B.C. Health Ministry employee Ramsay Hamdi, who was one of seven people wrongly fired by the ministry in 2012, has a framed apology from the province hanging on his wall but no settlement money as yet.
“I’m still waiting for this money,” said Hamdi, 62, from his home in Cadboro Bay. He’s been living on a reduced pension since he lost his $71,000 annual salary. “Every day I check the mailbox.”
“I have a very nice apology from Kim Henderson [then deputy minister to the premier and head of the B.C. Public Service], who had nothing to do with it,” said Hamdi. Still, he framed it and put it on his wall as vindication.
Hamdi, a health economist, was a unionized employee of the Health Ministry for 28 years when he was swept up in a flawed government investigation.
That investigation was guided by suspicion and driven by rushed decision-making, B.C. ombudsperson Jay Chalke wrote in his 488-page report, titled Misfire, which was released in April 2017.
The report found that the ministry, in probing alleged privacy breaches and contract irregularities, acted wrongly in firing the seven people. One of the employees, University of Victoria co-op student Roderick MacIsaac, subsequently took his own life.
On Tuesday, Chalke provided an update on how the province has responded to his 41 recommendations.
Four recommendations still have to be implemented, he found:
• Concluding an assessment of the financial impact on employees who were disciplined but not fired.
• Finalizing payments to individuals working for three contracted entities.
• Implementing recommendations from retired Supreme Court of Canada Justice Thomas Cromwell related to settlement terms for three unionized employees — Dave Scott, Ramsay Hamdi and the estate Roderick MacIsaac.
• Completing implementation of reconciliation efforts to create a more positive workplace culture at the Ministry of Health.
Work on the three compensation issues “is nearing completion but is not quite there and, in my view, it’s definitely time that these three matters be brought to conclusion,” said Chalke. “These matters will be resolved soon, some possibly as soon as this week.”
MacIsaac’s sister, Linda Kayfish, said she questions whether the government really understands how insufferable the prolonged process has been for MacIsaac’s family. “For me, it will always be a nightmare — I just want it all to be concluded.”
The bulk of the settlement work was done back in May and June, Kayfish said. “September 6th marked a full six years since the firings. We have now begun the seventh year,” Kayfish said. “We would like to put this dark chapter behind us — at least as much as we can,” she said in an email.
“One would have thought that they would work day and night to get all this horror settled and behind them. Or at least settle with the victims in this mess.”
Don Wright, deputy minister to the premier and head of the B.C. Public Service, said in an Oct. 26 letter to the ombudsperson that after meeting with some of the impacted employees and contractors last year he felt a “profound sense of sadness that we as an employer could do such damage to our employees and contractors.”
Chalke said key recommendations have been implemented. They include:
• Establishment of a University of Victoria $500,000 scholarship in memory of MacIsaac.
• Apologies and payments to some people.
• New policies in a number of areas, including conflict of interest and human resources investigations.
• Two new pieces of legislation involving whistleblower protection.
• Establishment of a merit commissioner to review dismissal practices.
“The level of implementation is very good,” said Chalke, adding many took a lot of determination from all those involved.
