A doctor who was dismissed from the University of Ottawa's medical residency program says he has e-mails written by senior faculty members that prove he was dismissed for complaining about discrimination.
Waleed Al-Ghaithy is one of three medical residents, all from Saudi Arabia, who have told the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario that they faced undue criticism and unfair treatment because of their background, and were targeted with reprisals and intimidation when they took action.
At a moment when Ontario is courting more top-flight international students, the complaints cast a spotlight on ongoing claims by the university's student federation that visible minorities are routinely treated differently.
Dr. Al-Ghaithy said that before his dismissal, he filed an internal discrimination complaint against Eve Tsai, a neurosurgeon and teacher. On Wednesday, Dr. Al-Ghaithy, Khalid Aba-Alkhail and Manal Al-Saigh released e-mails that they said were sent between senior faculty members and distributed through an e-mail account identified only as Neuro Leaks.
The complainants also released an e-mail that they alleged was from Jim Worthington, a senior vice-president of the hospital where they did their residencies, advising recipients at the university and its affiliated hospitals that the e-mails contain confidential information and should be deleted.
One e-mail allegedly describes Dr. Al-Ghaithy as "a real destructive force within the program," and says, "If the complaint against [Dr. Tsai]is dismissed there are going to have to be some significant consequences for the involved parties (dismissal/suspension) or we are going to be facing this ad infinitum."
A later e-mail that the complainants said was from the same person and addressed to Dr. Tsai, deals with whether Dr. Al-Ghaithy might go to the Human Rights Tribunal, but adds: "I can predict with certainty that fixing Al-Ghaithy would deter the others from doing so." The e-mail calls Dr. Al-Ghaithy "a strong resident and probably the best we have, at least from an academic perspective," but assures Dr. Tsai "the university will not sacrifice one of its faculty members for the sake of few disgruntled … residents."
Andrée Dumulon, the university's director of communications services, called the allegations of racism and discrimination "very serious," but declined further comment until the Human Rights Tribunal hears the complaints.
"The university feels that's the proper forum where we will speak out," she said.