Rajendra Kale remembers his colleagues asking whether he was scared to publish an editorial about Asian immigrants and the abortion of unwanted girls.
A neurologist by training, Dr. Kale was the interim editor-in-chief of the country's leading medical publication, the Canadian Medical Association Journal. He wanted to win the job on a permanent basis. He had shown a talent for writing bold editorials, but outspokenness is not always seen as a virtue.
“I was immediately cautioned that ‘you're painting all South Asians with the same brush and you're going to damage whatever interethnic relationships exist,' ” Dr. Kale said. “Trust me, I was warned.”
But he did not shy away. There's something about him that is different, he says. He's willing to cause a fuss, even if it makes his life difficult. “I believe injustice is done when people keep quiet. I feel morally compelled to write these pieces.”
On Wednesday, two days after the editorial on sex selection appeared and generated a flood of commentary in the Canadian media, the Canadian Medical Association announced that the new editor of the CMAJ will be John Fletcher, a long-time colleague and friend of Dr. Kale's.
Dr. Kale was disappointed. It was hard to say where he had fallen short. His editorials generated debate, but also plenty of criticism. Although the CMAJ has for years occupied an important space in the Canadian conversation, it remains at its core a medical journal, remarkable for being the one publication that lands on the desk of every physician in Canada. At a time when periodicals everywhere are suffering, was he perceived to be more interested in chasing broader public relevance than in engaging the core readership?
Dr. Kale is mostly silent on the subject. He says only that he is the type to speak up when something is wrong. That makes him popular with some and unpopular with others, he said.
In 2008, he arrived in Canada to help rebuild the CMAJ as it emerged from a turbulent period. A previous editor had been fired after running a controversial story on the availability of contraception. Serious questions had been raised about the journal's editorial independence and it was only slowly regaining its credibility.
Originally from India, Dr. Kale had worked as an epilepsy specialist for many years in the city of Pune. But in 1994 he won a training position at the British Medical Journal in London. He dove into medical editing, and in 2001 decided to uproot his family from India to work full-time at the BMJ.
He distinguished himself as both wise and bold, according to his former editor at the BMJ, Richard Smith. “He will say what he thinks even if it makes people uncomfortable,” Dr. Smith said.
After arriving in Canada and finding Ottawa to his liking, Dr. Kale helped to persuade Dr. Fletcher, with whom he had worked in London, to join him at the CMAJ.
At the end of 2011, when Paul Hébert decided to step down after a five-year-term as editor of the CMAJ, Dr. Kale was promoted to lead the journal on an interim basis. Dr. Kale knew about the inherent challenges of an interim job: responsibility for everything and a mandate to do nothing. He also knew his friend, Dr. Fletcher, was vying for the top job.
Dr. Kale announced himself in November with an attention-grabbing first editorial, in which he called hospital parking charges a “user fee in disguise” that violated the Canada Health Act. It struck a chord with the public.
