Discussions with minister & medical school were private
A top doctor in British Columbia did not abuse his position when he spoke to a cabinet minister and two medical school officials about his son’s rejected medical school applications, the Vancouver Island Health Authority’s board has found. The province agrees the conversations were “private.”
Health Minister Mike de Jong ordered the VIHA’s board to look into the matter after accusations surfaced earlier this year that president Howard Waldner had abused his authority by contacting cabinet minister Ida Chong, University of British Columbia medical dean Gavin Stuart and UBC provost Dave Farrar about the provincial residency requirements that had disqualified his son.
De Jong told the Times-Colonist that he “bows his head” to the findings, but added: “People who occupy high office and very responsible positions have to be very careful how they conduct themselves and interact with agencies over whom others may see them as having influence.”