James Fraser Mustard,
CC OOnt FRSC was a
Canadian physician and scientist cancer he was 84.. Born, raised and educated in
Toronto,
Ontario, Mustard began his career as a research fellow at the
University of Toronto
where he studied the effects of blood lipids, their relation to heart
disease and how Aspirin could mitigate those effects. In 1966, he was
one of the founding faculty members at
McMaster University's newly established medical school. In 1982, he helped found the
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
and served as its founding president, serving until 1996. He wrote
several papers and studies on early childhood development, including a
report used by the Ontario Government that helped create a province-wide
full-day kindergarten program. He won many awards including being made a
companion of the
Order of Canada – the order's highest level – and was inducted into the
Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. He died in Toronto on November 16, 2011, after a short battle with cancer.
(October 16, 1927 – November 16, 2011)
Education
Born on October 16, 1927 in Toronto, Ontario,
[1] he attended Whitney Public School and the
University of Toronto Schools graduating in 1946.
[2] He received an
MD from the University of Toronto in 1953.
[2] He interned at the
Toronto General Hospital and spent two years of postgraduate study at the Department of Medicine,
University of Cambridge, where he earned his
Ph.D.
[3]
Upon returning to Canada, he was a senior intern at
Sunnybrook Hospital
and then a senior research associate with the Department of Veterans
Affairs and a fellow in the Department of Medicine, University of
Toronto.
[4]
In 1958, Mustard received a Medal of the Royal College of Physicians of
Canada for an essay entitled, "A Study of the Relationship Between
Lipids,
Blood Coagulation and
Atherosclerosis."
[5] His work demonstrated the link between acetylsalicylic acid (
Aspirin) as a preventative for heart attacks and stroke.
[3]
From 1960 to 1961, he was a research associate with the National Heart
Foundation of Canada, and from 1962 to 1963 a research associate with
the Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, and a senior research
associate with the Canadian Heart Foundation.
[4] He became a Fellow of the
Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 1965.
[6]
Leadership
Co-founding McMaster Medical School
In 1966, he was publicly criticizing the Canadian government's
medical research funding practices, by stating that on average, 200 of
the 900 medical doctors graduating from Canadian universities each year,
were heading to the United States due to the lack of research funding
in their home country.
[7]
At the time, he said that medical schools would need to graduate 1500
doctors a year just to keep the standard of healthcare and research at
its present level.
[7] He backed up his words by becoming a founding member of the McMaster University Faculty of Medicine in
Hamilton, Ontario, and the first chairman of the Department of Pathology.
[8] In 1972, he became Dean and Vice-President of the Faculty of Health Sciences.
[1]
Establishing CIFAR
In 1982, he took on the task of creating and establishing The
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), and became its founding president.
[9]
The institute, in a period of ten-years, built a network across Canada
that linked researchers in the economics, education, social health and
high-tech fields like robotics.
[10] He was awarded the Royal Bank outstanding service to Canada award in 1993 for his work in setting up and stewarding CIFAR.
[10] He continued on as President of CIFAR until 1996.
[11]
From 1996 to the autumn of 2011, he was the head of The Founders'
Network, an international collection of people interested in promoting
CIFAR, science and technology, early childhood, economic issues,
determinants of health and human development.
[11]
Early childhood learning reports
The Early Years Study
He was a leader in Canada on questions about the socioeconomic determinants of human development and health.
[10] A particular emphasis was on early childhood and the role of communities.
[12] In the late 1990s, he co-chaired a seminal report, with former New Brunswick Lieutenant Governor,
Margaret McCain, for the Government of Ontario on early childhood learning.
[13] The report was issued as
The Early Years Study - Reversing the Real Brain Drain on April 20, 1999.
[14]
The report emphasized promoting early child development centres for
young children and parents; boost spending on early childhood education
to the same levels as kids in K to 12; focus on programs that are
available to all income levels, because even the middle-class children
need these services; and encourage local parent groups and businesses to
set up these programs instead of the government, when possible.
[15]
Recognition of this led Dr. Mustard and his colleagues to emphasize to
all sectors of society the crucial nature of the early years to provide a
healthy and competent population.
[16]
A follow up report in the Early Years series was completed in 2007 by Mustard, McCain, and Dr. Stuart Shanker.
[17]
The second report criticized Canada for being "dead last" in spending
on early childhood education, and called for national early childhood
development programs.
[18]
Early Years Study 3
A third instalment in the Early Years series,
Early Years Study 3: Making decisions, taking action, was posthumously published simultaneously in Montreal and Toronto on November 22, 2011,
[19] only a few days after his death.
[20] The third report was co-authored with McCain and Kerry McCuaig, the Senior Policy Fellow at the Atkinson Centre,
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.
[19]
The main recommendation was that children as young as 2-years-old
should start receiving formal education, due to the "avalanche of
evidence".
[20]
This education should be community-based, and voluntary, leaving
parents to decide how much time they want their children in these
programs.
[19]
The report also revealed that even though the federal Canadian
government cancelled a national childcare program back in 2007, full-day
kindergarten has grown, mostly due to provincial governments funding
these initiatives.
[20] It also introduced the
Early Childhood Education Index,
which measures 20 factors, arranged into five broad categories:
integrated governance, funding, access, learning environment and
accountability.
[20]
Awards and recognition
Mustard was involved with governments in Canada, Australia, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, UNICEF and the
Aga Khan University in Pakistan in emphasizing the enormous importance to society of early childhood development. He was a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Canada in 1976,
[21] and the winner of the 1993
Sir John William Dawson Medal for his "varied and important contributions to Canadian academic and public life."
[22] In 1985 he was made an Officer of the
Order of Canada and was promoted to Companion in 1993.
[9] In 1992, he was appointed to the
Order of Ontario.
[23]
In 2003 he was inducted into the
Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
[24]
He was a member of the board of PENCE (Protein Engineering Network
Centre of Excellence), the Centre of Excellence of Early Child
Development, the
Aga Khan University
in Karachi, Pakistan, Beatrice House (a residential program for
homeless mothers and their children) and was Chairman Emeritus of the
Council for Early Child Development.
[25]
He was also the Past Chairman of
Ballard Power Systems.
[25] In all, Mustard was the recipient of fifteen
honorary degrees.
[24] In 2006 and 2007 he was a
Thinker in Residence, a program in
Adelaide,
South Australia, which brings leaders in their fields to work with the
South Australian community and government in developing new ideas and
approaches to problem solving.
[26]
A biography of his life, written by Marian Packham, entitled
J. Fraser Mustard : Connections & Careers, was published in 2010.
[17] He died in Toronto, a month after his 84th birthday, on November 16, 2011.
[2] He was diagnosed with cancer of the
ureter in October 2011, and it was the cause of his death.
[2] He was predeceased by his wife, Betty.
[2]
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