Thread by @trklou

Credible reports are emerging LHSC will fire its CEO(s) next week and hire Altaf Stationwala. Don't recognize that name? Stationwala engaged in anti-Palestinian racism when he suspended Dr. Ben Thomson for advocating against dehumanization of Palestinians. A deep dive in this 🧵

I suspect that because Stationwala bungled Dr. Ben Thomson's suspension and put Mackenzie on the hook for potentially millions, that he is now trying to make an exit or is being shown the door. I agree: #FireStationwala . But LHSC?? No thanks. We've had enough CEO scandal here.

Recap: Dr. Ben Thomson was targeted by an organized harassment campaign based on his fact-checking of dehumanizing atrocity propaganda that is now thoroughly debunked. Stationwala suspended him personally. I wrote about it at the time, but there's more now

https://twitter.com/trklou/status/1714051944681967693

Gil Nimni, David Jacobs and other doctors were part of a highly organized harassment campaign fomented in private groups and involving pressure orgs like CIJA and B'nai B'rith. One member, Brian Berger, urged his colleagues to lie so as to present a pretext for suspension.

B'nai B'rith and CIJA both wrote letters to Stationwala, with B'nai B'rith making an implicit threat to funding by forwarding the message to him via the Foundation.

These attacks on a human rights defender found a receptive audience in Stationwala. He engaged the complainants and appears to have sided with them without any investigation, writing a "long email" to Allan Kagal, one of the instigators of the harassment campaign.

We've seen all of this before. But this is where it gets really weird. Thanks to Dr. Ben Thomson suing Gil Nimni and Mackenzie Health, we already know a lot - and will likely find out a hell of a lot more soon. Special thanks to the court clerk who emailed me the files.

When he was hauled into a meeting with his bosses, Dr. Thomson wrote a brilliant letter, clairvoyantly explaining where this dehumanization would go - 25x the death toll so far from the day he wrote that letter. He also provided multiple factual sources supporting his post.

He also provided one of the best blueprints I've seen about dealing with harassment campaigns such as this. Again, he was clairvoyant - both in his case and in those of others. Dr. Thomson was steadfast and insisted on facing the harassment bravely and head-on.

Mackenzie CEO Altaf Stationwala personally suspended Dr. Ben Thomson. The rumour I heard is Dr. Luke Bui, acting chief of staff, refused to do it and told Stationwala to do it himself. Regardless of why, it is incredibly rare for the CEO to suspend a doctor - it's MAC/chief's job

Stationwala claimed then and in multiple meetings with staff later that he did it for Dr. Ben Thomson's safety. This is negligence if true, but is more likely a laughable lie. Police assessed the situation as "low risk" within a day. Yet Dr. Thomson was not immediately reinstated

I can't say it better than Dr. Thomson did: "the safety concerns ... were a pretext", and were the result of opposition to "Dr. Thomson's vocal labeling of the actions of the state of Israel as ... genocide and/or contrary to international human rights law."

I am not a lawyer, but the accusations of "Misfeasance of Public Office", "Defamation", "Bad Faith Exercise of a Statutory, Public Office" all ultimately land at Stationwala's feet, not just as CEO, but as the hatchet man on Dr. Thomson's suspension.

And that brings us back to Stationwala coming to London Health Sciences Centre. If this rumour is true, it is a guarantee of scandal, both because of how it happened, and the conditions under which he's leaving Mackenzie, with his failure of leadership there.

I don't have a particular action plan - I'll add a message to this thread when I do. In the meantime, I'll leave this list of the board of directors at LHSC here: lhsc.on.ca/about-lhsc/boa…