On December 5, 1996, Brett James, communications special assistant to Jim Wilson, Minister of Health, telephoned Jane Coutts, reporter for The Globe and Mail, to discuss a news conference scheduled for that morning by the Specialist Coalition of Ontario. At the time, physicians in the province were in negotiations with the Ministry on a number of financial issues. The Specialist Coalition is an organization representing specialist physicians; the Vice-Chair of the Coalition is Dr. William Hughes.
After leaving a message for Coutts to return his call, James watched the news conference attended by both Hughes and Coutts. Coutts later returned James’ call, leaving a message for him. Around noon on December 5, James telephoned and spoke with Coutts. During the course of their conversation about the news conference and the questions Coutts had asked Hughes, James allegedly told Coutts that Hughes was the “‘No. 1’ biller” to the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP).
On December 6, 1996, Coutts telephoned James and informed him that she intended to write about his comments of the previous day concerning Hughes. Later that day, James resigned from his position in the Minister’s Office.
In The Globe and Mail on December 7, 1996, Coutts wrote that James had told her that Hughes, a Peterborough cardiologist, “was Ontario’s ‘No. 1’ biller, charging more to OHIP than any other doctor in the province.”
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