An official statement from Alberta Health Services (AHS) claimed that Dr. Deena Hinshaw is “not employed by AHS,” following widespread outcry over her apparent rehiring by the health authority. It turns out, Hinshaw was offered a cushy gig in the middle of the recent Alberta election.
The Counter Signal reported earlier this month that Jason Kenney’s top medical advisor appeared to be rehired following a June 1 memo announcing she was back in business with AHS. We retracted that story in error, and our original reporting was correct. Hinshaw was indeed hired by AHS and was promptly fired under unclear circumstances.
In response to questions about the hiring, AHS released an intentionally misleading statement late in the evening on a weekend saying Hinshaw was not employed.
This information came just days after the June 1 memo was leaked, and the short statement implied she was never rehired in the first place.
It is unclear why AHS covered up the rehiring of Hinshaw.
“The Indigenous Wellness Core is pleased to announce that Dr. Deena Hinshaw has been selected as the new IWC Public Health & Preventive Medicine lead,” the initial hiring memo stated.
“Please join us in welcoming Dr. Deena Hinshaw to the Indigenous Wellness Core. Dr. Hinshaw will begin her new role on June 5th, 2023,” the memo concludes.
The email on the memo, attributed personally to Dr. Hinshaw, was functioning and accepting emails at the time of this publication.
AHS added they are now reviewing the position of IWC Public Health & Preventative Medicine Lead as a whole, but are “committed to working with Indigenous communities and working to improve the health outcomes for all communities and populations.
Hinshaw was Alberta’s former Chief Medical Health Officer (CMHO) until Premier Smith gave her the boot in November, after Smith took over the United Conservative Party.
The former CMHO oversaw health inspectors raid family restaurants during the COVID pandemic and close them down for feeding unvaccinated people.
“A lot of the bad decisions were made by Alberta Health Services on the basis of bad advice from the chief medical officer of health,” said Smith prior to firing her.
“I appreciate the work that Dr. Deena Hinshaw has done, but I think that we’re in a new phase where we are now talking about treating coronavirus like influenza.”
Subsequently, Premier Smith fired the entire Alberta Health Services (AHS) board and appointed a single administrator.
Editor’s Note: The earliest version of this story, published on 3 June 2023 contained correct information. Upon receiving conflicting information from a source with direct information on the situation, we updated the story to reflect that. Upon learning that our initial reporting on this situation was correct and Dr. Hinshaw was indeed re-hired by Alberta Health Services, we re-updated the story to our original coverage. The Counter Signal apologizes for the initial correction that was made in error.
