Ethics on Trial

Exposing the human consequences of Canada’s broken research system.


The governance framework for human research in Canada is dangerously flawed and has the potential to lead to harm and suffering.


Canadian researchers and research companies have been allowed to flirt with informed consent; choose research ethics boards with less restrictive oversight; and violate the rights, safety, and welfare of Canadians — including those in situations of vulnerability — under the indifferent eye of a federal government unwilling to fix the system.


In Ethics on Trial, Janice E. Parente — who has led the fight for oversight and accountability of human research in Canada for three decades — shows readers the devastating consequences of the current flawed approach. She proposes a simple solution that embraces a good and ethical system of governance — a system that Canadians should insist on and Canada’s lawmakers and research funders should wholeheartedly adopt.