The Gazette’s recent article about my departure has prompted me to write. While grateful for the attention to these issues, it feels important to speak directly and in my own words. My reasons for leaving are more complicated than any single headline can capture.
Montreal is still a wonderful city, and it has been my home for essentially my entire life. I grew up here, created a family here, built my career here, and the Jewish General has been my professional home for more than a decade. I am grateful for the countless opportunities Montreal, Quebec, and Canada have afforded me and my family. Leaving was not a decision that was made lightly. This hospital and this city are part of who I am.
Dr. Emmanuel Moss, chief of cardiac surgery at the Jewish General Hospital, plans to move to Atlanta in September. Source: Institut de cardiologie de Montréal
A unique professional opportunity was offered to me in the United States and ultimately I felt I had to pursue it. At the same time, it would be dishonest not to acknowledge the broader environment that made this decision less difficult than it should have been.
The trajectory of healthcare in Quebec is concerning. The staffing shortages, the resource constraints, the difficulty delivering the standard of care that patients deserve are real, and they take a toll on everyone who works in healthcare: physicians, nurses, perfusionists, allied health professionals, orderlies — people who chose these careers out of a deep commitment to their patients and who deserve better than a system that is running on empty. When the government passed Bill 2 in the middle of the night, unilaterally imposing a new compensation system on physicians after years of failed negotiations, it dealt a serious blow to an already fragile relationship between physicians and the government.
When a community starts to feel unsafe in a city it has helped build, something has gone seriously wrong.
Just as real is the rise of antisemitism in Montreal. I have watched with growing alarm as incidents have multiplied and the response from authorities has fallen short. As a father, I am particularly troubled by what many Jewish students have experienced on university campuses over the past two years. Too many Jewish Montrealers now find themselves thinking twice before displaying symbols of their identity. What has been most troubling is not only the rise in hateful acts, but the normalization of rhetoric and behaviour that would have been broadly condemned only a few years ago. When a community starts to feel unsafe in a city it has helped build, something has gone seriously wrong.
One of the things I will carry with me from the Jewish General, and all Montreal hospitals that I have been privileged to work in, is the remarkable unity among its staff. People of every background, faith, and culture working side by side with a shared purpose. That spirit used to feel ubiquitous in Montreal, and I hope it finds its way back.
While my decision to take a new position had nothing to do with making a statement, these issues are real and deserve our city’s attention. What I hope people take from this is not that Montreal is a place to leave, but that we need to make it once again a place where people want to stay — and where the Jewish community feels safe and welcome. I leave with gratitude, and with genuine concern for where things are heading if they don’t change.
Dr. Moss is an assistant professor of surgery, cardiac surgery residency program director at McGill University; and director, division of cardiac surgery at the Jewish General Hospital.