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Dr.Sheela Basrur
Dr. Sheela Basrur was appointed Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health and Assistant Deputy Minister of Public Health in February 2004. During her tenure, she developed effective health promotion strategies and programs to deliver measurable results including the ground-breaking Smoke-Free Ontario legislation and her 2004 report Healthy Weights, Healthy Living, which lead to the 2006 provincial Action Plan for Healthy Eating and Active Living that address rising obesity among Ontarians. Dr. Basrur also played a pivotal role in the renewal of the public health in Ontario. She spearheaded Operation Health Protection, a three-year action plan to protect and promote the health of Ontarians afters SARS. One of the many components of this action plan was the implementation of Ontario’s first public health agency. Dr. Basrur was one of the visionaries behind the agency and her leadership culminated in the Royal Asset of the Ontario Agency of Health Protection and Promotion Act, 2007 which established the creation of an arms-length government agency dedicated to protecting and promoting the health of all Ontarians and reducing inequalities in health. Prior to her provincial role, Dr. Basrur was the first Medical Officer of Health in the amalgamated City of Toronto, leading a team of 1,800 staff from seven former municipalities and an annual operating budget of $160 million – the largest in Canada. As Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Basrur’s exemplary leadership and expertise during the SARS crisis is well known. Dr. Basrur's skilled handling of the SARS outbreak earned her the respect of not only her public health colleagues here in Ontario, but also across North America and around the world. In the role as the Medical Officer of Health for the City of Toronto, Dr. Basrur led the charge on a number of public health companions including implementing a city-wide smoking ban in 2004, devising a city plan to tackle bioterrorism post 9/11, and she paved the way for a ban on non-essential use of pesticides. She was also instrumental in implementing DineSafe, the first program of its kind in Canada that informs patrons of the food safety rating of restaurants by requiring them to post health inspection pass or fail results in their windows. After obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1979, she received her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Toronto in 1982. After working as a general practitioner, Dr. Basrur travelled to India and Nepal, where she became interested in public health. Upon returning to Canada, she obtained a Master of Health Science degree from the University of Toronto in 1987 specializing in community medicine. She was also an assistant professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Toronto. Dr. Basrur received many accolades and awards for her commitment and achievements, including the Order of Ontario; the Amethyst Award, the highest award granted to a member of the Ontario Public Service; honourary Doctorates from Ryerson University, York University and the University of Toronto; and honourary Diploma of Nursing from George Brown College; and the Woman of the Year distinction from the Greater Toronto YWCA. Sadly, she succumbed to cancer on June 2, 2008 at the age of 51. |
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