Ottawa hospital staff calls Mike Duffy ‘arrogant’ and get’s shown the door

Matthew Coutts
Daily Brew
Ottawa hospital staff calls Mike Duffy ‘arrogant’ and get’s shown the door

It's almost inevitable that employees who deal with the public will complain or vent about the negative experiences that come with the job.

But when you work in the healthcare system, venting publicly can get you in trouble. And when it relates to a public figure or controversial politician, it can apparently even get you fired.

That is what reportedly happened in Ottawa this week, after a staffer at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute called suspended senator Mike Duffy "pompous and arrogant."

The Ottawa Citizen reports that Mike Crowder, a cleaning crew supervisor, was fired on Monday after posting a message describing Duffy in negative terms.

Crowder's comment was part of a conversation stemming from 31 charges laid against Duffy by the RCMP two weeks ago. Crowder's message allegedly referred back to Duffy's stay at UOHI last year while receiving heart treatment.

“When Duffy was a patient at UOHI last year, he was nothing short of being pompous and arrogant with my staff,” the message read.

The message further went on to compare Duffy to another famous heart patient, former hockey star Gino Odjick, who was called an "inspiration."

This was apparently enough to constitute termination for breaching patient privacy.

Here's a July 18 account of the exchange posted by the Cornwall Free News – a site I was not previously familiar with.

According to that account, Crowder responded the questions about the appropriateness of his post by noting that his visit had been previously publicized.

Indeed, Duffy's visit to the UOHI's cardiac unit was well publicized last December, and the senator has even released a press released about his heart troubles.

The Ottawa Hospital does have strict rules about patient privacy and vows to ensure employees protect that information.

"We take steps to ensure that everyone who performs services for us protects your privacy and only uses your personal health information for the purposes you have consented to," reads an extensive statement on the privacy program.

But considering Duffy's presence at the health unit had already been publicized and confirmed, what type of privacy did the Facebook message breach? That he acted pompous and arrogant?

Hasn't that stance been corroborated through Duffy's mid-controversy behaviour, the cavalier way in which he hinted he could take down the government, and the details released regarding the way he spend taxpayer's money?

Also, don't you have to have some level of pompous arrogance to record video of yourself saying hello to some 700 names for use in a political party donation campaign?

"Hi, Grace. It's the oooooold Duff."

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