Goan Voice, Canada : Newsline Canada

"As a new government, with a very strong commitment around enhanced public health, we felt that an injection of new leadership was necessary," Smitherman told a news conference.
The Liberal government is dumping Dr. Colin D'Cunha from the post. He'll be sidelined to a job as special adviser to the minister and deputy minister on infection control.
Basrur, 47, got the appointment - which comes with an annual salary of $275,000 - after impressing observers with her handling of last year's SARS outbreak.
"She was the calming and highly capable face of public health in this city during some of its darkest moments," Smitherman said. "Her leadership and expertise on behalf of the city of Toronto during last year's SARS crisis is well known."
Basrur said she's thrilled with the new opportunity, and she warned the government she will be independent and they shouldn't expect a lapdog.
"I see my core duty as an advocate for the health of the public," she said. "That may mean being outspoken, sometimes being critical, (but) not necessarily. There are sometimes things that are worth saying are being done well."
Conservative MPP John Baird (Nepean-Carleton) was outraged that the Liberals would appoint someone new to the job without making good on an election promise to make the position of chief medical officer of health independent from the government of the day.
"This is another broken promise. They have lost the will to even keep the pretext of keeping promises," he said.
Smitherman said his government still plans to make good on the promise.
Dr. David Walker, dean of Queen's University medical school and head of an expert panel on SARS, has also called for making the position independent from government because of a perception politics influenced the response to the SARS crisis.
Dr. Richard Schabas, who held the top public health post before D'Cunha, said political pressure exerted to downplay SARS - after the World Health Organization issued a travel advisory for Toronto - created a climate that led to a second outbreak.
D'Cunha travelled with former health minister Tony Clement to Geneva to urge the WHO to lift the advisory, and the pair received a standing ovation in the Legislature when they returned to Queen's Park. The WHO took exception to the lobbying.
Basrur, who will also serve as assistant deputy minister of the ministry's public health division, agreed her office needs to be made independent of government.
"Definitely, an independent voice is needed to give clarion call, if I may, on the health messages that need to be heard through all of the noise that can sometimes surround a complicated issue," she said. Baird said he was "disgusted" by the Liberal government's treatment of D'Cunha. "I don't make comments lightly about public servants, but he was probably one of the most outstanding ones I've ever come across," Baird said.
D'Cunha was told early yesterday by deputy health minister Phil Hassen he was being replaced by Basrur. Smitherman's office was unaware in the afternoon if D'Cunha had accepted the offer to serve as special adviser to both the deputy minister and minister on infection control. D'Cunha did not return phone calls yesterday.
Dr. David Naylor, the University of Toronto's dean of medicine who headed up a national advisory committee on SARS, welcomed Basrur's appointment. "I think it's a terrific choice. She's smart, strategic, a great communicator and understands what needs to be done to rebuild public health in this province," he said.
Explaining the need for independence from politicians, Naylor said: "The chief medical officer of health needs to have some degree of ability to call things as she sees it. If there is an issue around public health and safety - a particular observation, criticism or commentary that might be politically embarrassing - it should not be withheld simply because the government of the day doesn't like its implications, either politically or fiscally."
Job one for Basrur will be a thorough review of public health programming and services in the province. "It really is premature for me to say, well these are the three top things that need to be addressed," she said. "Probably money will be one of them. It always is."
Another priority will be filling nine provincial medical officer of health vacancies.
Toronto's Associate Medical Officer of Health Dr. Barbara Yaffe has been named acting medical officer.