Mark Joffe is no longer Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, a job in which he has been almost invisible for two and a half years.
No one seems to know exactly why. A statement to media from the government said Dr. Joffe’s contract ended Monday, after a two-week extension, and a search started at once to find a replacement.
He was an AHS vice-president in 2022 when he was put in the job. The province said then it was an interim role with no additional pay and he would continue as chief medical officer of health only until the health minister rescinded his appointment.
So was he pushed or did he jump? Was his departure unexpected? Who made the call? None of that is clear.
A variety of headline writers opted for the cautious explanation that Dr. Joffe is “out” as chief medical officer of health. (Translation: We have no idea why.)
Dr. Joffe stepped into the job back in November 2022 when Deena Hinshaw, who had held the position through the COVID-19 pandemic, was fired days after Danielle Smith became premier. As a right-wing radio talk show host during the pandemic, Ms. Smith had campaigned in the internal party election on her credentials as a vaccine skeptic, advocate of quack COVID cures, and bitter foe of public health measures.
Since then, Dr. Joffe has been criticized for having very little to say about public health and infectious diseases. He hasn’t appeared at a news conference since 2023. This, however, was assumed to suit the Smith Government.
“The province is now short one chief medical officer of health,” NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi observed tartly yesterday. “Well, some would argue we’ve been short a chief medical officer of health ever since Premier Smith took office.”
We do know that, like other parts of North America, Alberta is now in the throes of a burgeoning measles outbreak – driven in significant part by the anti-vaxx sentiments promoted by Premier Smith in her radio career. There were 77 known cases in the province yesterday, which given the rate at which the disease spreads means there are a heck of a lot more.
And Dr. Joffe did make a statement published on the Alberta Government website last Friday, in which he said: “I want to remind all Albertans that these outbreaks are highly preventable. Albertans can protect themselves and those around them by ensuring their measles immunizations are up to date. Immunization with measles-containing vaccine is the single most important public health intervention to prevent measles.”
“The measles vaccine is safe and highly effective at preventing infection and complications and is readily available to eligible Albertans,” he added.
Yesterday’s statement praised Dr. Joffe for serving Albertans “with dedication and professionalism.” Alert readers will recall, of course, that when it was announced in January that Athana Mentzelopoulos had departed as CEO of Alberta Health Services, Health Minister Adriana LaGrange extended her “sincerest gratitude … for the work she has done leading Alberta Health Services.”
Ms. Mentzelopoulos is now suing AHS for wrongful dismissal. This is not to suggest anything about the reasons for Dr. Joffe’s departure, only that one cannot necessarily trust the things this government tells us.
Speaking of which, in yesterday’s statement, the government also said it “remains vigilant in its approach to measles” and wants “to reassure Albertans that public health continues to be a top priority during this transition.”
As long, presumably, as the government’s approach to measles has nothing to do with vaccinations.
With Orwellian imprecision, UCP tables ‘Compassionate Intervention Act’
Also yesterday, the Smith Government tabled what promises to be one of its most controversial pieces of legislation, Bill 53, named with Orwellian imprecision the Compassionate Intervention Act, a title worthy of the Ministry of Love.
The Involuntary Addiction Treatment Act would have probably passed muster, with the caveat that the kind of “treatment” favoured by Premier Smith’s inner party requires scare quotes because it is rejected by so many genuine experts in addiction recovery.
“If passed, the Compassionate Intervention Act would create a pathway for parents, family members, guardians, health care professionals, and police or peace officers to request a treatment order or care plan for those who, because of their severe addiction, are likely to cause harm to themselves or others,” the news release announcing the long-expected legislation soothingly promised.
It will be passed, of course, because it a signature piece of United Conservative Party legislation.
But have no doubt, Mental Health and Addiction Minister Dan Williams was not reflecting reality when he told a news conference yesterday that “this program is also not a criminal justice program. This is a health-care program.”
Make no mistake, the “compassionate intervention centres” planned under this scheme will be jails, each with 150 “secure” beds. That is to say, the beds will be in locked rooms.
