Jamaican doctor served with distinction as honorary consul

TORONTO: Should you meet Dr Michael Vaughan, it is easy to understand why the gregarious and outgoing medical doctor took on the role of honorary consul for Jamaica in Victoria, British Columbia, in 2012 and retired recently after almost 13 years in the position.

His resignation should have taken effect in 2022 but he stayed on informally to support the work of the mission until his formal retirement in January 2024. In May this year, Marsha Coore Lobban, Jamaica’s High Commissioner to Canada, presented him with a token of appreciation for his service.

Appointed to the unpaid position on June 8, 2012, Dr Vaughan has served with distinction. His compatriots have praised his dedication, professionalism and unwavering support.

Vaughan describes himself as a Jamaican first and Canadian, second. “I am a nationalist, I love my country,” he adds.

Born on November 24, 1947 in Kingston, Jamaica, he attended Montego Bay Primary School and then Cornwall College where he excelled in academics and was captain of the 1st Eleven Cricket Team in 1965 and 1966. Migrating to England in 1966 to finish his high-school education at Croydon Secondary School in London, he also played cricket, and describes himself as a “cricket fanatic”.

POST-SECONDARY STUDIES

Vaughan’s mother wanted him to pursue post-secondary studies in Toronto but, when he left England and stopped in Newfoundland to visit a friend at the fisheries college, he was told that a medical school would be opening there in five years.

“He said it’s going to be all British professors, not American. He told me to stay there. So I actually stayed in Newfoundland for nine years,” said Vaughan, who, from 1968 to 1976, studied at Memorial University.

There, he obtained a bachelor of arts in medical anthropology, minor in biology; a bachelor of science in biochemistry, minor in chemistry; a bachelor of medical science, and a doctor of medicine degree.

In the 1970s, there was a restriction on the amount of money that people could send out of Jamaica, so he had to get landed immigrant status to secure a loan from the bank to complete his studies.

When he was finished, Vaughan desired a place where cricket was played. “That’s how I ended up getting into my little car (to) drive 5000 km to Vancouver Island, because they told me there was this place, just like Jamaica, that had white sand beaches and palm trees — it didn’t have that.”

Upon his arrival, he went immediately to the cricket field and was amazed that there were four Jamaicans playing on a team. His plan was to pay off his debt within two years and return to Jamaica.

“A lot of people were waiting for me to come back because I was the first one to go to university from my village up in Lottery, St James.”

However, Dr Vaughan opened an office in Victoria and soon the cricketers became his patients among “a flood of Jamaicans” who lived in the city.

AVID CRICKET FAN

He said the trajectory of his life changed when he met Leonie Grant, who, for many years, was the executive secretary to Sir Alexander Bustamante, Jamaica’s first prime minister.

Grant and her family were his patients and, one day, she told him that Lady Bustamante would be vacationing at her home. She wanted him to be on call if there were any health concerns with Lady B.

Lady Bustamante asked him about his plans and he told her that he wanted to pay off his bills and return to Jamaica to serve his people. As Grant did not want him to leave, she enlisted her guest to persuade him to stay.

“Lady Bustamante looked at me and said, ‘Son, I think you should not go back to Jamaica. You can’t abandon all these Jamaicans now who are here, there’s nobody to look after them.”

Dr Vaughan said he delivered many of the babies of Jamaican-Canadians in the city — a practice he gave up 18 years ago to look after the elderly. He is a medical director at several health institutions in BC and has been a family practitioner in Victoria since 1978.

Among his accomplishments are being appointed in 2018 as the medical director of The Summit on Quadra, the largest nursing home in British Columbia, becoming the medical director of the new Amica Jubilee nursing home in 2023, and being the physician for the Jamaican 2000 U-19 World Cup Team.

The avid cricket fan paid all the school fees for “the two most promising young cricketers at Cornwall College” for six to eight years. He has accumulated a collection of over 2,000 books on the sport, as well as numerous pieces of cricket memorabilia.

When Jamaica celebrated its 50th anniversary of Independence in 2012, Dr. Vaughan was included in the book, “ Jamaicans in Canada: When ackee meets codfish,” which featured 250 Jamaican-Canadians who have made extraordinary contributions to Canada.