Concerns About ODA Election Process

The 2025 Spring elections for the ODA Board of Directors was a wake up call to our ODA leadership. Many Component societies, through their General Councillors had been unhappy with the government negotiations on the CDCP, provincial dental plan reimbursements, lack of transparency on ODA Finances, the removal and mistreatment of a fellow female board member for asking for transparency, and the general direction our association was moving towards in 2026.

Such dissatisfaction with both our leadership, and the many one-sided editorials by the then Ontario Dentist Editor Dr. Carlos Quiñonez, led Past President, Dr. Art Worth, to pen a letter of protest to the Board.  This letter was wholly ignored and so Dr. Worth began making calls to other Past ODA Presidents, Component Society Presidents, and colleagues asking for their help in changing the ODA Strategic direction by changing the elected board members through the democratic election process. Dr. Worth enlisted the help of General Councillors, encouraged new members to run for office, supported the removal of Dr. Quiñonez (which was successful on the premise that he failed to disclose his benefitting financially from government consulting work), and also ran himself for the board.

His strategy was successful, and on his pledge to change the ODA from the inside out, five new Board of Directors were elected, including another Past ODA President, Dr. Victor Kutcher and Art, himself.  Our members were excited and encouraged by the change – little did they realize, ODA CEO Frank Bevilacqua and the existing Office of the Chair (OOTC) which included Drs. David Brown, Maneesh Jain, and Brock Nicolucci were already planning to derail, with whatever means necessary, this new movement towards progressive change.  This was not surprising, as Dr. Nicolucci was under investigation from a number of complainants for behaviour unbecoming of an ODA President. (Verified)

First began the isolating, criticisms, and withholding of information towards the new board members.  At every meeting they were prevented from speaking and providing their full opinion. Dr. Maneesh Jain, at a local component society meeting is quoted as saying: “How could General Council elect these new board members who are totally inexperienced and unqualified?” (Verified). He must of forgotten that he was also once a newly elected and inexperienced board member. Leaks from ODA whistleblower staff have verified how new board members have been stifled in their presentation of new ideas, threatened with investigation, verbally censored, excluded from meetings, and verbally chastised for asking hard financial questions. This is not only bad leadership, it destroys the potential for consensus, but also goes against all good governance practices. Letters of complaints from these newly elected members have been ignored or censored by Dr. Brown from the rest of the board.

Next, the OOTC began a “witch hunt” using staff resources by virtue of ODA members’ dues, which ran into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, to find out who among the ODA membership was championing the cause of change. The old board members banded together in secrecy and enlisted their own Past ODA Presidents such as Drs. Jerry Smith, Bernie Dolansky, Peter Fendrich, and Ian MacConnachie to encourage the idea that this new movement for change was “out to destroy” the ODA.  Members who spoke out were attacked with legal threats, having their ODA membership revoked, smeared through ODA media campaigns, and prevented from running to be councillors of their component societies. Drs. Maneesh Jain and Jonathan Mayer broke board confidentiality when they appeared at the Muskoka Simcoe Dental Society to prevent a past female ODA board member from running for a councillor position. This is absolutely egregious and runs against our ODA democratic process. Dr. Jonathon Mayer is currently under investigation for inappropriate comments/images he has presented on his social media, currently being investigated by the RCDSO. Dr. Ed Busvek has had multiple formal RCDSO complaints for “inappropriate proximity issues” and “failing to cooperate with the RCDSO” and is planning to run for VP of the board. Dr. Mayer is in jeopardy of NOT being ratified on his election to ODA Vice President. ODA insider staff have verified that a majority of ODA Board members do not wish to ratify Dr. Jonathan Mayer as he poses a reputational risk to the ODA.

The OOTC has enlisted the disgraced and unelected past board members to run for election again, and help set up an “anti-group” who through social media denigrate those who dare question the “old order.”  They try to make anyone who is an advocate for change “a radical, a heretic, out to destroy the good old ODA.”  How small-minded. They claim the ODA has done “so much for our members” – but refute any criticisms or revelations of malfeasance, even when presented with evidence at General Council.

Further, the OOTC now has sent notices to component societies informing THEM on how to run their own elections, to use the ODA digital (and rigged) voting system to have the OOTC choice of councillors elected to General Council. Every ODA Component Society has its own set of bylaws and protocols on how to elect their executive, run their elections, and who they may ask to speak and lecture at their meetings.  The ODA Board has now conspired to meddle in our component societies and their electoral processes, by having ODA staff dictate to society executives on how to appoint, whom to appoint, and who to bar from running. This has happened recently at the Waterloo Wellington Dental Society, where Dr. Maneesh Jain sent insulting and inappropriate emails questioning the election of a certain WWDS councillor.  When is it appropriate, if ever, for an ODA President to ask a component society president on why or who they elected? (Verified). More recently, unhappy with who was chosen as Vice President at the West Toronto Dental Society, the OOTC moved to insert themselves into the governance process and election by trying to bar one specific member who had already been acclaimed as a councillor, was verified to attend the General Council meeting and did so, and then was told his acclamation was null and void, even though no other candidate at the time came forward.  This is absolutely undemocratic and reaks of election interference.  When confronted with this, our current President, David Brown, did what he has done his entire term – not responded and ignored members’ letters. Dr. Brown himself, because of his incompetence has been formally asked, by a number of his own board members, to RESIGN.

More concerning is the OOTC’s strategy to limit who can run for the ODA Board of Directors, by trying to implement a series of ODA election bylaw changes that severely limit who, in our membership can run.  Check your recent ODA communication, where buried inside all the babble is a proposed bylaw change, that no member asked for.  These proposed bylaws were not scrutinized by the the Articles and ByLaws Subcommittee of which disgraced Dr. Jonathon Mayer is Chair, did not have full discussion at the Governance and Nominations Committee of which the inept Dr. Janet Leith is Chair, and has not been discussed for approval by the fully apprised ODA Board of Directors of which David Brown is Chair.

What is happening here?  No proper ONCA or best governance practices in the ODA Board Manual are being followed, it remains leaderless under David Brown who defers all decisions to Frank Bevilacqua, who by his own staff has been accused of conspiring (through a leaked email) with ODA legal council Dan Fabiano, of submitting planted pre-planned questions into General Council through ODA sycophants on the promise of benefits such as speaking at the ODA ASM, Chairing ODA Committees or being awarded ODA Awards through a tainted Nominations and Awards Committee, under the Chairmanship of Dr. Paul Romansen.

Election interference and uncalled for bylaw changes are the last straw.  If our members allow the ODA Board to dictate who should, and can run for all ODA elected positions, we have lost our right as dues paying ODA Members, through our elected General Council Members, to direct our Board to then enact the policy and strategic direction of OUR Association.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said: “ Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”