U OF C PROF IN COURT

Prominent MD Arrested For Allegedly Selling Crack

A prominent city physician and professor at the University of Calgary made
his first appearance in provincial court Thursday after being arrested for
allegedly trying to sell crack cocaine to an undercover police officer.
Philip Alan Barker, 70, former head of psychiatry at Alberta Children's
Hospital and professor at the University of Calgary, was caught up in a
sweep aimed at johns and drug traffickers.

Staff Sgt. Butch Dickin said Barker was arrested Wednesday at a downtown
hotel, during a police operation that began in August.

He has since been released on bail and will appear in provincial court Feb.
28 to enter a plea on one count of trafficking a narcotic. Police would not
say how many suspects have been picked up since the operation began.

Calgary Regional Health Authority spokesman Roman Cooney wouldn't comment
on the charge against Barker because the matter is before the court. He
would only confirm that Barker had privileges at Alberta Children's
Hospital.

Marty Atkinson, associate dean of the U of C medical school, said it was
upsetting to hear of a colleague facing such a serious charge. "It's
disturbing and it's always shocking to have a faculty member to be in
trouble with the law," Atkinson said.

Barker, a staff psychiatrist and pediatrician at the children's hospital
and professor of psychiatry at University of Calgary, has authored books on
child and family therapy.

He is considered an expert in the field of family therapy where children
are involved.

He wrote Basic Child Psychiatry in 1983, a book which has been revised five
times, then Basic Family Therapy, now into its fourth edition. The latter
book, according to its publisher, is a "comprehensive introduction to the
cross-disciplinary subject of family therapy" and is a text book for
trainees in fields including psychiatry, pediatrics, psychology and social
work.

The British-trained doctor also has written several journal articles on his
specialty. Barker is also heavily involved in the Canadian music scene,
producing digital records of jazz and related music by Canadian and
international artists on the small Calgary-based label Jazz Focus he has
owned and operated in the city's southwest since 1993. Barker also has
hosted a long-running jazz show by the same name, Jazz Focus, Wednesday
evenings on CJSW radio.

A station spokesman said Thursday night that he had heard of the charges
but could not comment on the status of the program until after trial. He
told the Herald in a 1996 article that his psychiatric practice has not
only put bread and butter on the table for his wife and child but has
subsidized Jazz Focus.

He received his medical degree in London, England, in 1953, and worked in
the United Kingdom before coming to Canada.

According to the biography on one of his books he was the first full-time
child psychiatrist appointed in Dundee and the Eastern Region of Scotland
and was also first consultant-in-charge of the Charles Burns Clinic in
Birmingham.

Barker was a professor of psychiatry at University of Toronto before moving
to Calgary.