Two former Health Canada scientists who lost their jobs after publicly criticizing what they said was Monsanto pressure to approve controversial livestock drugs have been denied reinstatement to their jobs.
Shiv Chopra and Margaret Haydon became celebrated “whistleblowers” in Ottawa after complaining to the Senate agriculture committee that there was corporate pressure within the veterinary drug directorate of Health Canada to approve for sale drugs such as bovine growth hormone.
After the Senate committee recommended that BGH not be allowed in Canada, Health Canada refused to approve the product in 1999.
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But Chopra and Haydon, along with scientist Gérard Lambert who also appeared before the Senate committee, paid a price.
They were disciplined at the time and despite a promise from then-committee vice-chair Liberal senator Eugene Whelan that they would be protected, five years later Chopra and Haydon were fired for “insubordination.”
Their union, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, fought the dismissals and last week the Public Service Labour Relations Board ruled that the firings were justified. It ordered that Lambert be reinstated with back pay.
On Aug. 8, the president of PIPSC called the decision a “sad day” because it revealed the vulnerability of government employees who expose improper practices within government.
They are “practiced and meticulous scientists” who were following their consciences, Gary Corbett told an Ottawa news conference.
“Devoted to protecting the health of Canada’s citizens, the three scientists acted morally to defend the public from products that they had reason to believe could have harmed the food chain and ultimately the lives of Canadians,” he said.
Their crime was to resist pressure from Monsanto and senior Health Canada officials to approve a drug they did not believe had been proven safe, Corbett said. “Cases of dismissal like these do nothing good to help public service whistleblowers to come forward and denounce wrongdoing within their departments.”
He said PIPSC is considering whether to appeal the labour relations board ruling to the Federal Court.
In the wake of their firing, Chopra and Haydon became celebrity whistleblowers, appearing at National Farmers Union conventions and winning awards from government accountability groups.
Chopra, who also has battled the government in court over allegations that refusal to promote him within Health Canada was based on racial discrimination, said he also warned that government testing for BSE was too lax before the disease was discovered in Alberta in 2003 with a multibillion impact on Canada’s beef industry.
He has written a book,Corrupt to the Core: Memoirs of a Health Canada Whistleblowerand recorded a 20 minute blues rap titled “Dr. Shiv Chopra, Whistleblowing Scientist.”
Corbett said the union is unclear why Lambert was ordered reinstated while the other two scientists had their dismissals confirmed.
