EDMONTON — An Alberta politician facing demands to back up his sensational accusations of conspiracy, fraud, coercion and bribery in the province’s health system, tabled his long-promised supporting documents Monday — but the paperwork had nothing to do with what he alleged.
The documents presented by Raj Sherman were a collection of letters, emails, speeches, and brochures focused on emergency room overcrowding — an issue acknowledged and debated in the house last year.
Nevertheless Sherman, who sits as an Independent and is also an emergency room doctor, told reporters that the truth is still out there.
“I have very credible and very reliable sources that are willing to talk,” he said.
“They just need to talk in an open, public investigation where they are ensured that they will not be punished, admonished by government or their medical licence will not be put at risk.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Sherman created a storm of controversy last week when he told the legislature that at least six years ago senior Edmonton health officials were involved in a massive coverup.
He said 250 patients on a 1,200-patient waiting list waiting for lung surgery died awaiting treatment. He said officials, including two who he identified by name, were aware of what happened.
He said doctors were paid millions of dollars in bribes to keep the deaths quiet. Others were bullied or punished into silence.
To cover up the bribes, the officials committed fraud by keeping two sets of financial records.
None of the allegations has been proven and the two people named directly as conspirators — Dr. Trevor Theman, the registrar of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and senior health executive Sheila Weatherill — cannot sue him for defamation.
That’s because Sherman made the accusations in the house, where politicians are given immunity. He has refused to make the same allegations outside the house.
Theman has denied the charges and Weatherill has not commented.
When asked by reporters Monday why he didn’t provide the evidence, Sherman said that’s not his job — that it’s his role to raise questions and the government’s role to answer them.
“That’s not proof for me to offer,” he said. “It would be a violation of the Health Information Act for anybody to have confidential patient information.”
Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky has said he has not found any proof to support Sherman’s claims.
Premier Ed Stelmach has accused Sherman of recklessly abusing his parliamentary privilege by accusing two private citizens of wrongdoing in a forum where the pair can’t fight back.
Sherman also told the house that the misdeeds happened under former health minister Iris Evans, who is now the Intergovernmental Relations minister, and Gary Mar, who now represents the province in Washington, D.C.
Evans can ask the house to censure Sherman if she feels his comments have impeded her ability to do her job. She said she is now thinking about it, given the lack of evidence presented Monday.
“I can’t clear my name without seeing exactly what it is he has suggested,” said Evans. “There’s not a shred of proof.”
Sherman’s comments have dominated media coverage of the spring sitting, marginalizing other issues. They have raised larger questions about whether there is substance to Sherman’s allegations, but if not, what to do with politicians who impugn reputations of private citizens while cloaked in the quest of the greater good.
Brian Mason, leader of the opposition NDP, said Sherman needs to resolve the issue with Theman and Weatherill one way or another.
“If I were him, I would either bring forward evidence, or I would stand up in the legislature and apologize,” said Mason.
The story has taken many twists and turns.
After making the allegations in the legislature a week ago, Sherman didn’t back them up.
The next day, he told reporters he would back them up with evidence and that he would draw in other politicians by name.
By Thursday he announced he would not back up the allegations. He said his sources deserve full immunity from retribution and since the government wouldn’t grant it, he couldn’t deliver. Zwozdesky said all health officials already have that protection in their staff agreements.
That announcement brought a fresh round of newspaper stories and editorials, some that likened Sherman to former U.S. senator Joe McCarthy, the 1950s demagogue who smeared reputations and destroyed careers with phantom allegations of communist infiltration in government.
By Friday Sherman changed course again, tweeting that he would provide the proof after all.
By Sunday that shifted once more. Sherman told a news outlet he wouldn’t present the evidence because “it’s not my proof to give.”
The scandal is set against the backdrop of Sherman testing the waters of support for a leadership bid. He is seeking to run one of three parties that will be looking for new bosses, including Stelmach’s team.
He was elected as a member of Stelmach’s Progressive Conservatives in the March 2008 general election, serving in the west-Edmonton riding of Meadowlark.
Sherman served as parliamentary assistant on health, effectively the junior health minister, for well over two years.