No, I don't, and....
Evidence of meeting #37 for Health in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was agency.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #37 for Health in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was agency.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
All right. Let me remind you.
I understand there's an organization called LGBTQ Parenting Network.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
The acronym stands for “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer”.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
I understand that at that meeting in June of 2009, you referred to this particular group as “BLTs”. Did you, ma'am?
12:50 p.m.
President, Assisted Human Reproduction Canada
Thank you for the question, Madam Chair.
I was expressing how difficult it was to remember all of those letters in alphabetical order in the LGBTQ--lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer--Parenting Network. All that could come to mind at times was the acronym “BLT”, because there were so many letters in the alphabet.
It was certainly not meant as a disparaging remark. That group is an active part of our organization on the patient committee. We work with Rachel Epstein very closely.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
Has anybody every mispronounced your name? If I called you something silly, and wasn't able to pronounce your name--English is my second language--and I said something like “Alnoor”, would you be offended?
12:50 p.m.
President, Assisted Human Reproduction Canada
There was no offence meant. It was a string of alphabet letters that were difficult to remember.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
Do you think, in the context of reproductive technologies, if you use the expression “BLT” to refer to this particular group, it could be construed as demeaning and insulting to the group?
12:50 p.m.
President, Assisted Human Reproduction Canada
I can't speak for the group. My recollection is that Rachel and I have had conversations in the past about the difficulty with the acronym and remembering it.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
Thank you.
With respect to all of the allegations that you heard from the three resigned board members, is it still your position...? And I heard Dr. Hamm's presentation that the agency will be able to meet the mandate under the legislation.
I ask you, Ms. Wilson, with all of the allegations of financial irregularities, possible mismanagement, the question of missing members--such as the persons to do with ethics, with policy, with patients, or the legal person--whether you still believe, in the context of what transpired here today and what we were told, you can effectively continue to meet the mandate under the legislation. Is that your view?
12:55 p.m.
President, Assisted Human Reproduction Canada
I'm wondering, Madam Chair, with all due respect, if that might be a question for the chair of the board as to whether he feels his board can meet the mandate.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
Can you tell us whether the agency can meet the mandate? Forget the board; you run the agency, ma'am.
12:55 p.m.
President, Assisted Human Reproduction Canada
Certainly I can answer that, Madam Chair.
The agency, yes, can meet the mandate that we are enabled to do at the moment. As you are aware, a significant part of our mandate, which is the licensing of clinics and procedures in Canada, is not yet enabled; we do not have the regulations for that. In terms of the other pieces of our mandate that I mentioned in my opening remarks, yes, we do have the expertise, in my personal opinion, to meet that mandate, especially with the groups of volunteers we have from the field, be they patient groups or professionals, that provide advice to us.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
November 16th, 2010 / 12:55 p.m.
Bloc
Nicolas Dufour Bloc Repentigny, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good afternoon, everyone. I would like to thank all the witnesses for being here today.
How are you, Ms. Wilson?
12:55 p.m.
Bloc
Nicolas Dufour Bloc Repentigny, QC
You must have certainly had better days than today.
I heard the witnesses talk about intimidation, lack of transparency, obscurantism and disparaging remarks. Ms. Wilson, is that a way to act?
12:55 p.m.
President, Assisted Human Reproduction Canada
Madam Chair, thank you for the question.
I do not run the board, sir. The board is chaired by our chairman, Dr. John Hamm. The agency's role and my role as president, besides being a full voting member of the board, is to provide the support to the board that it requires to make its decisions.
I can tell you that--
12:55 p.m.
Bloc
Nicolas Dufour Bloc Repentigny, QC
So I will ask Mr. Hamm the question, Ms. Wilson.
Intimidation, lack of transparency, obscurantism and disparaging remarks—that's what the witnesses told us a little earlier. Is that a way to act?
12:55 p.m.
Chair, Assisted Human Reproduction Canada
In that context, the answer would be no. What I can say is that in February 2007, Dr. Wilson became the head of an agency with no employees, an agency that was faced with a monumental task of setting up a system of monitoring, compliance, inspection, and personal health information. She has worked tirelessly and very effectively to put that agency on the map under very trying circumstances--trying circumstances in terms of the delay of regulations--and certainly that has been aggravated by the delay in the Supreme Court decision.
As board chair, I work very closely with Dr. Wilson, actually having more dialogue than one normally does as board chair, because we are an agency trying to build itself.
What I can say is that in my relationship with Dr. Wilson, she is a professional, and to me she is forthcoming.
12:55 p.m.
Bloc
Nicolas Dufour Bloc Repentigny, QC
Mr. Hamm, I am not talking to you about the relationship with Ms. Wilson. I am talking about the relationship with the other members on the board of directors. You keep repeating that, since the act is before the Supreme Court, the management process is very complex. It was to be expected that it would end up before the Supreme Court. Quebec was very clear on that.
Mr. Hamm, I must admit that I am shocked. When everything is fine, we don't expect five members of the committee to leave and we are not supposed to lose the legal expert, the ethics expert, the policy expert and the patient expert. It is difficult to justify. All these people leaving and what the three former members of the committee said—you heard them—make me really question your way of managing things.
How are you able to do it when you are missing five members and you lost, I repeat, your legal expert, your ethics expert, your policy expert and your patient expert?
12:55 p.m.
Chair, Assisted Human Reproduction Canada
The loss of the board members is indeed a loss. There is no question about that. When I was presented with the board roster three and a half years ago, I was pleased with the choices that had been made. I felt that we had the range of expertise, background, and experiences that would allow us to come to grips with the situation that was before us. So I cannot say today that the loss of those members has been a help or has made us stronger. It certainly has not.
Having said that, I think in order to put this into perspective, there are board members here who are prepared to talk about their board experiences, and I think it would be helpful for the committee to hear their experiences on the board to put this in balance.
1 p.m.
Bloc
Nicolas Dufour Bloc Repentigny, QC
We will have the opportunity to hear from them later. I have another question for you.
Did you discourage written or electronic communication and ask that most of the communication be done verbally?
