The CMA's legitimation crisis

doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7545.854-b

BMJ 2006;332:854 (8 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7545.854-b

Letter

The CMA's legitimation crisis

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) now facesa legitimation problem over its failure to explain why it firedthe CMAJ editors. Thousands of medical professionals have signeda petition to reinstate the editors who have brought internationalrecognition to the CMAJ. There have been calls from leadingmedical and science journals, as well as national newspapers,to explain why the editors were fired.

Yet the CMA has offered scant and conflicting information onthe issue.¹ It has also lost an opportunity to put the issueto rest, save face and restore confidence among its members,the public, and the international journalistic community. Thepresident of the CMA has noted that the panel formed by theCMA to examine a future governance framework for the CMAJ willnot investigate circumstances surrounding the editors beingfired.² Clearly this leaves the issue unresolved. Nor is theCMA bound by the . . . [Full text of this article]