Dr. Sheela Basrur is my hero. Dr. Basrur emerged from the midst of the 2003 SARS situation as the official voice of calm and reason. While “official” spokesmen (and they were men) were losing their heads and perhaps their minds, Dr. Basrur kept hers. As Toronto’s chief medical officer of health, it was her voice and her images on TV that did more than anything else to prevent wide-spread panic in the GTA and likely around the world. While others were warning people to stay out of Toronto, it was Dr. Basrur’s clear thinking and speaking that did much to alleviate our fears. John Barber in his Globe and Mail column said it well when he wrote “with headlines screaming panic and appointed authorities incapable of any credible response, Toronto’s obscure medical officer of health urged reason in the bottom paragraphs of the inside pages…..the cities darkest hours were her finest.”
Dr. Basrur, 51, died of a rare form of cancer today. I conclude with one more quote from Barber:
“She was one of us – the best of us – and that’s what mattered. Our hero, now ours forever.”
Thank you Dr. Basrur. A grateful city remembers its hero.
