Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve known most of the Leishman family most of my life; actually and I grew up with many of them, including Allisdair.
I could not put into words in any way the feelings and emotions that the Leishman family are going through in this particular case, nor will I try. This is quite a powerful experience that they’re going through and let us try to imagine in a way how horribly this has changed their whole life forever.
Allisdair, I remember him well playing hockey and I still envision him with the smile and excitement and
jest he’s had. He’s was a great guy. I knew his brother Ian extremely well, and who I always looked forward to seeing whenever I’d cross the ferry in Providence and I’d look forward to talking to him every time, and I know the family and I’d like to think that they’ve been good friends of mine for many years. I almost feel like hearing that the system has decided to deny them, perhaps, the truth, or the justice that they rightly deserve is not reflective of the values I believe in.
I think that with much consideration and concern, I’m worried about the impact of how this motion goes. I’m certainly worried about the impact that this has had on the family and I don’t deny that these are circumstances I probably could never comprehend.
Mr. Speaker, the primary message in this motion that I keep reading when I heard it -- and I thank Mr. Abernethy for bringing it forward -- is that people want answers. It’s hard to imagine that the mortality and morbidity review could come up with nothing. Mr. Speaker, no recommendations almost seems appalling. I mean, not even general ones, not even big ones, nothing. It’s hard to imagine that this type of incident could happen and no one could find one thing to improve in the system.
Mr. Speaker, I’m completely surprised; and surprise probably in no way puts the feelings of the family into perspective. I’m sure they’re outraged.
Mr. Speaker, speaking of outrage, you don’t have to look far into other examples. Mr. Abernethy mentioned about hospital examples about people reviewing themselves and the problems that can arise, but our country as a nation has swelled quite in an aggressive manner against police forces that review themselves and always the fear of it being biased or protectionist in some way and that that had changed and the lessons learned just from that alone of saying that people want a clear and objective review. I don’t think that’s in the context of saying that if you review your own agency, whether it’s a hospital or whatnot, you’ll make bad decisions or decisions to cover up. I think what it does is provide quality assurance that if you have clear eyes, you’re unfettered by any type of decision or outcome of those results that the families can be somewhat satisfied. They may not like it, but they can be somewhat satisfied that there was a clear effort to understand the situation and certainly make change.
The answers the family received -- I want to thank Margaret and Faith for coming to my office to talk to me the other day -- I think are left wanting. The more I think about it and the more I even try to comprehend the particular issue of how it happened, I can only imagine the family still feels a loss in the sense of trying to explain or understand the situation.
We need a policy that is reflective of our values. The motion is only a half step forward. We need a policy that reflects full disclosure so that families will be able to understand the situation, will be able to work to healing, will be able to work to understanding what happened. Again, as I said, maybe the results of full disclosure may not be the ones they want to hear, but honesty is something they will cherish for many years going forward.
It’s sad nothing will change this horrible accident. It’s a horrible thing. But how do we look forward? It’s difficult to look forward with no lessons learned in this particular situation. I view it as not necessarily a situation of just trying to find fault to pin blame on somebody. It’s also a situation of trying to figure out how we ensure that this doesn’t happen again. It’s been said already.
Undeniably many of us, especially myself, ran for office to change the status quo. I can’t imagine anybody here not feeling that way. I feel that the way this report is sealed and locked down and the family’s denied what I would say is the truth of the situation, by allowing that, we’re just protecting the status quo and I think that’s not why many of us, especially myself, made the challenge to come here.
In closing, I just want to say that I have lasting worry and concern for the strain that this family will carry. This is a grey cloud that had burdened their life back in November 2009. I think answers, true answers, honest answers, will bring some closure to this family as they go forward. I think the family deserves that.