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Issues & Campaigns

Independent Committee of Inquiry into the seizure of the research records of Drs. Anne Duffy, Paul Grof and Martin Alda at the University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research and the Royal Ottawa Hospital

Terms of Reference

1. To investigate the sequence of events leading to, and subsequent to, the seizure of the research records of Drs. Anne Duffy, Paul Grof and Martin Alda;

2. To examine the institutional context at the University of Ottawa, the Institute of Mental Health Research, and the Royal Ottawa Hospital that may have had a bearing on the decision to seize the documents and on the response of the institutions to the seizure;

3. To determine if there were breaches of institutional responsibility;

4. To determine the impact of the events on the academic integrity and academic freedom of those involved;

5. To determine if there were breaches of research ethics standards;

6. To determine the implications of the seizure for the research project, the researchers, the research subjects, the University of Ottawa, the Institute for Mental Health Research, the Royal Ottawa Hospital, and the research funders.

7. To make any appropriate recommendations.

Committee Members

Chair

Trudo Lemmens, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto, with cross-appointments in the Faculty of Medicine (Medical Genetics and Microbiology, and Psychiatry). He is associated with the Centre for Innovation Law and Policy and with the Joint Centre for Bioethics.

Members

Thomas Ban, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University

Louis Charland, Associate Professor in the departments of Philosophy and Psychiatry and in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Western Ontario