an impossible position.

Dim lights