BC Doctors requesting a Special General Meeting of the BCMA exceeds 90 percent

Public

Over nine hundred doctors throughout BC, more than 90 percent of the threshold required, have signed the petition requesting a Special General Meeting of the BCMA to review the BCMA Board conduct and decision to appeal the BC Supreme Court Judgment in Wang v. BC Medical Association (2008 BCSC 1559) and to establish an alternative process to ensure a rapid, equitable remedy ensuring the fair and ethical treatment of all members without incurring further unnecessary legal costs.

The Judgment, released on November 17, 2008, is available on the BC Supreme Court web site at http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/Jdb-txt/SC/08/15/2008BCSC1559.htm and states:

• "the special committee was not validly formed" and "should be disbanded"
• "characterization of the special committee as an entity that is something other than a code of conduct committee is not supported by the evidence"
• "the directors have acted in contravention of s. 25 of the Society Act, and with unintended irony, are thereby in breach of the Code of Conduct itself"
• "the Board appeared to be heavy handed and misguided in its treatment of Dr. Wang"
• the President's Letter of February 2, 2008 "was rich with innuendo"
• "at no time has Dr. Wang or her legal counsel been notified of a complaint or an allegation that she violated any provision of the BCMA constitution, bylaws, Code of Conduct, or any common law duty of directors and officers"

Many members of the BCMA, GP's and Specialists, think it is now time for the profession to face the facts identified in the Judgment and try to fix and mend things the best we can without further delay and unnecessary legal costs.

The BCMA President and Board have declined to distribute the petition calling for a Special General Meeting to the membership as a whole. And at the same time as they resolve to have no obligation to assist its distribution, they apparently maintain that to do so would be to distribute information that is not properly wedded to BCMA business, and would somehow violate member entitlement to privacy. Furthermore, district delegates are left unclear as to whether they could even forward the petition to their own district members and let them decide, even while delegates could refrain from personally endorsing it.

Considering that approximately one percent of the membership (about 100 members) is on the order of member attendance at Annual General Meetings it is entirely reasonable to ask that the current petition be circulated to the full membership as a legitimate requirement of due process.

Attached is the synopsis from January 15, 2009 with the signature sheet. Colleagues who have not yet signed are asked to consider doing so now and those who have already signed are asked to encourage other colleagues to consider this important matter, including the 475 residents in training programs throughout BC who are eligible voting members of the BCMA as are professionally inactive physician members. With the continued faxing back of signatures supporting the request it will soon exceed the threshold required for a Special General Meeting to be convened.

Please feel free to forward the attachment to your colleagues.

Zafar Essak, MD
Barry Koehler, MD, FRCPC