Wrongfully Accused

Six years ago, seven health care researchers were fired by the BC government for alleged misuse of data. They’re still trying to understand what happened

- Kerry Gold

On August 28, 2012, three days before his eleven-month term as a researcher for the health ministry in Victoria was due to end, Roderick Mac Isaac found himself being interrogated. A PhD student at the University of Victoria, MacIsaac had been reviewing the effectiveness of British Columbia’s new smoking-cessation program. He’d been working with a small, specialized drug-evaluation unit that used anonymous health records to conduct its research. Facing him were four investigators looking into several complaints levelled at ministry researchers. The investigators had come to believe that potentially personally identifiable data had been copied to a flash drive for MacIsaac’s use in his dissertation —  a privacy breach he denied. If caught lying, MacIsaac was warned, he could be hauled up on criminal charges.

“Are you in the possession of any information,” one of the investigators asked, “that includes data for your PhD?”

“Well, I am in possession of data for the smoking-cessation program,” said MacIsaac.

“I’m going to repeat my question.”

Confused, MacIsaac tried again, more pointedly: “I have not produced any data sets for my PhD.”