Letter to Grand Chief Leo Friday 1.10.26

This is the email I sent to the Grand Chief of the Mushkegowuk Territory on January 10, 2026. To date, there has been no response.

It reads:

Grand Chief Mr. Leo Friday

Mushkegowuk Territory

Nishaabe Aski Nation

Canada

1. The WAHA Clinical Review published January 23, 2018 is a document created by 9 people with the intent to deceive all of the People of your Lands.

2. In its creation, all of the investigators knowingly turned a blind eye to my reports of egregious misconduct by various members of the Medical Staff that endangered and harmed your People that I broadly distributed to them on Facebook. I learned of these grave issues between 2010 to 2018.

As you recall, we communicated about this through Messenger several times in the past.

3. To give the illusion that they so-called investigators looked into my allegations they made one comment that read something like:

‘All 9 members of the investigative team were unanimous that the all of the physicians at the WAHA were competent.’

There were two other lines of deception.

4. I know the names of 4 of the investigators (Ms. Kate Fyfe, Mr. David McNeil, Mr. Michel Bilodeau & Dr. Paul Preston). Of these four people, three of them are not even doctors.

5. Dr. Preston is licensed to practice medicine in Ontario. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario ('College') have a rigorous program in place to assess a physician’s skills and competency. It is called Peer Assessment. The doctors performing the evaluations are called peer assessors. They are:

- Carefully selected.

- Meticulously trained.

- Use a comprehensive and methodical process to assess a physician that includes reviewing many of the medical records.

After this, the physician is interviewed by the peer assessor.

After the assessment is completed, the assessor sends a written report to the College's Quality Assurance Committee who then independently review the assessor’s findings. After receiving the report, the QAC sends a written letter to the assessed physician to inform them of their skills and knowledge. All of this takes a few months to complete.

This link will take you precisely to the CPSO Peer Assessment process if you like. https://www.cpso.on.ca/physicians/your-practice/quality-programs/quality-assurance-program/peer-assessment

Dr. Preston did none of this and neither did any of the other 8 investigators.

6. Is this the acceptable standard as to how to assess the quality of care that physicians provide to you, your loved ones and the rest of your People?

I hope your answer is it is categorically unacceptable, offensive, racist and unprofessional and neither you or your Council or any of your People should accept this.

As a human being and physician, it is my firm belief that you and your People were being treated as sub-humans and this is morally, ethically, legally and spiritually wrong.

7. Under the guidance of the Grand Chief Mr. Jonathon Solomon and his Council, they approved a budget to pay for the flights, taxis, accommodations, meals and other incidentals for these 9 investigators. The amount was $47,905 of your People’s money.

To get reimbursed, all 9 members would have submitted their receipts to the Mushkegowuk Council Finance Department. In other words, their names should be readily accessible to you and your staff.

9. Please publish the names of these 9 people as a News Release as you and your People have a right to know who purposefully misled them. They should be held accountable.

10. I communicated this to you before but will remind you of it again:

I know that your People of the Mushkegowuk Territory of the Cree First Nation were knowingly neglected by turning a blind eye on giant red warning flags that I was furiously waving for a long period of time and did nothing to stop it.

Mr. Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jew coined the term genocide. In my view, systemic neglect directed at a specific race of people by another race with the intent that a reasonable person would foresee to cause them danger, harm or death is one of his criteria. I know I saw a genocide by purposeful neglect of my old and still dear patients.

It’s time to uncover who all of these People are and bring them to justice.

11. One might argue it’s old news. Other old news in your People’s history is the Indian Act, the residential school system, the forced displacement and seizure of your Lands, political disenfranchisement, cultural and language suppression, inter-generational trauma, the 60’s Scoop, Missing Indigenous Women & Girls, unmarked graves or recently the child welfare abuses. Old news that caused real harms that last to this day; please don't allow it to happen in matters that relate to this Review.

12. One might argue it’s old news that is irrelevant given the $1.8 billion investment in the new health complex being built in Moosonee. Surely a fancy new building with all of the advanced equipment will fix everything.

ALL OF THE WRONGDOING that I knew of had nothing to do with an ageing hospital with outdated computers, phones and equipment. All of them were people-based and a failure to acknowledge and address those errors is a fool’s errand. All of the wrongdoers’ deeds need to be exposed and the cover up ended. Then your People can accurately record your history and use the lessons learned to better guide and shape their health care choices for as long as the Creator keeps us on Mother Earth.

Humbly submitted,

Dr. John Waddell, M.D.

Forever Friend of the People