A recent CBC news article revealed that pro-Israel doctors planned to use their influence to manipulate the professional placement of medical students. The article showed screenshots where members of a private Facebook group discuss plans to pressure medical residency program (CaRMS) administrators to penalize students who had signed a petition calling for an end to Israel’s bombing of Gaza hospitals.  This interference with the “objective and transparent” Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) process is an appalling breach of ethics, and should trigger an immediate investigation into the CaRMS process and targeting of medical students advocating for a ceasefire in Gaza. (See below for more info).

We call on the CaRMS administration to implement important remedial measures, including:

1. Conducting an investigation into allegations of physicians and CaRMS selection committee members attempting to introduce bias into the CaRMS process,
2. Ensuring that faculty involved with the Facebook group posts are identified and excluded from the CaRMS interview process and selection decisions,
3. Statements from CaRMS, Faculties of Medicine and program directors across the country to reassure applicants and the public that the residency matching process is fair and free from organized political targeting.

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More Info

A recent CBC news article revealed that pro-Israel groups planned to use their influence to block the professional placement of medical students.   The plan was to penalize 271 medical students who had signed a petition which called for 1) a ceasefire in Gaza, 2) an end to Israel’s targeting of healthcare facilities and healthcare workers, 3) an end to Israel’s blockade of Gaza, and 4) an end to Israel’s regime of apartheid against Palestinians.

As revealed in screenshots, members of a private Facebook group planned to disseminate information targeting the medical students “as CaRMS [Canadian Resident Matching Service] reviews begin.”  The clear implication is that medical students who had signed the petition would be smeared and have their chances of a successful residency placement CaRMS significantly damaged.

All Canadian medical residency positions are filled via the CaRMS, process, which is supposed to provide “fair, objective and transparent application and matching service for medical training throughout Canada.” In addition to the screenshots revealing the intended targeting of trainees who had signed the petition, some members of the chat also revealed that they are, themselves, on CaRMS selection committees. This would mean, of course, that some members of CaRMS’s selection committees were explicitly expressing their willingness to leverage their positions to punish advocacy for the safety of health facilities, the safety of healthcare workers, and pro-Palestine advocacy more broadly.

All physicians should have the right to hold diverse political views and engage in advocacy aligned with their principles.  It is also critical for the credibility of the healthcare system that the CaRMs selection process remain free from discrimination. Healthcare leaders involved in selecting the next generation of physicians must foster an environment that encourages advocacy for human rights and justice.

Canadian medical professionals who oppose this appalling ethics breach call for the CaRMS to implement important remedial measures, including:

1. Conducting an investigation into allegations of physicians and CaRMS selection committee members attempting to introduce bias into the CaRMS process,
2. Ensuring that faculty involved with the Facebook group posts are identified and excluded from the CaRMS interview process and selection decisions,
3. Statements from CaRMS, Faculties of Medicine and program directors across the country to reassure applicants and the public that the residency matching process is fair and free from organized political targeting.