NOT GUILTY by reason of ethnicity;
A doctor accused of being at the centre of the COVID-19 outbreak in the Campbellton region in May that claimed two lives, infected dozens and forced that northern part of New Brunswick back into the orange phase of recovery is facing a charge under the provincial Emergency Measures Act.
Dr. Jean Robert Ngola has been issued an appearance notice to attend Campbellton provincial court on Oct. 26 under Section 24(1)(b) of the act for alleged failure to comply with a direction, order or requirement, his lawyer, Joël Etienne, confirmed to CBC on Sunday.
It stems from an RCMP investigation following a complaint filed by the provincial government and the Vitalité Health Network on May 30 “related to an individual who may have violated the mandatory order under the current Emergency Measures Act by travelling outside of N.B., and not following the guidelines of self-isolating upon their return,” RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Jullie Rogers-Marsh said in an emailed statement.
[…]
Etienne contends Ngola, who is from Congo, is “absolutely innocent of any wrongdoing. … At all times, he conducted himself correctly in fact and in law, with the utmost diligence.”
His defence team, which now includes constitutional lawyer Christian Michaud, who has successfully argued before the Supreme Court of Canada and established victories in minority linguistic rights in New Brunswick, plans to initiate legal proceedings against the provincial government and Vitalité for what Etienne described as “misconduct.”
“The singling out of a racialized medical worker by a premier and his government, the calling out to criminalize a racialized medical worker by a premier and his government, the scapegoating of a racialized medical worker by a premier and his government is tantamount to conduct unprecedented in North American history,” he said. “No other jurisdiction has ever done what New Brunswick has done in these matters.”
“racialized medical worker”
What Dat????
we really have sunk that low….it’s black privilege
Import turd world become turd world.
I’ve recently wondered, is “racialized” a real word?
Yeah. I wonder that too. I can picture a Monty Python skit: “‘elp! ‘elp! Oi’ve bin racialized, Oi ‘ave!”
Well, let’s suppose for the sake of argument that “racialized” is indeed a real word. Let’s look at the implication. Someone who is not a “minority” would not be considered racialized…therefore, that person, by the application of the term is raceless.
So, whether it’s a real word or not is immaterial. It’s inaccurate….false… Or, racialized applies to everyone.
There is no alternative. Which makes it a totally worthless word whether it exists or not.
It’s in the latest edition of the Newspeak dictionary, comrade, so it’s a real word.
Mr T, No, they bastardized the the word racial. It’s then an effective invective to shame the accusers. Want to bet that next he’ll be suing em for pain and suffering, and will get so nice a settlement, he’ll never need to work again.
It’s a “polite” word for “coloured”.
“Progressive” people are so quaint!
Pulling out the ace of spades again.
Boom! Tish!!
I looked into the case when it first was in the news. “Not guity” in this instance a is a good call. He simply went across the border to pick up his daughter because his wife was cslled away on an emergency. Heath care workers at the local hospital which is near the border go back and forth all the time without quarantine. Some live in Quebec. There is no certainty that he picked up the virus in Quebec. I think it was a fluke that he ended up with the virus as he did not even circulate in Quebec. It would be unfair to penalize him for the error. He is a doctor and his skills are much needed. The provincial action in this case was heavy handed, though I doubt it was motivated by race. All t
Interesting background, LindaL – thanks for that. Still, though; his race (I’m not even going to address the abomination that is ‘racialized’) is completely irrelevant to his guilt or innocence. Christian Michaud has shown himself to be a first-class asshole.
@ dcardno
Michaud is a lawyer.
Q: What is the difference between a lawyer and a mosquito?
A: One is a blood sucking insect, the other is an insect.
Rats. I screwed up the joke.
Should be
Q: What is the difference between a lawyer and a mosquito?
A: One is a blood sucking parasite, the other is an insect.
I suspect there is more to the story than you’ve mentioned. That’s why we have trials and courts so we’ll find out soon enough.
Well his skills as a doctormust be in some doubt if he didn’t realize he had symptoms; maybe he didn’t have any. But did he not practice basic hygene?
And even if he has shown no symptoms, why didn’t he test himself given the circumstances? Surely he must have been aware of the risk?
yah unCOLON, try covering your RACIST tracks now
You forgot to change your name before screaming “racist”.
hay robby, I traveled through Shanghai and probably picked it up there, and never thought about it till my step daughter pointed out to me, months later that I was sick a week after coming back, and probably already have had it. Not every one thinks of these things on an time basis. Hell I had a flue shot 2 years ago and had the Flue in the spring, and though that this was a repeat.
