Manitoba dentist who created ‘offensive’ residential university reviews removed from affiliation board

A court ruling states the Manitoba Dental Association acted reasonably in removing a dentist from its board of administrators who refused to indicator an amended code of carry out, next remarks he manufactured about Indigenous individuals and the residential faculty method the board deemed offensive.

Dr. Edward Agnew’s comments, in an email despatched to some board customers, incorporated disparaging comments about Indigenous leadership and the declare that “lots of of his individuals ‘have nothing but ‘good’ to say about their time as college students in the household educational institutions,'” according to a June 13 Manitoba Court of King’s Bench civil court docket ruling.

Agnew despatched the e mail following a February 2022 board assembly at which  Dr. Anastasia Cholakis, the dean of the university of dentistry at the College of Manitoba, said “she felt that Canadians had been guilty of poorly mistreating the Indigenous populace of Canada,” according to Justice Jeffrey Harris’s determination.

The board members who obtained Agnew’s e mail have been “very disturbed” by his comments, the ruling suggests.

The e mail also included a link to a video clip which Agnew questioned to be forwarded to Cholakis, which instructed the 2021 discovery of what are thought to be hundreds of graves at the site of the former residential university in Kamloops, B.C., was a hoax.

“‘Hope you can down load! Extremely Exciting,'” Agnew stated in the electronic mail.

The video “minimizes the atrocities of the cultural genocide of Indigenous peoples in Canada and denies the existence of graves of college students at the Kamloops residential school,” Harris’s ruling says.

Refused to sign code of carry out

Just after Angew despatched the email, the board despatched him a letter on Feb. 21, 2022, asking him to resign as a director, expressing it “observed the contents of his e-mail to be offensive and in violation of the ideas and values” of the affiliation, the courtroom final decision stated.

It also reported the letter contravened the association’s code of conduct, and specially, sections related to conflict of desire and discrimination.

In March of that 12 months, Agnew gave the board’s govt committee “further content articles” about residential educational institutions that also failed to mirror the board’s values, the ruling states.

In April, Agnew was “offered with an option to handle an in-digicam conference of the board” regarding his February email, the courtroom conclusion claimed.

Agnew stated he disagreed with the board’s considerations about his sights and refused to resign.

At that level, the board understood its bylaws did not present any way to enable it to take away a member “whose conduct or actions were being harmful to the operation of the board,” the conclusion said.

It voted in favour of amending its standard bylaw and code of carry out, to create a disciplinary procedure that would let a member to be taken off if they acted unprofessionally or in opposition to the pursuits of the affiliation, in accordance to the ruling.

The amendment also required board members to sign an updated code of carry out — and if they did not, they could be eradicated from the board.

All members were requested to have signed the amended code, but in September 2022, Agnew reported he refused to do so. The board advised Agnew in late Oct that if he didn’t indicator in a week’s time, he could be taken out from the board.

Agnew did not signal the code, and the board taken off him in early November 2022.

Amendments created in ‘bad faith’: Agnew

Agnew introduced a authorized problem of the board’s final decision to remove him, stating he needed to be reinstated to the board and have the amendment quashed.

He argued the modifications to the code constituted not just an modification, but a new code — which he had not agreed to when he joined the board.

He also argued the amendments “were being applied in bad faith to produce a system to get rid of him,” the court docket determination mentioned.

But Justice Harris ruled the board experienced the ideal to make alterations to its code of conduct and experienced acted fairly when it taken off him for refusing to sign.

“Dr. Agnew has failed to build that the board, or any of its customers, acted in negative faith or for an inappropriate function,” his ruling mentioned.

Harris dismissed Agnew’s application with prices.

CBC has arrived at out to both of those the Manitoba Dental Affiliation and Agnew for remark.