Dear OPA Members, As many of you know, our Vice President, Roberta Scott, is a candidate in the upcoming election with the Progressive Conservative Party. This is been a source of controversy and has led some of you to question whether the OPA can be politically neutral and objective during this election period. We are also deeply concerned about the optics and we have had a couple of emergency meetings to try to determine the best way to move forward. During this time weve also realized that our bylaws dont adequately address the issue of conflict of interest and plan to make changes to the bylaws for this Falls annual general meeting. Nonetheless, we can and will be as politically neutral as possible and will focus on the issues that are important to paramedics and consistent with our mission. We met with Roberta at the end of last week and she has agreed to excuse herself from all Board meetings involving the discussion of this upcoming election i.e. She will be absent until the election is over. Regardless of your political affiliation we think its important to have a voice for paramedics in the political arena. This is not an endorsement of Roberta, but a general statement of support for any paramedic who might be able to positively influence the political landscape for our profession. For those of you who dont know Roberta, she has been a paramedic for over 25 years and has served paramedics extraordinarily well and is a valued member of our Board. Roberta was instrumental in helping us organize our Queens Park Lobby day in 2013. This was an event that helped us inform MPPs about who paramedics are and what we do. It was also a catalyst to the recognition and funding for Community Paramedicine in this province. Roberta has also been featured in Arrive Alive Ontarios Arrive alive, arrive sober PSAs and helped us deliver their newest commercial with our OPA crest on the ad m.youtube/watch?v=Cy5p6h3qYi4 Whether you support her party or not, having Roberta at the Ontario Legislature could reap great benefits for our paramedics in terms of furthering our interests and informing politicians about the importance of what we do for the community. This letter will be followed shortly by another outlining our political strategy for this election. Thanks for your continued support. And if you are not yet a member of the OPA, you can join us at ontarioparamedic.ca Rob Theriault President, Ontario Paramedic Association
Posted on: Thu, 22 May 2014 01:37:42 +0000
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