This story should have been written years ago and then given to
the public; but in my oath of office as a Civil Servant swore that
“without authority on that behalf, I shall not disclose or make
known any matter or thing which comes to my knowledge by reason of
my employment as Chief Medical Inspector of Indian Affairs.” Today I
am free to speak, having been retired from the Civil Service and so
am in a position to write the sequel to the story. It has already
been stated that in 1918 and 1919 I had supplied to my then Minister
of Immigration, the Hon. J. A. Calder and to the then President of
the Council, the Hon. N. W. Rowell various memoranda regarding
the establishment of a Federal Department of Health, amongst these
being a draft of the Bill which later became the Act establishing the
Department of Health. To my disappointment the position of Deputy
Minister of Health to which I had a right to aspire after twenty-two
years as Chief Medical Officer of Ontario, and fifteen years as
Chief Medical Officer of Immigration and Indian Affairs was given to
another, wholly outside the Federal Civil Service and in violation
of the principle of promotion, which was supposed to prevail when
the patronage system was to be done away with. The excuse was on the
ground of my advancing years, although at that moment the position
of Auditor General was being filled by the promotion of one who had
reached sixty-five years, while a Historian to the Militia Department
was appointed at a salary of $7,000 per year, who likewise had
reached just then this age.
Naturally I felt that it would be impossible to carry on and retain
my self respect as a subordinate, while performing the duties, which
I had been engaged in for fifteen years as Chief Medical Officer and
so asked that I be given other congenial work. That my claims to the
position were deemed reasonable may be judged from the following
letter addressed to my brother the Rev. Professor Bryce, D.D., of
Winnipeg. Writing from Victoria, B. C., on March 9th, 1920, to myself
he said, quoting from a letter received from the Hon. Mr. Calder in
reply to one of his own:--
“I quite appreciate the views of your brother in reference to his
situation here, and personally would be only too glad to do anything
I can to help out. When the Public Health Department was created,
your brother certainly had claims to the appointment as Deputy
Minister. Owing to his advanced age however, Council finally
concluded that a younger man should receive the appointment. The
government has on several occasions considered the question of
placing your brother in some other branch of the Service, and I have
no doubt that this will be arranged in some way or other shortly.
He is now an official of the Public Health Department. He could of
course remain there but this apparently is not agreeable to him.
As a consequence some other arrangement, if possible must be made.
Signed, J. A. Calder.”
My indignation at subsequent treatment may be imagined when the same
Mr. Calder introduced the Act in 1920, commonly known as the Calder
Act, providing for the “Retirement of Certain Members of the Civil
Service.” This Act states that anyone retired thereunder shall
receive 1/60 of his salary for each year of service. So it came about
that on the 17th Sept. 1920, I received notice that I was recommended
for retirement under this Act. The clause of the Act quoted for my
information states:--
“Section 2(3). When it is decided to retire anyone under the
provisions of this Act, notice in writing giving the reasons for such
retirement shall be sent to such person, and he shall have the right
to appeal to the Civil Service Commission, and the Commission, after
giving such person an opportunity to be heard, shall make full report
to the Governor in Council and the decision of the Council thereon
shall be final.”
I appealed and in my appeal stated that no reason was assigned as
provided in the Act, and further that I was still Chief Medical
Officer in the Department of Indian Affairs as set out in the Order
in Council of 1904.
As bearing on this point made in my appeal I find the following in
Hansard of June 8th, 1921. The matter being dealt with is the
amendment to the Calder Act:
Mr. Fielding: But cases have been brought to my attention of men in
advanced years--some may think them old, I do not--being notified of
their retirement, although they are blessed with good health and
strength, both mental and physical, and are well able to discharge
their duties. How is such a man dealt with?
Mr. Calder: No man will be notified unless a proper official has
advised that his condition of life is such that in the public
interest he should be retired....
Mr. Calder: That in the main has been the practice in the past and
that is what the law contemplated last year. The question of age
alone was not taken into consideration.
But it was hardly to be supposed that Dr. W. A. Roche, now Chairman
of the Civil Service Commission, who during the years 1913-17
referred to had failed to utilise my services when he was
Superintendent of Indian Affairs would now consider my services as
necessary in that Department. So my protest was of no avail; my
elimination from the Service had been decreed and I received the
following Order in Council:
Ottawa, 14th Feb., 1921.
The Committee have had before them a report, dated Feb. 1st, 1921,
from the acting Secretary of State, from the Civil Service
Commission:
In accordance with the provisions of Cap. 67, 10-11 George V. “An
Act to provide for the Retirement of Certain Members of the Public
Service” the Civil Service has to report that Dr. P. H. Bryce of
the Department of Health at Ottawa was recommended by the Deputy
Minister of Health for retirement; that under Section 2 (3) of the
said Act he was given a personal hearing, which has resulted in the
Civil Service Commission now recommending that his appeal be not
allowed, but that his retirement be made effective from the 1st
of March, 1921. Dr. Bryce was born on August 17th, 1853, and is
consequently sixty-seven years of age. He was appointed temporarily
to the Service on Feb. 1st, 1904, and was made permanent on September
1st, 1908, and therefore will have been in the Service seventeen
years and one month on the 1st March, 1921, the date upon which his
retirement is proposed to be effective.
So it came about that I was retired in March, 1921, without any years
being added to my term of Federal service, though I had been brought
to Ottawa as an expert after 22 years in the Ontario Health Service,
as is provided for in the Superannuation Act of 1870. Neither did I
get any gratuity on leaving the Ontario Service after twenty-two
years, the excuse being then given that I was improving my position.
The irony and injustice of this Order in Council will be seen when it
is stated that a similar Order was passed on May 18th, 1921, retiring
231 persons from the Customs Department as being over sixty-five
years of age; but which was recalled when the protests of the many
friends of men who were faithfully performing their duties were made.
These and hundreds of other Civil Servants of similar age are in
different Departments still performing their duties.
In view, therefore, of all the facts herein recited I make my appeal
for simple justice; that I be permitted to carry on my work as Chief
Medical Officer of Indian Affairs, and I believe that I have the
right to demand, after a thorough investigation into all the facts
of the case, that the chief obstacle, as set forth in the story, to
insuring the health and prosperity of the one hundred thousand
Indians, the Wards of the nation, be removed.
Since the time of Edward I. the people have ever exercised their
historic right to lay their petitions before the King and Parliament.
I now desire herein respectfully to bring my appeal for the Indians
of Canada before the King’s representative and the Parliament of
Canada, feeling sure that justice will be done both to them and to
myself.