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Blowing the Whistle: Rights, Responsibilities and Research Integrity

About the Speakers

David Healy

David Healy studied medicine in Dublin and Cambridge. He is a Professor of Psychiatry in Cardiff University, a former Secretary of the British Association for Psychopharmacology, and author of over 150 peer reviewed articles, 200 other pieces and 20 books, including The Antidepressant Era, and The Creation of Psychopharmacology, The Psychopharmacologists Volumes 1-3, Let Them Eat Prozac, & Mania, as well as co-author with Edward Shorter of Shock Therapy.

He has been involved as an expert witness in homicide and suicide trials involving SSRI drugs, and in bringing these problems to the attention of American and British regulators. He has also worked on aspects of how pharmaceutical companies market drugs by marketing diseases and co-opt academic opinion-leaders by ghost-writing their articles.

Christopher Radzminski

A practicum in law was not what Chris Radziminski was expecting when he commenced Master?s research into a potential alternative to chlorine for drinking water treatment. Chris was funded by NSERC. His supervisors received "considerable compensation" from a chemical company producing the equipment and chemical precursors necessary for the alternative treatment. Two years after graduating, Chris discovered two journal articles published under his name containing material remarkably similar to his thesis ? but with differences that caused him to allege to the University that data had been misrepresented. Follow Chris in his journey from two universities to a courtroom to the editorial offices of two journals, reviewing his successes and failures in attempting to have these allegations investigated.

Wesley Cragg

Dr. Wesley Cragg is a graduate of the University of Alberta. In 1964 he won a Rhodes Scholarship which took him to Oxford for three years of post graduate work in philosophy culminating in two degrees, a B.Phil. and a D.Phil.

His first appointment was to the Department of Philosophy at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario. He has held appointments at the University of Western Ontario (as Distinguished Visiting Professor) and at the Université Canadienne en France. In 1992, he was appointed the first Gardiner Professor of Business Ethics at the Schulich School of Business with a cross appointment to Philosophy, positions from which he recently retired. He is currently Professor Emeritus and Director of the Business Ethics Programs at the Schulich School of Business.

Dr. Cragg has published widely in Canadian and international journals on topics in business ethics, corporate citizenship, bribery and corruption, occupational ethics, moral education, applied ethics, moral, political and social philosophy, philosophy of law and philosophy of punishment. He has authored and edited a number of books in applied ethics.

Dr. Cragg is currently Project Director for the Canadian Business Ethics Research Network (CBERN). The purpose of CBERN is to mobilize and profile Canadian business ethics expertise nationally and internationally. CBERN creates opportunities for sharing and engaging in research in business ethics across academic disciplines and faculties and draws university researchers into dialogue with leaders and researchers in business, government and the voluntary sector.

Dr. Cragg has worked extensively with firms and organizations in the public, private and voluntary sectors on building sound ethical standards into policies, operations and stakeholder relationships. He is the founding President and Chair of Transparency International Canada.

Susan Dimock

Susan Dimock is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Director of the York Centre for Practical Ethics. She holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Dalhousie University and has been a member of the York faculty since 1991. Her research interests include ethical theory, public sector ethics, philosophy of law, and responsibility. She has recently completed a research project for the Public Sector Integrity Commission on disclosure of wrongdoing (whistle-blowing) in the federal public service.

James Beaton

James is currently a researcher for the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario. Prior to this, he held the position of National Researcher. He has been involved in a number of positions where he has fought on behalf of students. He has been involved with CUPE 3903 representing York teaching assistants, graduate assistants and contract. James is currently on leave from a PhD in Sociology. Through his graduate work, James has examined the extent to which privatisation threatens public post-secondary education and the influence of corporate involvement in public research on academic freedom. In his position as researcher, he examines the effects of commercialisation of university research on the interests of graduate students.