View Royal Coun. Ron Mattson wants a public apology from B.C.'s health minister and his reputation restored after he was suspended by the province as part of a probe into privacy-breach allegations.
"I was shocked and humiliated when escorted out of the building when I was suspended," Mattson told reporters at a news conference at the Delta Victoria Ocean Pointe Resort on Tuesday.
The View Royal councillor is suing Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid for defamation.
Mattson and six others were fired by the Health Ministry as part of its investigation into allegations of conflict of interest as well as inappropriate data management, contracting out and conduct related to the ministry's pharmaceutical services division. The investigation started in May.
In a notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday, Mattson is also suing the Health Ministry for wrongful dismissal without pay, breach of contract and defamation.
The allegations have not been proven in court.
Mattson was a special projects manager on the $78-million Alzheimer's Disease Therapeutic Initiative, which began in 2007 as a joint project involving the provincial government, Alzheimer Society of B.C., the University of B.C. and the University of Victoria.
Based at UVic, the study aimed to collect evidence on the safety and effectiveness of three drugs on Alzheimer's disease, what the side effects are, and if they should be added to B.C.'s formulary in 2014.
About 25,000 people with a mild to moderate form of the disease remain enrolled in the program and taking one of three cholinesterase inhibitor drugs: donepezil (Aricept), galantamine (Reminyl) and rivastigmine (Exelon).
About $35 million, almost all on drugs paid for through PharmaCare, has been spent so far, according to the Health Ministry. The actual cost of the research between two universities for five studies is less than $3 million, the ministry said.
On Tuesday, Mattson said he was requested by UVic to add a subcontracted researcher to a list of people authorized to receive the Health Ministry data needed for the Alzheimer's study. Mattson said he submitted the request via an application to his superiors.
This happened while Mattson said he knew he was under review as part of the Health Ministry's investigation.
"All they had to do in our initial meetings was advise me that the database ... wasn't to go forward until the end of the review," Mattson said.
"Nobody told me that we shouldn't have proceeded with providing the data to the university."
In the end, the data was never given to the subcontractor, who is related to the co-directors of research and evidence development in the Health Ministry's pharmaceutical services division.
The health minister said in an earlier interview that the suspension of ministry data sharing is unfortunate but necessary until the investigation concludes. That timing is unknown.
Parts of the Alzheimer's study continue at the university level, but much of it has stalled, Mattson said.
The ministry refused to comment on Tuesday but said in a statement it would defend any action related to its investigation and decisions.
