Healthy Skepticism Library item: 327

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Publication type: news

Health Canada cloaked in secrecy
The Globe and Mail 2004 May 10

Full text:

Vancouver – Health Canada has been deemed the country’s most secretive government department by the Canadian Association of Journalists.

The department was awarded the CAJ’s annual Code of Silence Award at the association’s annual conference on Saturday night.

“Government officials everywhere hide vital information that they think might embarrass them, their departments or their political leaders,” CAJ president Paul Schneidereit said in announcing the dubious prize in a release.

“This award honours their efforts to shroud open government.” The Health Department did not immediately return calls for comment on Sunday.

According to the CAJ, over a period of more than five years, Health Canada denied any meaningful access to a database of prescription drugs that could harm or even kill Canadians.

The department refused to release information on adverse drug reactions in a format that would allow researchers to study the records electronically in order to spot trends and identify which drugs are causing problems.

For more than five years, the department would only release the information in a computer format that prevented deeper analysis.

Meanwhile, similar data on adverse drug reactions is readily available in the U.S. In fact, the Food and Drug Administration routinely makes such data available on its website.

The parliamentary all-party standing committee on health eventually slammed the department for failing to effectively protect Canadians who take prescription drugs.

The committee said the manner in which drugs are tested and approved is too secretive, in large part due to excessive concerns about the commercial interests of the drug companies.

Health Canada finally relented more than five years after it was challenged.

This year’s other nominees were the New Brunswick Department of Health and Wellness, the RCMP, the government of Alberta, and the city council of Charlottetown.