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Independent Committee of Inquiry into the situation of clinical faculty at the Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University and the Department of Medicine at Capital District Health Authority

Terms of Reference

1. To investigate allegations of violations of academic freedom and faculty rights in the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University and in the Department of Medicine at the Capital District Health Authority which is affiliated to Dalhousie University;

2. To determine whether there were breaches of or threats to academic freedom;

3. To determine whether there were breaches of medical research ethics and clinical ethics;

4. To determine whether tenure was inappropriately denied to faculty in clinical departments;

5. To determine how universities can protect the academic freedom and other rights and privileges of university faculty who hold positions at affiliated health care centres;

6. To make any appropriate recommendations.

Committee Members

Chair

Dr. Allan Sharp, dean of science at the University of New Brunswick. Sharp holds a BSc from McMaster University and an MSc and PhD from the University of Waterloo. He has taught in UNB's physics department since 1975 and served as department chair before being named as dean in 1999.

Members

Dr. Bernice Schrank, professor of English language and literature at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Schrank holds a BA from the City University of New York and an MA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin. She serves as editor of the Canadian Journal of Irish Studies. Schrank is a former chair of CAUT's Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee and one of the most experienced faculty association grievance officers in the country.

Dr. David L. Sackett, Professor Emeritus of clinical epidemiology and biostatistics at McMaster University. Sackett was the founding chair of his department, physician-in-chief of medicine at Chedoke-McMaster hospitals, head of the division of general internal medicine at McMaster, professor of clinical epidemiology at Oxford and founding director of the National Health Service R&D Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford. He was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 2000, appointed an Officer in the Order of Canada in 2001 and was an inaugural member of the Community of Distinction at McMaster in 2003.