The unsettling case of Dr. Ngola, the RCMP and the New Brunswick government - Macleans.ca

  • 📰 macleans
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 74 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 33%
  • Publisher: 71%

Canada Headlines News

Canada Latest News,Canada Headlines

Craig Offman: Fifty pages of emails, memos and handwritten notes offer details into a troubled investigation into a COVID-19 outbreak.

Premier Blaine Higgs heads to cast his vote in the New Brunswick provincial election in Quispamsis, N.B. on Sept. 14, 2020

But a key question remains: on what basis did the authorities suspect him of infecting others? Crown disclosures provided to Ngola’s defence lawyers and filed in provincial court—50 pages of emails, memos and handwritten notes from the RCMP and government officials, among others—offer unsettling revelations.

The trouble began for Dr. Ngola in mid-May. A physician trained in Congo, Belgium, and at Laval University, he has said he drove across the provincial border to suburban Montreal to pick up his four-year-old daughter. She needed care while her mother—his ex-wife—flew to Africa for a funeral. On the way back, he met with medical colleagues near Trois-Rivières before crossing into Campbellton.

By the end of the day, Vitalité Health Network suspended Dr. Ngola without pay. Death threats and racist taunts piled up. He said he had to disconnect his phone: people were stalking him, calling him a refugee, telling him to go back to Africa. His home address was also publicly made available. The following day, the premier informed journalists that the RCMP was investigating the unnamed—yet identifiable—medical worker.

“I noticed the Premier mentioned in the media that the RCMP was taking over the investigation, at that time none of us were aware we were getting involved,” wrote Staff Sgt. Paré at 9:43 a.m. “There are already a couple of issues…the first thing being we don’t know who our complainant is.”

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 19. in CA

Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.