Otto Schaefer worked for many years at the Charles Camsell Hospital in Edmonton, and he was the founding Director of the Northern Medical Research Unit of the Department of National Health and Welfare Canada during the nineteen-sixties, seventies and eighties. He dedicated his life to the health and wellbeing of the aboriginal peoples of the north, in particular the Inuit. But because of my father\u2019s country of origin \u2013 Germany \u2012 and because of the time during which he attained his medical degree \u2012 WW2 \u2012 Elaine Dewar made assumptions about his motivation and about his goals, none of which she could verify. In her own words, all her red flags went up when she saw his name and learned from where and whence he came, because she was \u201ca Jewish girl\u201d. The host had introduced her as a Holocaust survivor one generation removed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the program the term \u201cmedical experiments\u201d was used repeatedly, thus invoking rather sinister images. Conducting research on the health of the Inuit during a time of rapid changes in their lifestyle and nutrition is a very different thing from doing \u201cmedical experimentation\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elaine Dewar characterized Otto Schaefer\u2019s research as \u201cnonsense studies\u201d. For example, she scoffed at his study of differing alcohol metabolic rates in different peoples. It just so happens that my father\u2019s motivation to study this came after he found that the Whitehorse police were consistently releasing Caucasians from the \u201cdrunk tank\u201d sooner than the Indians, after collecting the drunks off the streets the night before. (Presumably they were being protected from violence or from freezing to death in case they passed out on a cold winter night.) Schaefer complained to the police that they were being racist, always letting the White guys out first. So the Police Chief invited him, \u201cOtto, please come tomorrow morning, and you<\/strong> make the determination whom to let out, and when.\u201d Lo and behold, Otto found that the Whites were completely sober, but the Indians were still drunk in the morning. My father, having a curious mind and being very scientifically oriented, then set out to determine why this was so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n By coincidence some years later, a Swedish acquaintance of mine wrote to ask me if there was any connection between myself and Dr. Otto Schaefer, and I proudly told him that I was his daughter. This man had come across Schaefer\u2019s ground-breaking research which explained the differences in metabolic processes between races on account of different enzymes which were either present or not. It seems to me this information is actually quite important. But according to Elaine Dewar, this was a \u201cnonsense study\u201d. And she called it racist. Ironically, it was my father\u2019s concern about police racism which led him to conduct the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elaine Dewar also spoke about the fact that Schaefer was the organizer of \u201cso-called consent\u201d, again, mocking him. She said that whichever language he was speaking [he spoke German, English, Inuktitut, and French], \u201ceveryone said it all sounded German anyway, so nobody could understand him.\u201d Therefore she concluded that their informed consent was meaningless. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I can surmise wherefrom Dewar got this idea. It so happens that our family donated all of Otto Schaefer\u2019s papers, books, slides, and journals to the University of Alberta. We felt that his important life\u2019s work would be of greater use there than in one of his children\u2019s basements. [Would we do that if we had any doubt about his impeccable character and integrity?] Elaine Dewar had access to all those donated materials. So, what might she have found that led her to the above mockery?<\/p>\n\n\n\n My father was a very humble man, and he liked to tell a self-deprecating humorous story about one of his lectures which he had delivered in French. He had started his talk with an apology for his imperfect French. A colleague in the audience quipped in a joking manner, \u201cthat\u2019s okay Otto, it all sounds German anyway!\u201d and everyone laughed. My father kept detailed journals and I imagine this was in one of those journals which Dewar had read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Otto worked very hard at learning Inuktitut, the native language of the Inuit. He also made use of interpreters, to be certain of clear communication. The very doctor who was responsible for and insistent upon the informed consent protocol was now being slandered by Elaine Dewar as having done exactly the opposite. She had no hard data for her defamation of a much-loved and respected doctor. I say much-loved, because I was astonished and moved by the volume of tributes and letters we received from the north, from the Inuit people themselves, after his death in 2009. It was clear that they dearly loved my father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Otto Schaefer quarrelled many times with his boss, the Deputy Minister for Northern and Indian Affairs, because he was constantly advocating for the Inuit. He was a man of integrity and compassion. He had great respect for the Native people and their ability to survive and thrive in such a harsh environment. When he saw injustice, he sought to rectify the situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2021 there were rumours and allegations about medical experiments and bodies buried on the grounds of the Charles Camsell hospital. The owner of the former hospital conducted an investigation. He excavated the grounds and found nothing. However, it leaves me to wonder if Dewar was still affected by those false rumours when she made her unsubstantiated remarks about \u201cexperiments\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Canadian government apology to the Inuit just over a year-and-a-half ago for the alleged slaughter of a thousand sled dogs during the 1950s and 60s has relevance to this current complaint. I wrote a letter at that time to the CBC but never received a response. Here is the link to the article I published, which includes my letter: https:\/\/freespeechmonika.com\/another-canadian-apology-for-alleged-wrongs-the-slaughter-of-inuit-sled-dogs\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The obituary which appeared in the International Journal of Circumpolar Health is far more indicative of my father\u2019s work and character, than the speculative, biased and prejudiced characterizations made by Elaine Dewar. https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/10.3402\/ijch.v68i5.17600?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The IDEAS program \u201cHow Canada forgot it once had a segregated health system\u201d<\/em> <\/strong>has put a blot on the reputation of my father. That stain must be removed. The CBC must publicly retract the defamatory statements made on that program, and make a public apology for having allowed all those unsubstantiated statements and accusations against the late Dr. Otto Schaefer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I look forward to a positive response about this serious matter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sincerely, <\/p>\n\n\n\n Monika Schaefer<\/p>\n\n\n\n P.O. Box 516<\/p>\n\n\n\n McBride, BC V0J 2E0<\/p>\n\n\n\n 250-569-7024<\/p>\n\n\n\n To the CBC Ombudsman, 2026 June 23 Defamatory statements were made about Dr. Otto Schaefer during a recent CBC radio program, for which there was a complete lack of hard data and evidence. I am asking that the CBC make … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/DR.-OTTO-SCHAEFER.jpg\")
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