On January 30 2007, the Foreign Minister of Canada announces the nomination of Barbara McDougall to the IDRC Board of Governors. The official press release mentions she belongs to the Board of "several Canadian corporations", names a few but not Imperial Tobacco Canada: this is strange as the site of the Toronto's Law Firm Aird & Berlis where Barbara McDougall is an Advisor used to mention Imperial Tobacco in her bio (this mention has since been erased). Imperial Tobacco Canada is since 2000 a wholly owned subsidiary of British American Tobacco (BAT).
Business Week tells us that Barbara McDougall is a Director of Imperial Tobacco Canada since 2004. She is said to serve as Director of Compensation and Nominations Committee but in other documents she appears as Chair of the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee, like in this social report of BAT(pdf) for the year 2006-2007.
When she is chosen to become Chair of IDRC's Board of Governors, on December 5 2007, IDRC does not mention that she is a Director of Imperial Tobacco Canada, stating only that she is a Director of "several Canadian corporations".
It is comforting to read on the page that introduces IDRC's Board of Governors that "The Board has a stringent conflict of interest policy to maintain the highest standard of integrity for its members and for the Centre as a whole."
Does that mean that belonging to the Board of a Tobacco Company does not create any conflict of interest with IDRC's mission?
On December 1, 2007 the Gates Foundation has awarded $5.2 millions to IDRC to promote tobacco control in Sub-Sahara Africa.
We find somehow ironical (to say the least) that IDRC is now organizing an external review of its tobacco control programs that will be presented to the Board of Governors, chaired by Barbara McDougall, a Director of Imperial Tobacco?
What about the upcoming meeting of African tobacco control advocates organized by IDRC and ATCA in Dakar in April 2010?
What do YOU think of this situation?
Wikipedia is also silent about Imperial Tobacco.
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