Review human reproductive agency: opposition

Opposition members have called for an independent review of the federal agency that oversees assisted human reproduction in Canada.

The call comes after three former board members for Assisted Human Reproduction Canada (AHRC) testified Tuesday at a Commons health committee. Francoise Baylis, Barbara Slater and Irene Ryll all resigned from the board in the spring over concerns with the agency's management.

The agency's president, Elinor Wilson, denied accusations she misspent taxpayer money or bullied board members. The agency typically receives $5 million in annual federal funding.

Slater, who resigned in June, told the committee it was a constant battle to get information about the agency's finances.

Requests for information about annual budgets were "consistently met with resistance from the president," she said.

The 2009-2010 budget was presented "as a slide deck with some total numbers included," she said. Though repeated requests for further information produced more detailed information, "even then, there were parts of the budget that were less than transparent," she said.

Slater took aim at Wilson's travel patterns to Vancouver, as well, saying they seemed to map more onto "personal interests than professional obligations."

Wilson acknowledged her travel to Vancouver but said she co-ordinated it with meetings.

"I would stay over a weekend if I had meetings at the end of a week and the beginning of the week.

"If I stayed on a holiday day I paid my own expenses."

'Emotive,' not disrespectful, Wilson says

All three women accused Wilson of cultivating an atmosphere of intimidation and disrespect.

When Baylis tried to raise a point of discussion at her last board meeting, Wilson waved her hands and spoke to her as if she were "a belligerent child," she said.

To that, Wilson said: "I am an emotive person who waves my hands a lot."

Two current board members also testified, saying they did not feel threatened by Wilson.

Ryll accused Wilson specifically of "disrespectful engagement" with board members, and of making "derogatory comments" about AHRC users, who use or are born of assisted human reproduction technologies.

For example, when struggling to remember the acronym for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans-gender, Queer Network, Wilson called them "BLT," the acronym most commonly used to describe a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich.

"It was not an honest attempt to try to get an acronym out," Baylis said.

In her defence, Wilson told the committee her memory lapse did not reflect her personal feelings towards the network.

Committee members grappled to explain the two very different views of Wilson's leadership.

"Board members had equal opportunity to participate in the board, and obviously that worked out different for some compared to others," said committee chair John Hamm, the former Nova Scotia premier.

"It's like they were in alternate realities," said NDP health critic Megan Leslie.

"I actually want to have someone independent inquire into what has transpired," said Liberal health critic Ujjal Dosanjh.