Lawyer Veronica McCaffrey is suing the Vancouver Island Health Authority, claiming she was ousted as director of risk management and senior legal counsel for sounding the alarm over alleged “widespread failures in law and compliance” at the organization.
McCaffrey filed a notice of civil claim in BC Supreme Court on February 1, naming the health authority and its CEO, Kathy MacNeil, as defendants. She claims she was employed at Island Health from June 2016 to November 2017 as senior legal counsel, director of risk management and whistleblower lead. After being lured away from her former position with Alberta Health Services, in her first eight months on the job McCaffrey claims she performed a “comprehensive legal assessment and review” of Island Health’s operations. She claims she uncovered harassment and abusive behaviour by senior management and an “employee culture of fear.”
“The plaintiff’s comprehensive review and evaluation of the clinical legal and compliance, clinical risk and whistle blower areas pointed to a shocking state of affairs, widespread failures in law and compliance, an absence [of] basic standards, evaluation and framework for risk management and conduct and culture from the top that paralyzed whistle blower reporting, all with high risk to patients, staff and the publicly funded organization,” the claim states.
McCaffrey claims her warnings to senior management fell on deaf ears, and when she attempted to “up-the-ladder report” her findings after seeking direction from the Law Society of BC, her immediate supervisor allegedly removed her from work and said she was mentally ill and unfit.
“Island Health avoided completing the investigation by terminating the plaintiff before her complaints were investigated,” the claim states. “When the plaintiff reported the matters to the Minister of Health, Adrian Dix, in accordance with the whistle blower policy, the minister failed to respond.”
In June 2017, McCaffrey claims she was forced to take a week off and returned to find her records had been wrongfully accessed and she was allegedly ostracized by Island Health’s senior leadership. Months later, she was again removed from work and later visited by police at her home after MacNeil allegedly made a report that falsely characterized McCaffrey as suicidal. In November 2017, she was fired for alleged performance issues, but McCaffrey claims she was wrongfully dismissed “for the improper purpose of avoiding dealing with the significant compliance, legal and risk assessment issues she had identified.”
McCaffrey seeks damages for breach of contract, bad faith, misrepresentation and defamation. The allegations have not been proven or tested in court and the defendants had not responded to the claim by press time.
