[4] Cleary later moved to New Brunswick,[2] where she began serving as the Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Health for the province on August 30, 2007, under then-chief Wayne MacDonald.

[11] In May 2013, Cleary, under the request of then-health minister Ted Flemming, began studying the adverse effects of energy drinks on children.

[8] In December 2015, it was revealed that Cleary was abruptly placed on leave[13] and later terminated from her position by the provincial government, then-controlled by the Liberal Party led by Premier Brian Gallant.

Around this time, Cleary was studying the herbicide,[11] which was used in the province by those working in forestry, farming, and military industries, along with major New Brunswick corporations such as NB Power[8] and J. D. Irving (JDI), the latter of whom had voiced opposition against the proposal to ban it.

[14] According to John Chilibeck of the Telegraph-Journal, Cleary "had told people her office was embarking on a study of the health effects of industrial herbicide spraying".

[17] The statement also called for CBC to "immediately remove the story from their website, publish a full retraction, and apologize for their appalling behavior".

[18] Officials who publicly expressed support for Cleary included David Butler-Jones, Robert Strang, and her successor, Jennifer Russell.

[15] In a joint statement between Cleary and New Brunswick's deputy health minister announcing the settlement, it was described as being "legally consistent with other instances of dismissal without cause".

[26] Jula Hughes, an associate professor at the University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law, explained that the term "without cause" in this context meant "there [wa]s likely no reason that would hold up in court for firing Cleary".

The Court of Queen's Bench ruled in favor of Radio-Canada, with Justice Zoël Dionne ordering that the settlement amount was public information.

Critics such as Mount Allison University political science professor Mario Levesque speculated that the settlement was "hush money" and part of the government's attempts to silence Cleary.

[2] Brunswick News stated that Cleary left "a sterling legacy in Canada, the province and the global public health community.