VICTORIA – Today, New Democrat leader John Horgan stood with the family of Roderick MacIsaac to call on the premier for a formal apology to MacIsaac’s family for the deceased researcher’s wrongful firing in September, 2012.

“The Liberal government smeared reputations and ruined lives when it fired a group of public service health researchers based on the findings of a heavy-handed and misguided investigation,” said New Democrat leader John Horgan. “That investigation has now proven to have been deeply flawed.

“Two years later, it’s time for Premier Christy Clark to apologize to these researchers, the family of the late Mr. Roderick MacIsaac, and explain her government’s actions to the public.”

A PhD candidate at the University of Victoria and co-op student, MacIsaac was working as a researcher with the Ministry of Health when he, along with several other prominent researchers were suddenly fired by the ministry after a flawed investigation into privacy breaches.

Four months later, MacIsaac took his own life, leaving behind evidence that his suicide was related to the stress and grief he suffered as a result of the wrongful dismissal.

Despite spending millions of taxpayers’ dollars investigating, settling and in some cases reinstating certain health researchers, the Liberal government refuses to tell the public what happened and why it ruined these peoples’ lives.

“The public deserves answers on why these proceedings were ever allowed to occur in a way that smeared the reputation of some of B.C.’s most notable health researchers,” added Horgan.

“But most importantly, Roderick MacIsaac’s family deserves closure. That’s why today I stood with Roderick’s family and his former colleagues to call on the premier to acknowledge the unnecessary pain and suffering the actions of her government have caused, and to finally apologize for her government’s role in ruining these peoples’ lives.”