State Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry speaks during an update in the Victorian Parliament on March 10, 2022. Dr. Sanjiv Gandhi said he had no intention of “liking” a social media post comparing Dr. Henry to notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. He said he regrets that the move led to his removal from the BC Green Party, but he does not question what the party considers the appropriate action.Chad Hipolito/Canadian Press
B.C.’s Green Party has fired its deputy leader who liked a social media post comparing provincial health workers to notorious Nazi doctors. The deputy leader accepted the move, although he said he had no knowledge of such an act.
Dr. Sanjiv Gandhi, who also withdrew as a candidate in next year’s state election, apologized in an interview with the Globe and Mail on Thursday, saying he had inadvertently provoked a controversial post about Dr. Bonnie Henry.
“I am sorry for the damage caused by my lack of awareness in liking a very inappropriate Twitter post,” he said. “I am disappointed that I will not be able to continue in this role and continue to strive to elicit respectful, meaningful and substantive conversations about health care in British Columbia.”
Dr. Gandhi, a recently retired pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon at BC Children’s Hospital, has been highly critical of the BC NDP government’s approach to health care delivery and was appointed second deputy leader of the BC Green Party in January. In September, he announced his intention to run for the party on the Vancouver-Kingsway Road (scheduled to be renamed Vancouver-Renfrew due to boundary changes), pitting him against incumbent Health Minister Adrian Dix.
On September 13, a user on the X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, posted a screenshot of a letter criticizing Mr Dix’s comments describing the difficult situation at Surrey hospitals as a “new normal”. Posted. The letter, written in a newspaper by Dr. Adrian Fine, a retired medical doctor, and reposted by another user, was published during Dr. Gandhi’s election campaign and state health He commented that a staff member should read it out loud. – The user referred to the person as “#QueenBonnie’Mengele’Henry.”
Josef Mengele, nicknamed the “Angel of Death,” was a Nazi doctor who performed deadly experiments on prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. CHEK News political correspondent Rob Shaw posted a screenshot of the repost on the same platform Wednesday night, drawing attention to the likes on Dr. Gandhi’s repost.
Dr. Gandhi said Thursday that he intended to “like” the original post from a user he follows, rather than a repost of the issue tagged by a user he doesn’t follow. He said he regrets that the move led to his removal from the BC Green Party, but he does not question what the party considers the appropriate action.
The former surgeon enrolled in X in February 2022 as he prepared to retire from his medical career. Dr. Gandhi was considering running for president of the Canadian Medical Association at the time and said he was advised to increase his social media presence.
“I’m kind of new to the social media world,” he says. “I appreciated the power of social media. I didn’t understand the extent of vitriol on social media…I also didn’t understand why good people enter the political arena. I understand how difficult it can be.”
B.C. Green Leader Sonia Furstenau issued a statement Wednesday night, within hours of the post being distributed.
“Today, we learned that deputy leader Dr. Sanjiv Gandhi liked a tweet that inappropriately compared the state health officer to Mengele,” she said. “I consider this unacceptable and have removed Dr Gandhi as deputy party leader and accepted his resignation as a candidate.”
Gillian Oliver, a political strategist who co-led the last B.C. Green Party election campaign and Furstenau’s leadership bid, said the quick response is a testament to her leadership.
“I worked closely with her. She’s very determined,” Oliver said. “She has a strong moral compass and she knows what she stands for.”
She called the situation “unfortunate” and noted that Dr. Gandhi has brought great credibility to important medical issues, such as advocating for greater use of physician assistants.
“This is a good reminder for anyone running for office or for a political party that communication and presentation still need to be a priority,” Oliver said. “Otherwise, it prevents us from working on the issues we really care about.”
Ms. Furstenau and Dr. Henry declined to be interviewed by the Globe. The social media user who created the post in question did not respond to requests for comment.