One doesn’t need to be an expert in addiction treatment to understand from the controversy among actual experts surrounding this long-telegraphed plan, that the government’s repeated claims Alberta has established a “gold standard” of opioid addiction treatment apparently not discovered by all the other jurisdictions that are dealing with this deadly worldwide crisis are highly tendentious.
But if it doesn’t work out, Premier Smith told the news conference, featuring a huge throng of supporters, no matter, they’ll just try something else. “You don’t know something works until you try it,” she told a reporter who asked what evidence supports involuntary treatment, “and you won’t know what your success rate is until you try it. And you won’t know what your recidivism rate is until you try it. … We’ll do the analysis to see what works, and if we need to try something new, we will try something new.”
This is the scientific method, UCP style, presumably.
Between the sweet lines of yesterday’s news release, this bill smacks of police being able to toss people into jail on a whim without a hint of due process.
This is obviously unconstitutional, but Ms. Smith has stated that her government would use Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the notorious Notwithstanding Clause, if that’s what it takes to pass or use the legislation.
Moreover while it is not clear who will own and operate the planned “compassionate intervention centres,” or how their employees will be trained, the plan smacks of union busting, health care privatization, and quackery.
“You don’t know something works until you try it”…….
I missed what the 2 drugs were that she named , but hey, if they don’t work, we’ll try something new.
We are going to compassionately put people in a ‘recovery centre’ against THEIR will, give them some sort of medication, for their own good and if something untoward happens to them, well we tried.
The irony of a CIA mandate, that’s not a mandate; it’s “the new law we are passing” is audacity at it’s highest level imo. Let me guess, since Marlaina has a penchant for central America, are they going to have nice names like the Salvador Centre, or maybe the Columbia Rooms.
What Charter of rights ?
What “we want our freedom ” from PMJT the tyrant?
With her counter part Skippy already invoking the ‘not withstanding clause’ to override the SCoC ,I’m sure she feels that he’s on her side.
Marlain-a-lago and mini-me DT are watching and chomping at the bit.
So which Bill was it that she introduced that said no more “mandatory” vaccines. I’m assuming that all the children that are suffering from measles shouldn’t have had contact with others who had the measles. It’s their own fault. If they get sick enough to end up needing hospital care , I certainly hope that the anti vaxxers are going to perpared to be the caregivers. There is already a nursing shortage, and one of the most contagious diseases is just starting to affect the most unvaccinated(?) province.
I believe I was 5rs old when I got the measles; and I remember sleeping alone in a upper room, hands wrapped so I wouldn’t scratch myself, but mostly I remember the heat and my mother trying to comfort me but also not touch me. I feel so sorry for the kids that are going to get this, and I am forever grateful for that little scar on my shoulder from the vaccines that we got before we went to school. So when the second round came, we never got it, thankfully.
If Dr Joffe’s contract was not extended because of his advocacy for the measles vaccine, DS & AL should be aware that Karma is Nature’s balance. When you abandon your responsibility to ALL the people of the province that you took an oath to serve, instead looking out for your own self interest, or your cronies; then you have already broken that oath and do not deserve to be in a role of responsibility for the best interests of your constituents….and that still means ALL ALBERTANS.
Just like Skippy with his Pierre Poilievre campaign jet & buses (ala d’rump) and his constant focus on “my” government, Marlaina has forgotten, if she ever knew that she was supposed to be the voice ‘of’ the people.
Maybe Mark Joffe knows about the health care contracts scandal that could sink the UCP? I wonder about this. Evidence has already been established about involuntary treatment for addictions being a failure, but what do those medical experts know about that? The UCP, with no medical background seems to know more than the experts do. They even paid Preston Manning over $250,000, along with an expense account of $2 million to produce a Covid-19 management report that is absolutely rubbish, and followed that up with another expensive pandemic management report, that was created from those with a less than credible medical background.
Here’s where we need to lay out for everyone–the complications of measles and stop screaming at people who won’t get them (although for kids, I think they should be mandated due to the risk in schools of outbreaks).
I see all the “measles kills” (which is fairly rare) vs “vaccines kill” (again, rare but not nothing) but what I don’t see, is the *other* risks from infection that don’t get talked about.
Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis is a result of having contracted measles which can occur years later. There’s no cure and it’s permanent brain damage.
If the parent mistakes measles with Rubella/German measles (and there’s little reason to believe a non-professional will be able to tell the difference) then we’re looking at possible permanent heart conditions, sterility (a common cause of it in women before the vaccines were invented) and developmental disorders which are more prevalent than outright death.
One of the ways of talking to people and I’ve had to talk to many, is to explain to them that in Canada and Europe, the testing of vaccines is far more rigorous than in the USA.
When it’s clear that Big Pharma in the USA has been caught, pants down, on many occasions with shoving medications onto the market without proper testing and have been caught destroying entire communities in third world countries by unsafe vaccine testing practises crippling and killing children (all this data is publicly available)–what stands behind calming these concerns is the fact that Canada and the EU are far more rigorous in our demands before allowing medications into our markets. Underplaying this only feeds into the hysteria.
The problem here is that nuance gets lost when the “anti-vaxx” vs “vaxx” crowd are all screaming at the top of their lungs at each other. Nobody was ever convinced by screaming but I’ve seen a fair few convinced by laying out the case and asking them which seems to be the best route to take.
Let the screaming of “ANTI VAXXER ALERT” begin.
Dr Joffe issued a timid public statement on measles immunization last Friday. He’s suddenly de-appointed from his role as CMOH two business days later. Anyone who thinks this is merely a coincidence, raise your hand: I have a bridge I can sell you.
The comment about “the plan smacks of union busting, health care privatization, and quackery” appears exactly what the UCP are doing. They tried the wholesale privatize everything approach a while ago and were met with a great deal of resistance, so they are chipping away at things one little bit at a time. The sad thing is not enough people are speaking out against all of this. They started with the easiest to target by first delisting and cutting benefits to people on AISH even clawing back possible federal benefits. Next was reducing benefits to Seniors and rejecting federal things like dental coverage and pharma care, citing Alberta has the best benefits in Canada (which they don’t). Now they are going after the street people addicted to drugs with unconstitutional legislation. Maybe MH Care will get the contract to run these centers on a bloated unethical sole source basis? You know the Stanley Cup playoffs are just around the corner. How many games will Smith and others go to as a guest of MH Care, so it can get even more money out of the Smith government?
Okay this administration utterly confuses me.
They want to mandate compulsory addictions treatment but not measles vaccinations for school children.
There’s an extremely low rate of success (under 10% when I last studied it) of compulsory addictions treatment success–yet a high rate of success for measles prevention (and low risk of complications) from measles vaccines in Canada. (remove the USA FDA corruption outta this)
Can someone please teach Dixie Dani how to read a statistics chart?
B: The only reasonable conclusion, I suppose, is that they are simply perverse. They want the ability to remove the annoying poor from the streets because that is what many voters, reasonably enough, would like to see. They care not a whit about compassion. That is just virtue signalling, to borrow a phrase from the right. They don’t want to take vaccinations because they’re afraid of needles or something. DJC
“The largest measles epidemic in North America in the last decade, occurred in 2011 in Quebec, Canada, where rates of 1- and 2-dose vaccine coverage among children 3 years of age were 95%–97% and 90%, respectively, with 3%–5% unvaccinated….The overall incidence was 9.1 per 100 000; the highest incidence was in adolescents 12–17 years old (75.6 per 100 000), who comprised 56% of case patients. Among adolescents, 22% had received 2 vaccine doses. Outbreak investigation showed this proportion to have been an underestimate; active case finding identified 130% more cases among 2-dose recipients. …Unvaccinated individuals remain the immunization priority, but a better understanding of susceptibility in 2-dose recipients is needed to define effective interventions if elimination is to be achieved.” The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Volume 207, Issue 6
15 March 2013. “It’s called Sex Panther by Odeon. 60% of the time it works every time”.
I wonder how hard it will be for the UCP to recruit a CMOH that will satisfy both their requirements and the general public’s.
