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Dr. Éric Dewailly’s early professional career included a position in community health at CHUL’s Community Health Department in Quebec City, as a consulting physician (1987-1989), and then as the coordinator of the Quebec City area environmental health team until 1998. From 1998 onward, he headed the CHUQ Public Health Research Unit (CHUL). He was also a full professor in environmental health at the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine (Faculty of Medicine) at Université Laval from 1997 onward.
Dr. Dewailly’s research had several main themes: the impact of oceanic pollution on human health, such as contamination of the marine food chain and exposure of fishing communities to heavy metals and organochlorines; the effect of these contaminants on the reproductive, immune, and neurological systems; marine toxins; and other subjects. He made over 500 scientific presentations, published over 200 scientific peer-reviewed articles, and received over $80 million in grants. From 2000 to 2006, he sat on the scientific board of the CIHR Institute of Aboriginal Peoples’ Health. He was also the director of the CIHR-funded Nasivvik Centre for Inuit Health. He had responsibilities in various scientific networks, including ArcticNet, Québec Océan, CIHR Network for autism, AquaNet, Global Health Research Initiative, FRSQ Environmental Health Research Network, and FRSQ Québec Population Health Research Network.
Dr. Dewailly participated in the Coastal GOOS Panel of UNESCO and various expert panels of the World Health Organization. He represented Canada on the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program/Human Health Expert Group, was co-chair of the environmental group of the International Union for Circumpolar Health, and headed the medical section of the International Center for Ocean and Human Health at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research (now BIOS). He was appointed 2008 adjunct professor at the Institut Louis Malardé in Papeete (French Polynesia). From 2002 onward he served as the director of the Atlantis Mobile Laboratory program funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
He earned a degree in medicine from the University of Lille (France, 1982), and then completed specialized studies in public health (CES, Amiens, 1983). After doing his residency in community health (Université Laval, 1983-1985), he earned a Master’s degree in epidemiology (Université Laval, 1987) and a Ph.D. in toxicology (Lille, 1990).
(adapted from the Council of Canadian Academies)
STILL I DON’T KNOW
A Tribute to Éric Dewailly
STILL I DON’T KNOW
Still I don’t know the exact word, the exact thing
That would convey the content of our undefined link
Friendship? Mutual amenity?
Crony? Brotherhood? Fraternity?
The closest link is from that Old Time, perhaps,
To name that which will forever last,
That which happens so seldom in a lifetime
You won’t need all the fingers of one hand
But more than five, no doubt, I’ll need
To remember where we both met and agreed
Bits and clues of an explanation
To the common course of our navigation
SCIENCE
In Ottawa, a strange trio
Imagine the moment, the tableau
The Honourable Ghislain Otis: “Oxfeuuuurd peuuuurfect English”
Then me, and my accent “Saguenay-ish”
And finally Éric, the third pal,
With his English, “Quite Frenchie-style.”
Defending all, with gravity
Our program on food security
Aftermath debriefing, among ourselves
We were laughing, convinced that on shelves
Our project should be put, for eternity,
In spite of our answers of true sincerity
We recall: “Final question for your defence:
Will your project make a difference?”
Otis began: “As foour zze jurists are concerned
Improving lââwz is at the hhearth of our more foolish dreamzz”
I said: “We will make a différennce lala”
Éric: “Becauze, for choure, will dô goudd science”
And then we got the big bucks grant!
Worked for years with hordes of students!
Often he said: “Do good science”
In front of whatever audience:
Learned societies, leaders, politicians
Research partners, colleagues, students.
He meant, I know for sure:
Rigueur, state of the art, never obscure
Mastering rules and tools of one’s science field
Shedding light under the shield
He meant, I have no doubt:
Useful questions, curtailed, cut out
From our partners’ necessity
To answer needs, right now, today!
He meant, I testify:
Multiple disciplines glaze as question justifies;
Contribute all you can but ego to content;
Leave the leadership to the most competent
LAB AND PEOPLE
First time, out of nowhere, he called me
Asking for help with household economy
Public health advice he had to make
Not knowing the impact of what was at stake
Second time, I called him back
Wishing to pursue, wishing to give back.
Broadening the scope, the team, and the linkage
Engaged to open up a new field of knowledge
Third time, he asked again
And together we designed
What was to become health and social sides
Of the ArcticNet program, which still lives
Track records are full of numbers
Diplomas, speeches, reports, and papers
But altogether they leave only silence
On the heart, the true meaning of the experience
We said, we shared, we believed
Life is too short, how ironic, not to work with those we love
Teaming up with good persons gives the joy to give
The privilege always to receive
It opens wide the doors of generosity
By which accomplishment comes to maturity
We said, we shared, we believed
Independence of our labs these values guaranteed
We created our programs not for the honours
Nor the prizes, nor to raise up the ladders
But to keep up with our values and freedom,
To work the way we believe science shall be done
THÉMIS AND STELLA POLARIS
Last time I met him by this very river
I was launching a book at our club for boaters
It was a novel, an unusual event in our circle
Of serious writers, staying far away from fable
“In that small grey matter of mine,” he said,
“A thousand short stories are being stored
That I will write down, one day
For my grandchildren, I hope I may.”
Today, his blue sailboat Thémis
Side by side with my Stella Polaris
Lie down on their dry bed for winter
We share that, too, together
STILL I DON’T KNOW
Still I don’t know the exact word, nor the exact thing
That would convey the content of our undefined link
Friendship? Mutual amenity?
Crony? Brotherhood? Fraternity?
The closest link is from that Old Time, perhaps
Binding together seagoing chaps
Or simple craftsmen under one ensign
Since we were both fellow seamen
Gérard Duhaime, read on-board the AML Louis-Jolliet, October 31, 2014, 19th Inuit Studies Conference, Quebec CityThe closest link is from that Old Time, perhaps,
To name that which will forever last,
That which happens so seldom in a lifetime
You won’t need all the fingers of one hand.
Figure 1
Éric Dewailly’s sailboat Thémis
List of figures
Figure 1
Éric Dewailly’s sailboat Thémis