Fired Healthcare Worker Investigation (ctd)...Mr. Palmer, We Have A Problem.

Don'tWorry
BeHappilyVille


It would appear that some of those healthcare workers that were unjustly harmed/fired by Cookie Dough Mike....errrr...some other minister that has since been disappeared from Clarklandia are having just a wee bit of a problem with the Ombudsman's 'review' of their case.

Andrew McLeod had that story in yesterday's Tyee. Here is his lede:

Three people harmed by the 2012 health ministry firings say they will resist participating in the Ombudsperson's review of what happened unless they receive better access to documents and more funding for legal fees.

Lawyers Gary Caroline and Joanna Gislason represent former health ministry employees Ramsay Hamdi and David Scott, as well as Linda Kayfish, the sister of fired co-op student Roderick MacIsaac who later committed suicide.

"Our clients have been very clear with your office that they are not willing to be re-victimized by another unfair or inadequate investigation process," the lawyers wrote in a Feb. 22 letter to Ombudsperson Jay Chalke. "They have also been very clear about what, at a minimum, they would need in order to be able to participate meaningfully and effectively."

The lack of an opportunity to review key documents, including their own email from when they worked for the ministry, is a problem, the lawyers wrote. Nor is $1,000 enough to begin to cover the legal fees for the three, especially when compared to the $25,000 that could be available to government officials suspected of wrongdoing, they said.

In the letter the lawyers, who have been working on the file since at least last summer, say "the legal work that has already gone into pursuing our clients' right to a fair, inclusive and meaningful procedure has far surpassed this amount.

Nor are they hopeful the outcome will help their clients. "Unfortunately, it is now apparent that your process will be of no benefit to them and is in fact likely to cause them further harm," Gislason and Caroline's letter said.

"Unless the... procedural issues are rectified, our clients will be opposing your summons and asking that you cease your investigation of what is, for all intents and purposes, their complaint."....


But.

Hang on just one second here...

Didn't the Dean of the Legislative Press Gallery, a very fine fellow named Mr. Palmer (of the VSun) tell us that this was the way to go when everyone else, including that always game playing/grandstanding Opposition was calling for a truly independent public inquiry into the matter?

Why yes, he most certainly did.

The following are the Dean's own words, from June of last year, back when he was doing his best to act as our officially unelected 'Policy Maker-In-Chief':

...Happily, there are other options for getting answers and holding the government to account. The keys are independence, coupled with the ability to seek documents, summon witnesses, take testimony under oath and then to write a report that lets the chips fall where they may.

The independent officers of the legislature have the power to do all that and they exercise those powers whenever the need arises. They do so without the spectacle of public hearings and report back to the legislature in timely fashion...

{snip}
 
...In an open letter to Lake Wednesday, seven fired researchers and the sister of an eighth who killed himself expressed a “strong preference” against the auditor general because of the office’s role in passing on the whistleblower complaint that led to the firings in the first place.

Happily there is another option, namely the provincial ombudsman...


Happily, indeed.

Sheesh


_______
And I'm quite sure I don't need to remind anyone reading this that the Clarklandians took heed of the Policy Maker-In-Chief's advice pretty much immediately (if not before) with considerable gusto...There was also that wee matter of the turning of the rest of the Lotuslandian proMedia herd (a.k.a. 'The Club') that Mr. Palmer's subsequent writings helped with so helpfully...


.