Summer/Fall 1999

he National Council is pleased to welcome three new members who joined our Council in June1999: John Eberlee, Jaroslav Kotalik and Jeffrey Nisker. Their biosketches appear below.

Congratulations go to Kenneth Davey, who was elected to be a member of the Executive Committee and Chair of the Finance Committee. Council also wishes to express its gratitude for the contri- butions of Gordon Crelinsten and Carole Guzman, whose mandates ended in June 1999.

The National Council is proud to announce that in July 1999, Henry B. Dinsdale, NCEHR Past President, was invested as a member of the Order of Canada to recognize his outstanding contributions in Health Care. The citation mentions that he has had a profound impact upon the Canadian medical profession and achieved international distinction as a scientist, clinician, educator and scholar. Dr. Dinsdale was one of the founding members of the NCBHR in 1989 and since then, he has been volunteering his services to NCEHR during a period of rapid change. The National Council is pleased to announce that Françoise Baylis, a member of Council, was chosen President-Elect at the 1999-2000 elections of the Canadian Bioethics Society (CBS), and Jeff Nisker, also a member of Council, was elected Member-at-Large for the Central region.

This Spring NCEHR held regional workshops on Ethics in Human Research: Implementing the Tri-Council Policy Statement at Simon Fraser University (March 3, 1999), York University (March 13, 1999), the Université de Montréal

(May 7, 1999) and University of Alberta (May 10, 1999). NCEHR will hold regional workshops at Dalhousie University (November 13, 1999) and at McGill University (November 30, 1999). NCEHR plans to organize more workshops in the near future. The coming issues of Communiqué will present some of the topics that were discussed during these regional workshops.

Please note that our website address has changed to http://ncehr-cnerh.org. We have launched an REB listserver that enables members of the research ethics community to discuss and communicate on different topics.

BIOSKETCHES OF NEW MEMBERS

Mr. John Eberlee is the Managing Editor of IDRC Reports Online, an Internet magazine published by the International Development Research Centre, which keeps readers around the world informed about IDRC-supported work and other development issues of interest. Mr. Eberlee is also a freelance science writer and editor, specializing in medicine, the environment, and life sciences. He was the principal writer for the Health Canada report, Health and Environment: Partners for Life, which was tabled in Parliament in December 1997. He has also written more than 300 articles for a variety of federal government agencies and commercial publications such as The Medical Post and Canadian Science News. Mr. Eberlee is a member of the Canadian Science Writers’Association and of the Periodical Writers Association of Canada.

Dr. Jaro F. Kotalik is a Radiation Oncologist with the Northwestern Ontario Regional Cancer Centre, Associate Clinical Professor of the Department of Medicine at McMaster University and Adjunct Professor of the Department of Philosophy at Lakehead University. From 1982 to 1994 he was the Director and later Chief Executive Officer of the Thunder Bay Regional Cancer Centre and Vice-President of the Ontario Cancer Treatment and Research Foundation. He has been an investigator with the Clinical Trials Unit of the National Cancer Institute of Canada since 1980, and has been participating in clinical trials with the North Central Cancer Treatment Group and Radiation Therapy Oncology Group. Dr. Kotalik’s long-time interest in ethical issues led him to obtaining his M.A. degree in medical ethics and law in 1995. He is the founder and Director of the Centre for Health Care Ethics at Lakehead University, the Chair of the Ethics Committee of the Thunder Bay Regional Hospital, and is a member of the Biomedical Ethics Committee of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Dr. Jeff A. Nisker is Co-ordinator of Bioethics, Cultural and Spiritual Issues in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Western Ontario. His current national positions include co-chair of Health Canada’s Advisory Committee on Reproductive and Genetic Technologies, chair of the Ethics Committee of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynæcologists of Canada (SOGC), Executive of the Canadian Bioethics Society, and member of the National Council on Ethics in Human Research. Jeff Nisker received his undergraduate and medical education at the University of Toronto, his residency at UWO, and post-doctoral training at UWO, University of California, and McMaster University. His other national and international contributions include the Health Canada Advisory Committee on Embryo Research and national director of the SOGC. He has written many articles and book chapters on scientific and ethical issues, and has also written six plays covering issues from abused woman to HIV to genetic essentialism, as well as many short stories and poems to encourage compassionate health care. In 1996 Jeff Nisker received the Douglas Bocking Award, presented to the UWO "member of Faculty who, in the opinion of medical students has made the most outstanding contribution to their medical education during the previous four years."