Ottawa Citizen

Levy leaving after decade as medical health officer

- VITO PILIECI — With files from Jon Willing

Isra Levy, the city’s medical officer of health, is stepping down from his post after almost a decade to join the Canadian Blood Services.

According to a post on Ottawa Public Health’s Facebook page Monday, Levy will be leaving on Dec. 15 and plans to take vacation time to wind down before starting a new position as vice-president of medical affairs and innovation with Canadian Blood Services.

Levy said he will continue on as medical officer until next month.

“I have been the medical officer of health in Ottawa for almost 10 years,” he said in the statement. “I will always be grateful for the sense of fulfilment that you have enabled me to have as we, together, have contribute­d in striving and helping to make Ottawa a vibrant city where people are healthy, safe and engaged, and where we seek to eliminate disparitie­s in health status and opportunit­y.”

Levy joined Ottawa Public Health in 2006 as the associate medical officer of health and was appointed to his current job in June 2008.

During his tenure, Levy has been involved in numerous important public health initiative­s, including the response to the 2009 influenza H1N1 pandemic, the management of the largest patient-notificati­on process in Canadian history, and most recently, the expansion of the City of Ottawa’s smoke-free spaces legislatio­n.

The opioid crisis has challenged Ottawa Public Health in recent years. As recently as 2014, Levy was criticized for remaining silent on the need for a supervised injection site in the city, which both the mayor and police chief opposed at the time.

But with the number of opioid overdoses growing rapidly since the beginning of the year, Levy oversaw the opening of a small supervised injection site on Clarence Street in September. Ottawa Public Health now wants to make that site permanent.

Levy’s departure will be “sad news for us because he’s been a great medical officer of health,” Mayor Jim Watson said. “It’s a great opportunit­y for him to embark on a different path on his career and we wish him the very best. He’s done a lot of really good work in here and I admire his work ...”

In a statement, Ottawa Public Health spokesman Eric Leclair congratula­ted Levy on his appointmen­t, and said the board of health will fill the position “in the coming days and weeks,” with an interim plan in place until then.

“During his tenure, Dr. Levy has built a tremendous organizati­on at Ottawa Public Health, an organizati­on that has made a difference in the lives of so many Ottawa residents,” Leclair said.

In 2010, Dr. Levy was named Physician of the Year by the Academy of Medicine Ottawa. He was also elected as vice-chair of The Royal Ottawa Hospital’s board of trustees in June 2016.

Levy is a physician who graduated from the University of the Witwatersr­and in South Africa. After working in South Africa and England, he immigrated to Canada, where he obtained a degree from the University of Ottawa, and became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He played a key role in the creation of an Office for Public Health at the Canadian Medical Associatio­n, where he was that office’s first director and chief medical officer.

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Isra Levy

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