The soft-spoken Irish doctor who brought international attention to high cancer rates downstream from the oilsands says he’s still dealing with the consequences of speaking out.
John O’Connor was in Calgary March 9 for the première of Downstream, an Oscar-nominated documentary about his struggle to address health concerns in the northern Alberta community of Fort Chipewyan. Several Health Canada physicians filed complaints about O’Connor with the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2007, accusing him of causing “undue alarm” and other unethical practices. “The one complaint of raising undue alarm is still on the record,” said O’Connor at a panel discussion after the screening. “I have not heard from the College of Physicians since February of 2007.”
A group of Fort Chip residents are calling on Health Canada to drop the complaint. Meanwhile, a government study released last month confirmed O’Connor’s worries about high cancer rates in the community. “It’s time to do something — to stop talking and actually address this issue,” O’Connor told the packed theatre.
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