THE BC Coroners Service on Tuesday refuted suggestions by the sister of Roderick MacIsaac, the researcher who killed himself after being fired from the Health Ministry, that the Service, or anyone working under its direction, deleted material from his computer following his death.
“At no time did anyone from the BC Coroners Service have access to the contents of Mr. MacIsaac’s laptop in electronic format,” said Regional Coroner Matt Brown.
An official statement said that the coroner seized MacIsaac’s laptop from his home on January 9, 2013, the day after his death had been reported to the BC Coroners Service and to the Saanich Police Department. The computer was not accessed at that time as it was password protected.
The next day, the BC Coroners Service, recognizing that it did not have the technical expertise to access the contents of the laptop, delivered it to the Island District Technological Crime Unit (an integrated police unit) for forensic analysis.
On January 15, the police officer tasked with examining the computer stated he had found a document written by MacIsaac that might be of interest to the coroner’s investigation. The coroner picked up a printed version of that document the next day, but did not receive an electronic copy, the statement said.
Following completion of the police examination of the computer, the coroner made arrangements with the family to have it returned to them. At the family’s request, this was to occur on October 10 or 11, 2013. To facilitate this, the coroner retrieved the computer from the police on October 9, 2013, and turned it over to the family representative on October 11, 2013.
The officer completed his more detailed examination in September 2013, and the coroner picked up the laptop and other exhibits on Oct. 9 and returned them to the family two days later.
The coroner did not access the laptop once it was received back from the police. Checks with the police have confirmed they deleted nothing from the laptop, according to the statement.
LAST week Health Minister Terry Lake sent a letter to Scott Hamilton, MLA, Chair of the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services to ask for the ombudsperson to investigate the controversial 2012 health ministry firings.
Earlier, the NDP had noted in a press release: “Eight health researchers were abruptly fired by the Christy Clark government in 2012, and the government misled the public for nearly three years that the fired employees were under police investigation. All of the surviving researchers released an open letter to Health Minister Terry Lake on Wednesday calling for an independent public inquiry. The letter is also signed by Linda Kayfish, sister of Roderick MacIsaac, who took his own life shortly after he was fired.”
