Ethical approval dropped

In their letter, Williams and Taylor also said there was no high-quality evidence to support the removal of mercury fillings to “treat or prevent heavy metal toxicity.”

They told Markin that for the government to reconsider Pure North’s funding proposal, “we require high-quality evidence on short- and long-term clinical outcomes of the components of the Pure North program and the program as a whole, with clinical leadership and sponsorship of the proposal.

“Furthermore, an ethical review of the proposal to determine its appropriateness in terms of the approaches, agents, doses, and other key components of the Pure North program, and the program as a whole, is required.”

But although Williams and Taylor had told Pure North it must have ethical approval, internal documents show that requirement was inexplicably abandoned just six days before Alberta Health gave Pure North $10 million.

For more than a year, Alberta Health and Pure North discussed funding a research project that would require stringent ethical oversight. But internal documents show that on Dec. 17, 2013, six days before health minister Fred Horne signed the funding agreement, the grant’s stated purpose was changed from a research project to simply an expansion of Pure North’s already existing seniors program.

That change eliminated the need for Pure North to seek outside approval for what some experts say was essentially a human-subject study that would eventually involve more than 7,300 Alberta seniors.