The “lame duck” ODA Board met on May 30th, 2025. Four of the Board members present would no longer be on the Board two days later. The newly elected Board members that were democratically elected by General Council on April 25th, 2025, were not part of this meeting, nor the decisions made. Lame duck Boards should not engage in decisions unless they are of an urgent nature. The ODA continues to assert that “ODA staff are experts”; the staff advisor on this file was also not present.
Dr. Deborah Lin has been a pediatric dentist for 30 years and experienced all the provincial programs in a fulsome manner during that time, including their decline in both item and financial coverage. The government representatives sitting across the table during these negotiations have been brought to tears upon hearing her accounts dealing with patients on these programs. The Negotiation Team has built trust with the government, both with Dr. Lin present to express her vast knowledge of these programs, and with Past ODA President Dr. Lisa Bentley, as the Co-Chair of the team, a position she held with Christopher Pigott, a partner at Fasken LLP, who focuses on labour, employment, human rights, and public law.
This lame duck Board made the decision to demote Dr. Bentley from the Co-Chair position, and replace her with Dr. Maneesh Jain, our outgoing ODA President, and to remove Dr. Lin entirely.
Why? Was this an emergency matter requiring action prior to the commencement of the first newly formed Board, which will meet on June 19-21, 2025, at Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville? Why has our past President unseated Dr. Bentley from this position mid-negotiation? Why has this lame duck Board chosen to replace long standing ODA volunteer, Dr. Lin, with someone who has apparently only had his license to practice dentistry in Ontario for a very short time, who is essentially an academic, who is the current President of the Canadian Society for Disability and Oral Health, an organization that has publicly stated that: “Canadian dentists set their own fees”, and that dentistry is a “monopoly” in Canada, and that “Canadians are therefore held hostage to the fee decisions of Canadian dentists who are subject to no oversight for the fees they set for their services”?
Are these the people we want at the table advocating for us ODA members? A self-serving past President and an academic with no historic experience with our provincial programs, whose organization has essentially indicated that we dentists are greedy and overcharging for our services?
Use your voice and demand that the new Board reverses these ridiculous decisions!
11 Responses
First they remove a female board member, and now this ! Won’t be long before the ODA is on the 6 o’clock news !
It is clear that the old Board mistreats anyone who does not follow our ODA CEO formula, the Frank Bevilacqua leadership formula of do nothing, and collecting your 426 K salary, and stomping on women. Anyone who dissents is removed, even if it is done improperly. And the old Board members such as Ed B, Sara Worth, Homa J, Jonathan Mayer, and especially the erratic Janet Leigh are all complicit. The meeting was called to get the vote our CEO and Past President wanted. Dr. Lin and Dr. Bentley were not even notified in advance. Shame. Cowardice and our leaders manipulating our processes. Let’s hope the newly elected Board members will not be marginalized, mistreated and bullied.
Thank you for sharing your perspective. I agree that the ODA is a remarkable association supported by an incredible team of staff who work tirelessly to advocate for dentists and improve oral health care in Ontario. While it’s natural that members may sometimes feel frustrated or wish certain things were done differently, channeling that energy into constructive dialogue and support can only make the ODA stronger. We are fortunate to have such a dedicated organization behind us, and I believe that by working together and engaging respectfully, we can continue to build on its many successes. Go ODA Go!
Could you please clarify what “successes” the ODA has accomplished. Was it the CDCP debacle? Was it missing out on the PLP divestment? Was it coming late to the game when the government granted denturists and hygienists the right to buy, and take x-rays, or allowing foreign trained dentists (over our four year degree domestic students) to get a licence to practice through an 8 month qualifying program? Was it supporting our women dentists by kicking one off the board and two others off our provincial negotiating team? Yea, “go ODA go.”
you obviously have no experience in government relations or the way the government works.
the rest of the provincial and territorial dental associations looked to Ontario for leadership when speaking to the fed. thanks to the ODA we all don’t have SunLife coming in and auditing our offices randomly, we can balance bill, and we can coordinate benefits with the provincial plans. when dealing with other provinces and territories that have vastly different views on how this plan should be implemented, what exactly is the ODA supposed to do?
Meanwhile you’re complaining that the ODA did nothing….why are you so upset that those women dentists were kicked off the negotiation team? Since obviously that team was so ineffective and the ODA does nothing, maybe it had zero.to do with the fact that they are women, and everything to do with the fact that they just didn’t get the job done. just something to consider.
oh and that skills development fund money that our colleague Dr. Maggirias procured for DDS Masters, that was thanks to the ODA who made sure dentistry was put on the list of eligible programs. I know he’s been directing us to this site from the what’s app group, and likely working behind the curtain here. $2 million dollars of tax revenue and only 70 new hires…that’s $28,000 per hire. not entirely an efficiently run program at best, skimming off the top at worst. that’s YOUR tax money just gone poof into the wind. where’s YOUR outrage???
I just heard that a past president was elected in the spring who openly voiced while he was on the board that females should not be on boards. Why did we vote for him?
Funny, I heard that someone who ran for the board of directors last May, someone who owns a massive dental brokerage is implicated in some shady deals with the Ontario government.
https://www.thetrillium.ca/news/politics/millions-from-ontario-training-funding-went-to-dentists-brokerage-with-ties-to-then-labour-ministers-wife-11267483
Misogyny run rampant in this old board’s culture.
This current ineffective and self serving old board is trying to rewrite our election ByLaws to limit who can apply for positions on the Board and in General Council. Do NOT let them do this. Our policies and procedures and ByLaws were created by our members for our members, not an “animal farm” hierarchy of self serving individuals. Recently, this old board put in place sychophants that will obey and tow the CEO’s agenda. Those who oppose are ostracized and removed from the board or prevented from being put on ODA committees. Elections seem rigged. The board claims “someone out there” is spreading misinformation. Read the board’s constantly reactive emails – they are the ones spreading disinformation about what they have actually accomplished. The deck is stacked against our grass roots members. Time to boot these old board members and replace our CEO.
wow, you’re dumb. general council votes to amend by-laws, not the board. save your red pill theories for 4 chan.