A physician's concern can't be for sale

Human beings can be corrupt whether they wear blue suits, lab coats, or academic robes.

When a member of Alberta’s Legislative Assembly alleged last spring that patients in Alberta were dying in the thousands as they waited for care, he understandably caused a stir. Raj Sherman, himself a physician, claimed that none of these things had come to light before because doctors were being forced to leave and were paid off to keep silent.

That Sherman’s claims lacked evidence has already been identified.  But a stench of impropriety has remained around the question all this time.  The Alberta government heeded the calls for an investigation (though it resisted the idea at first), even if it will not be an independent inquiry. The fact that there is an investigation lends some credibility to Sherman’s claims.

Witnesses are being asked to step into a highly politicized field.  Interested in keeping the foul smell in the air, an opposition party launched a dedicated phone line to solicit testimon…