As we learned during Dr. Hinshaw’s tenure, a CMOH requires specialized training in public health, so presumably some of the hinky doctors that appeared in anti-vax protests would not qualify. As a result, the UCP needs to find a candidate that:
1. Has undergone the requisite training.
2. Is willing to move to Alberta. Given the way this government treated Dr. Hinshaw, this could be the most difficult recruitment challenge of all.
3. Be willing to ignore their public health training and downplay the importance of vaccines.
4. Be willing to promise to NEVER implement any public health measures such as masking requirements, public health closures or vaccine mandates.
5. Be sellable to the vast Alberta majority who acknowledged the need for mask requirements, public health closures and vaccine mandates. To do this, they must not have a social media presence condemning those public health measures.
This recruitment could take a while.
in 2022 a faith healer in peshawar pakistan drove a nail into the forehead of a local pregnant woman in order to assure her next born would be male. the healer was detained.
once that person has been released i’m sure the health minister would find them to be a most suitable candidate for the most senior public health official in alberta.
Dr. Joffe was appointed as CMOH in November, 2022. His ‘contract’ ended in April 2025. That’s two years and five months. Odd length of time for a contract. You would think he would have signed something like a three year agreement with perhaps an option to renew annually. Normally, if someone chooses not to renew their contract their employer will try to hire a replacement well in advance of the end date, so that the incumbent can help with the orientation of the new hire.
So “compassionate intervention” is nothing but a big experiment. It can’t “fail” because there are no standards and no bottom.
What qualifications do parents, family members, guardians, health care professionals, and police or peace officers have to determine the need for treatment, let alone indefinite confinement without due process, for people who have rights under Canada’s Charter? We can assume most are not qualified medical doctors (“health care professionals” could include physiotherapists or audiologists, for example, who are not mental health experts) or registered psychologists acting on a proper psychological assessment. Even a qualified doctor or psychologist should recuse themselves in cases involving their own family members. Ethics and professional standards, people!
The last time I checked, the eugenics board that functioned in Alberta until 1972 required a panel of four, including two doctors and two appointed community members, to sterilize patients. A certain degree of consent from the patient or family was also involved, although consent from a minor or a person declared mentally incompetent seems highly questionable.
How long before Alberta hires “Con Air” to ship detainees abroad for “treatment”, after it fills its “concentration camps” to the rafters? Scare quotes are very much in order here. In any case, the standards for eugenics seem to have been slightly higher than those used to indefinitely jail people in Alberta in the 21st century. Note: eugenics were practised during Ernest Manning’s (father of Preston Manning) tenure as Alberta premier.
Bearing in mind the disproportionate percentage of indigenous people currently incarcerated, Alberta’s plan might also have the “unintended” effect of sweeping up this particular visible minority. Eugenics, 21st century style?
One more note, is it a coincidence that the Alberta government is failing to properly fund shelters for abused women and children? We should all consider the broader context of “compassionate intervention”.
https://www.stalbertgazette.com/local-news/domestic-violence-shelter-space-crunch-reaches-new-heights-10490788
We have now reached peak Donald Trump in Alberta, who this week mused about shipping his own citizens offshore to El Salvador, for “reasons” not stated. Alberta’s UCP and Danielle Smith are just sneakier about paving the runway to do the same thing here.
I can still hear the former Conservative MLAs stating Reformers destroy jobs not create them like Conservatives do. If all these people begin suing the Province for Wrongful Dismissal Albertans will be paying out a lot more for this Reform Party stupidity won’t they? Just like they did with Ralph Klein and his insane healthcare cuts, costing lives.
The UCP health care chaos continues, whether it be their war against doctors and other health care worker under the previous premier, wasting money on expensive private facility contracts to their cronies or getting rid of competent people.
I don’t know if the reason Joffe left was because he spoke out in favour of vacinations, and that greatly upsets some of the science deniers in the UCP extreme right wing or he just got tired of all the stupidity and ideological limitations so decided to pack it in. In any event, we are in the midst of a measles outbreak without a chief medical officer of health.
The UCP seems to continue to undermine and damage our health care system at every opportunity. It is either very careless or deliberate, perhaps both.
So, two “compassionate intervention centres” (read for-profit jails) at 150 “beds” (read prison cells) = 300 “patients” (read prisoners). What an opportunity for some UCP insiders to get rich quick on taxpayer dollars!