How does “basic hygiene” prevent Covid? I know about hand washing and I am sure the doctor does as well, but there are no guarantees you won’t pick up the virus somewhere. The borders are an artificial barrier, particularly with border communities.
“He is a doctor and his skills are much needed. ”
Oh really? So, hypothetically speaking, if you had a choice between him and another random doctor treating your children you would be indifferent between the two?
I just had some medical treatments involving doctors and nurses of different ethnicities and races. They were all excellent. In case you have not thought of it, an immigrant must go through a lot of hoops to qualify as a doctor in Canada. I had an excellent black dentist for many years. Arguably, those who do qualify are at the very top of the pecking order for their country. I am sure their countries are sorry to lose them. I am quite certain that the doctor in this case did not wander in via Roxham Road.
When I had emergency surgery I had a black surgeon who saved my life. I just don’t care what color my doctor is. He can be sky blue pink with rainbow freckles. If he ignores health rules during a pandemic he’s no longer my doctor.
You have dodged the question. I did not ask if you prefer a black doctors to a white doctors. I did not ask if you prefer an immigrant to a non immigrant doctor either. I have asked if you prefer him or a random doctor. You did not answer that question.
That’s a hard question, Colonialista. Who the heck is this “random doctor”. How old is he, she? Does he/she have a pleasant manner? I would guess some “random doctors” are fine, but that others are not. I also have not met this doctor. So I have no way of judging which doctor I would prefer,
Come on this is not hard question at all, you haven;lt met that random doctor, you haven’t met Ngola either. Who do you choose? We all know the rational answer.
But since you went there, let me then ask: do you think affirmative action plays a role as to who becomes a doctor in Canada? If yes, what do you think are the consequences as far as quality of care?
Also, do you think Congo is the best place to import doctors from or could there possibly be better places?
I am not sure affirmative action plays a big role in this situation. It’s not like affirmative action programs in the US where standards are lowered to accomodate many less qualified people. Also, a lot of African doctors train internationally in places like the UK. They are often top students.
“It’s not like affirmative action programs in the US where standards are lowered to accomodate many less qualified people. ”
Are you sure about that? It certainly is a case everywhere else in the publik sektor. So why not publik sektor doctors?
Having said that, affirmative action or not, I would much rather prefer to be treated by a black doctor trained in Canada than by a white doctor trained in Congo. It is the turd world factor, not skin color. And turd world matters. I don;t want to be treated by a Russian doctor anymore than i want to be treated by a Congolese doctor.
BTW British NHS is a totalitarian disaster compared even to the Canadian system, so again, I would much rather we trained our doctors in Canada then imported them from Congo or for that matter from UK.
Oh and finally an increasing proportion of African doctors do not train in UK but in China, in the past decades large numbers trained in Russia. No thanks.
I’m not sure where you get the only went across the border. As I recall, he drove far into Quebec, stopped for gas and he picked up his daughter who had been living in Montreal at some point in between. He should have gone into quarantine immediately with his daughter for 14 days on arrival back in New Brunswick. Even if he did everything right coming over the border (which he did not) his daughter may well have been sick and he was in a closed car with her. He must have met with someone because his young daughter didn’t go by herself to the border of New Brunswick from Montreal to meet him. So no, I disagree with you when you say he did the right thing.
He did not strictly follow the rules, but I also do not think he behaved irresponsibly. His daughter was not sick. We do not know that the virus was picked up in Quebec. Many colleagues in his hospital live in Quebec and are not subject to the quarantine rules. Maybe I am giving him the benefit of the doubt because I think many of those lock down rules and quarrantine regulations are insane. They are somewhat inconsistent across the country with the Maritimes primarily thinking they can defeat the virus by keeping people out.
“He did not strictly follow the rules.” He’s a doctor. Doctors are supposed to follow the rules better than anyone. We don’t know for sure he brought the virus with him but he might have and he broke the rules.
You voted for it….stop complaining.
All political Parties support apartheid justice in Canada, in varying degrees of cultural submission.
Bingo!
ALL parties … except Max.
What racialized the doctor? Was he unracialized and happy until some evil racist came along and racialized him. Then surely it should be that evil racist who is to blame. Is his racialization permament or can it be undone by some corrective voodoo?
