Shocking Facebook Posts By ODA Vice President

By now many, if not all ODA members have seen or heard of the highly offensive social media posts of our newly elected (but not yet ratified) ODA Vice President, Dr. Jonathan Mayer.  Apparently, over one thousand emails/letters and an on-line petition garnering over 800 signatures so far, from both dentists, and the general public, have been sent to the ODA

 A letter states: 

“The rhetoric shared (by Dr. Jonathan Mayer) is deeply troubling and does not align with the Association’s stated values, particularly its commitments to equity and non-discrimination.”

“This Director’s conduct raises significant concerns not just about professional judgment and fair leadership within the dental profession, but also the general requirement of upholding principles of decency, inclusion, and basic respect.”

Sure, every Canadian has the right to express their “personal view” on any subject, but as the future leader of the largest voluntary Dental Association in Canada, and a representative of ALL members of various faiths; his public postings on social media broke the cardinal ODA rules of leadership (even by Mr. Frank Bevilacqua’s and Mr. Marcus Stavis’s standards). Recently the new Dean of Dentistry Dr. Anil Kirshen  stepped down for his inappropriate posts.  He did the right thing. Why hasn’t Jonathan Mayer voluntarily stepped down yet?

Let’s look at our current ODA Board composition:

Dr. Jonathan Mayer has refused to step down despite these irrefutable facts:

As every board member knows: The board speaks with one voice. Only the current ODA President can speak publicly on behalf of the board, because the ODA president is the ODA’s official spokesperson.  Mayer’s Facebook posts were unauthorized and not approved by the ODA president. Mayer’s account was visible for all to see on multiple occasions and many did see: dentists, members of the public and politicians who are well aware of who the ODA’s board members are, as a councillor from London reminded the board and council at the last General Council meeting. More recently, Mayer appears to have changed his Facebook settings to private; which begs the question: are his posts still up? David Brown and Janet Leith had better look into this. In any case, regardless of his current privacy settings, it does nothing to change the harm and hurt he has caused. If anything, it reeks of a cover-up. 

• As the ODA’s own social media guidelines say: “Be mindful that what you publish on the Internet will be public forever.”  
  
• His Facebook comments were not only demeaning of others, but in full breach of the ODA CODE OF CONDUCT.
  
• He has made comments at various ODA Component Dental Societies which were strictly confidential and should not have been made in that forum.  This clearly breached Board confidentiality.
  
• His Facebook posts blatantly criticizing members of the ruling Liberal Party including Prime Minister Carney and Minister of Public Safety, Gary Anandasangaree jeopardizes our position, and ability to negotiate a better deal for our members with regard to both our provincial and Canadian Dental Care Plans. A number of politicians have made this clear both at the federal and provincial level.  Does he not think before he posts? This is poor judgement to say the least. 
  
• He currently has multiple formal complaints against him with the RCDSO for his social media posts, which clearly contravene the RCDSO Practice Advisory on Professional Use of Social Media.
  
• His refusal to step down, lack of remorse for his comments, and his past pattern of misogynistic behaviour towards female ODA Board members and ODA dentists, are unbecoming of a future ODA President, or any other volunteer position at the ODA. He must not be ratified by the board.

If he has a shred of decency in him, Dr. Jonathan Mayer would do what others have done in cases like this, spare himself and the board further embarrassment, and resign. His pattern of behaviour demonstrates he is unfit to be ODA President. His fellow board members and Mr. Staviss; our director of communications had better take note: If he is ratified, the ODA will be stuck in an endless cycle of damage control. This is just the beginning. There will be awkward questions for him and the board to answer at General Council and Component Society meetings.  

His latest escapade on social media is being investigated by a committee, which begs the question: How much money is being spent on this investigation and how is that good value for the membership? Why was an investigation even necessary when we have no less than FOURTEEN other board members who could have reviewed this. The facts of this case could not be more clear.  You do not need to be a governance expert to see that. 

How Dr. Ed Busvek was even elected to the ODA Board of Directors is shocking, and now by his own unprofessional behaviour, even more unbelievable.  This is a man who has no less than six Royal College of Dental Surgeons complaints against him on the public record, including “for “boundary violations.” 

As per the RCDSO: “As a regulated health professional, Dr. Busvek is required to cooperate with the College, his regulatory body. Dr. Busvek’s lack of compliance with the College’s repeated requests for records hindered the College’s ability to properly investigate a patient complaint requiring him to complete:

A one-on-one course in ethics, boundaries and communication, with the following components:

• Release and transfer of dental records
• Establishing and maintaining appropriate boundaries in the dentist/patient relationship
• Cooperation with a College investigation

Restorative dentistry, including instruction on proper removal of all decay from the tooth, marginal integrity and adequate contact points

There are numerous clinical, radiographic and diagnostics insufficiencies to be fulfilled as well.  This is all on the RCDSO public website.

This speaks volumes about his current behaviour towards other female volunteers and clearly demonstrates to members that HE is not suitable as a future ODA Vice President. All our members deserve better.

If it wasn’t enough that two of the current ODA Board members are under ODA investigation, our current ODA President -Elect and Chair of the ODA Governance and Nominations Committee Dr. Janet Leith, also has no less than three RCDSO complaints which clearly demonstrate her lack of ethics and jurisprudence.  It’s one thing to have a patient complaint against you, which all practicing dentists may have or will encounter in their practice life time, but to have your own colleagues file a complaint against you for breach of contract is inexcusable.  If Dr. Leith cannot keep her word to her partners, how can ODA member dentists have confidence or even trust Dr. Leith to represent them? She is not worthy. She should resign.

Our current President Dr. David Brown is cut from the same cloth.  He knew and authorized our CEO Frank Bevilacqua and ODA legal council Dan Fabiano to plant questions in General Council, as revealed by an ODA staff whistleblower email.  He went further and lied to General Council by denying that he authorized or knew of the action. There are no less than three formal complaints by both ODA Board members and ODA General Councillors that have been languishing under his tenure. He is also presiding with avoidance over two Human Rights Complaints.  His refusal to be transparent with these investigations, continual procrastination on outcomes, and with his refusal to step down by a recent motion made by his OWN Board; speaks volumes about his lack of integrity and leadership. He should resign.

How could we have fallen this far into moral decay and ineptitude?  These revelations cannot be argued nor condoned, as they are FACTS.  They are proven and have been brought forward as EVIDENCE by our members, and are in the public domain.  No ODA member would want to disparage our President and leadership, our association leadership was once comprised of honourable individuals, but the actions of this President and this Board speak for themselves.  We as paying members must now speak with our votes, as we did at the last General Council election. Remove these ineffective, and self-serving place holders. Re-electing board members who were voted off the board last year will yield more of the same. 

It’s time to vote for an effective, transparent and honourable slate of new leaders.