Another scam from the UCP to enrich insiders.
Thank you, DC. This legislation is the opposite of what we need. As a long-time criminal lawyer based in Edmonton, I can say that every client I have represented who was addicted to street drugs had been actively involved in addiction and mental health treatment. In Alberta the problem is not the unwillingness of the addicted; it’s lack of capacity for residential treatment. The same is true of unhoused people whose behaviour causes concern on the streets to the point where they’re arrested and brought to court. Again, accused persons in mental health court are almost all under the care of mental health professionals. There are just not enough voluntary beds to house them. Edmonton’s last mental health hospital beds were added in 1988 when the Grey Nuns opened (37 years ago) when the city’s population was about half what it is today. The UCP has put the brakes on new hospital development.
There will be an awful lot of pressure to keep those revenue producing beds filled, if not, the model does not work. This is what happens when you create for profit containment.
The level of desperation speaks volumes about Queen Danielle’s mindset.
Faced with a very strong possibility of a major CPC defeat in the federal election, which could lead to a substantial LPC majority, there can be no doubt that Smith’s refusal to rein herself in and STFU, while she ran off to Mara Largo for endless and embarrassing MAGA confabs, with the Great Orange Man himself, proves that she would rather be in Florida than Alberta. That, and her clear and obvious treasons in the face of the existential threat from the US to Canada, just leaves Smith with no other option but to resign and crawl under a rock.
But she intends to fight on, while declaring herself the victim, and covering up her various and plentiful scandals within AHS. Smith is about to get steam rolled, and there’s no stopping her demise this time.
Let us all rejoice that Danielle Smith will at last and finally be told to p*ss off, once and for all.
Would not go into the U.S.A. if paid given the loss of democratic game rules. Now I can add Alberta to the list of places I won’t travel. Being locked up because you may or may not have a substance abuse problem just isn’t going to work for me. Can hardly wait until some one who they think has a substance abuse illness, they don’t and die due to lack of medical care. it won’t be that difficult to have a child or spouse who is “troublesome” put in one of the new jails. Once upon a time B.C.. had a game rule like that. Was abolished decades ago because it was “illegal” and and it was being abused. (recall Jack Wasserman writing about it in his salon column). It can happen to any one especially if the parents are connected. We have seen Russia confine people to state mental hospitals because they didn’t agree with the state. How long do you think it would be used against Canadians. Of course Smith will add the not withstanding clause if the Supreme Court of Canada strikes down her little attempt at Maga medical.
Smith is dangerous, just as PP is with his “promise” to use the not withstanding clause to implement his leg.
Has any one asked Smith where she plans to find hospital beds for the “ill”? Where will the staff come. Treatment for substance abuse is intensive and shrinks are required. Praying doesn’t cut it.
Locking people up in cells will only result in suicides. There will also be the opportunity for abuse, both physical and sexual.
If this legislation is passed do expect people who need help will leave the province.
Ok, I agree with most of the commentary here, this is probably going to line the pockets of some UCP-friendly recovery centers. Now as we’re told this is an opinion forum but – “this bill smacks of police being able to toss people into jail on a whim without a hint of due process.” Isn’t that a bit hyperbolic? DJC do you have anything to back this up? Oh wait – it’s an opinion blog, don’t need facts.
Pretty much all jurisdictions in the world have processes to legally force people into treatment, usually using the “harm to themselves or others” criteria. The BC NDP for example is installing something very similar, the slight difference maybe is Ms. Smith’s legislation seems based on the addiction & public safety problem rather than the mental health issue. Free the Crackheads – there will be a special section reserved in Hell for those who advocate that the severely mentally damaged individuals we have be left to sort themselves out.
Constitutionality? Hundreds or maybe thousands of Canadians are locked up in mental health and long-term care facilities, shall we push all the dementia patients out onto the street like when we closed Riverview in Coquitlam? Written properly this proposed legislation will fit within our constitution although maybe Ms. Smith would prefer if it didn’t.
I do find the dissonance between the “anti-vaxx” & “lockup the junkies” positions to be amusing…