In a strongly worded editorial published today in Open Medicine, the editorial team calls for the resignation of former Cabinet Minister Barbara McDougall, who currently chairs the board of governors of the International Development Research Council (IDRC) and was, until March 2010, also a member of the board of directors of Imperial Tobacco.
The allegation that these concurrent appointments represented a serious conflict of interest and have undermined the tobacco-control efforts of the IDRC and the projects it funds was lodged in March. Since then, it has generated significant controversy in the tobacco-control community and beyond, with serious repercussions for the Crown agency. Not least, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced that it was terminating a $5.2 million grant to IDRC's Research for International Tobacco Control program.
Open Medicine's editorial looks beyond the optics of Ms. McDougall's appointments to discuss the marketing strategies of Big Tobacco and the significant collateral damage caused by this type of conflict. The editorial concludes:
"The tobacco industry will continue to use any means available to develop its market in countries whose populations are gaining more disposable income.... In the meantime, in countries such as Canada where [tobacco control] legislation and regulation are relatively effective, one strategy is to co-opt people of influence into the industry’s cynical corporate social responsibility game. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is wise to these manoeuvres. Barbara McDougall’s resignation from the board of governors of the IDRC would be respectful of the intention of the convention and of Canada’s obligation to comply with it. Moreover, it would help those in the front lines of tobacco control research and programming to get on with work that really can make a difference. Ms. McDougall’s recent involvement with the tobacco industry has damaged the reputation of the IDRC; we therefore urge her to resign from its board of governors."
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Anne Marie Todkill; for the editors of Open Medicine
For a full-text version of this editorial, click here: http://www.openmedicine.ca/
About Open Medicine
Open Medicine is a peer-reviewed, independent, open-access general medical journal published in Canada. It makes original medical research, as well as reviews, commentaries and articles on practice, policy and ethics, available freely and immediately to everyone over the Internet. It is a not-for-profit organization.openmedicine.ca
ContactLindsay Borthwick
Media Liaison, Open Medicine
(203) 435-6147
[email protected]
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