Hiding incompetence behind an accusation of racism is a despicable act but, in this day and age, you have to admit he has a really great lawyer using a brilliant defence. The cry of racism will likely send everyone scurrying away in horror and allow him to get off scot free.
That is the main issue. Going forward, it will be the case that doctors of colour will no longer be held to the same standards of other doctors, due to the free Zappy Race Card superpower they now all have. Your doctor of colour may be brilliant. Then again he/she may not be competent, but has a good lawyer with a deck full of magic zappy race cards. There will be ZERO way to tell. Life and limb are too precious to gamble in this way.
I know after all the rioting and BLM anarchy, I have adjusted amd recalibrated my view of people of colour. There may be no affirmative action for Western doctors. But thanks to months of BLM rioting and thuggery, the Magic Zappy Race Card has now enabled incompetent or worse doctors of colour to completely bypass the normal weeding out process that used to be in place.
When it comes to hiring a doctor for my kids, I am performing risk-assessment with all relevant information at my disposal.
As above, what on earth does “racialized” have to do with anything? The only time it could have any bearing on the situation would be in the case of the virus itself being “racialized”, which we’ve been assured many times, it is not.
I agree. It is the provincial government’s fault.
Nobody from a country where they wipe their arses with their left hands should ever have been allowed to practice medicine just because French Canadians consider it morally wrong to pay an English or a Jew a wage making it worth his while to go to medical school.
From Congo, eh? King Leopold put the natives of the Congo Free State to work growing the rubber that built Belgian hospitals (on pain of getting their paws cut off if they didn’t deliver). He knew better than to put the natives to work in Belgain hospitals treating civilized people.
I only want Congolese doing one thing—mining the cobalt necessary to salt enough atomic bombs to ensure that when the world war with China is won, it stays won, with the ruins of Beijing glowing in the dark for a hundred years.
I’m gonna go with Lindal on this one. Irrelevant what race etc etc the physician is. First of all, there is the insinuation that his excursion resulted in disease and deaths. This is something that cannot be established given the arms-length ability of the virus to be transmitted/caught and the inability to exclude others from having the virus given that most people are asymptomatic.
Failure to follow a direction blah blah blah. Blackie fails to follow numerous ethical directions. This physician just needs to show a picture of Trudeau Jr. in court.
Sounds a lot like people want to blame a person instead of just realizing its a virus that 99.9 percent of the time is either harmless or will make you somewhat sick, but the .1 percent of the time will gang up with whatever other disorder you have and kill you. Life is risk folks. Get over it. If you want to control people to the extent that you want to reduce risk to zero, then ban cars.
My doctor came back from Mexico just before the shutdown and after a couple of days he developed sniffles and a cough. He notified local authorities. He was already in a 14 day lock down and he got tested. THAT is what this doctor should have done. As for holding up a picture of Trudeau, doctors are supposed to be better educated and more aware of health risks than politicians whom most folk expect to be crooked liars. I’ll support the Trudeau defence when he stops practicing medicine and goes into politics.
Justin Burch – You are right. A medical professional should be held to a higher standard, not a lower one, irrespective of his ethnicity.
He holds a place of trust, he should better understand the risk, he should not feel he is above the law (no matter how suspect a law might be), as others here apparently believe. An engineer sketches a foundation for a neighbour, and the neighbour builds it, the engineer can be sued if it fails. The neighbour has an expectation of competence. The citizens of NB have an expectation of competence from their doctors. They expect their doctors to lead by example. We will see what the facts are when they are presented in court, however, I am immediately suspicious if a lawyer draws the race card even before the court adjourns. If you have to use the race card, you probably have a weak case. O J Simpson trial comes to mind.
“Nothing can go wrong-o I’m from the Congo.”*
*With apologies to Raffi and Joshua Giraffe.
The heavy handiness of the New Brunswick gov’t is who I see as a culprit. Why anyone visits or lives in that shit-hole is beyond me.
Why is this Dr singled out as a the guilty one while others live in Quebec and work in N.B.? (or vice versa?)
For all the protestations at SDA over the past few months over the heavy handed response from governments across the world regarding the covid, why is this person’s color or birthplace an issue?
Oh I get that he may win a settlement from the Gov’t of N.B. … but maybe he should win it.
Maybe he should be suing for a billion $ ..
Here we have another take from the whu who flu diaries. Get up, get out , get over it because that is the only solution for the foolishness.