The Burntwood Regional Health Authority (BRHA) has banned Grassroots News columnist Hussain Guisti for life from all board meetings.
Guisti told the Thompson Citizen that he was asked to leave when he showed up for the board meeting on May 27, and was told shortly after that the board had made a decision that he would not be allowed to attend any further board meetings for life, despite the meetings being open to the public.
Thompson NDP MLA Steve Ashton, who also serves as minister of infrastructure and transportation, in an e-mail to the Thompson Citizen May 31, said, "I am not aware of all the background of what has happened in the specific situation you outlined. I also don't believe that MLA's should politically interfere in the day-to-day operation of the RHA's or our health system.
"In general I can indicate I believe RHAs should be open and transparent. This includes the application of FIPPA (Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act) to RHA's and that subject to patient confidentiality the decisions of RHA's should be public.
"I strongly believe in freedom of the press. I feel that fair and accurate journalism is essential to our democratic system.
The RHA has an obligation to ensure that it is fully transparent, including ensuring that the media has full access to the decisions of the board."
The BRHA released a statement on May 28 to the Thompson Citizen from Gloria King, its chief executive officer, who said it was a reply from BRHA board chair Lloyd Flett, saying the board unanimously passed a resolution on May 27 to prohibit Guisti from attending board meetings effective immediately, in response to "a very difficult and unusual situation caused by Mr. Guisti's prior and ongoing behaviour during and as a result of board meetings." The statement goes on to say that the situation caused by Guisti has gone on for over a year and that the board had given him a warning before taking the action of May 27.
"The board felt compelled to act to ensure that the RHA can conduct the necessary business of the region and to serve its communities. Ongoing, inaccurate portrayals related to BRHA operations and staff have affected also their ability to conduct work and serve the communities in the region," the release also states, saying the situation got so bad that board members were reluctant to speak out at meeting for fear of being "misrepresented."
The BRHA board statement also claims the organization is within its authority to take such an action against Guisti, and says it received legal advice on the matter. In an interview the Thompson Citizen conducted with Flett, who was appointed board chair in May, but has been on the BRHA's board since 1997, Flett says the BRHA followed Robert's Rules of Order in making the decision about Guisti. Robert's Rules of Order is the short title of a book containing rules of order intended to be adopted as a parliamentary authority for use by a deliberative assembly. He said the BRHA also consulted with its own legal counsel before it made the decision.
"In any form of democracy, when you're dealing with this sort of business when this interruption or disruption is caused, indirectly or directly, its within the board's authority to remove people from meetings."
In a second interview with the Thompson Citizen on May 31, Flett, a former mayor of the Norway House Community Council, who is currently employed as the administrator of the Norway House Community Council, was unable to cite any statutory authority to remove or bar Guisti from its open meetings.
Flett said the board's decision on Guisti was unanimous and he reiterated several times he believes the board were acting within their legal authority to implement the ban by way of resolution. The exact text of resolution won't be available until after June 17 when the board is next scheduled to meet and adopt the minutes from the May 27 meeting, said Blake Ellis, BRHA communications co-ordinator in a May 28 e-mail.
Flett has promised to try and locate information on the specific statutory authority the board is relying on to banish Guisti from its open meetings. Flett said the lawyer who provided their legal advice in relation to Guisti was not at the May 27 board meeting.
Asked by the Thompson Citizen how Guisti's actual conduct in the open meetings he has attended was interruptive or disruptive - as opposed to the alleged impact of his journalism on BRHA board members or staff - Flett thought for a while and finally offered two examples: once Guisti entered a meeting during the opening prayer, which Flett said the board found disruptive, and another time he helped himself to some taxpayer-provided BRHA lunch at an adjacent table in the boardroom. Guisti denied May 31 ever availing himself of a free lunch.
Flett was unable to say whether such "disruptions" have ever occurred before because the board get so few members of the public attending their meetings that it's hard to make a comparison, he said.
Health Minister Theresa Oswald, in a prepared statement released to the Citizen May 31, said, "Our provincial government expects all RHAs to be open and transparent. As government, we expanded FIPPA to cover RHAs shortly after taking office and continue to work at making more information publicly available about health care.
"I support Burntwood RHA and their board in their work to recruit and retain health professionals and to provide the best possible care for people living in the region. Anything that jeopardizes this important work is concerning.
"I understand that Burntwood RHA's board meetings are open to the public and the media, and that they actually broadcast portions of the RHA board meetings on the local cable channel. Also, I understand the minutes of each board meeting are posted online for public access.
"I believe strongly in the freedom of the press and that fair and accurate journalism is essential to a healthy democracy.
Manitoba Liberal Leader Dr. Jon Gerrard told the Thompson Citizen that he was surprised by the action taken by the health authority, and that it was highly unusual for media to be banned from a board meeting.
"It's a public board meeting and the whole rationale behind that is to make it more open so that you can have people from the media like Mr. Guisti there," he explains. "He may be critical, but his goal is honourable - to improve the quality of health care and services for people in the North. This is exactly the sort of person who should be there to be able to communicate concerns and push for improvement."
During a recent question period of the Manitoba legislature, following the BRHA's action, Gerrard questioned Oswald about the BRHA's decision to ban Guisti. When he asked her why Guisti had been banned, Oswald said that BRHA board meetings are televised for "all the public" to view, but Gerrard claims the meetings are only televised a few times a year.
Inkster Liberal MLA Kevin Lamoureux says he is so worried about the direction the BRHA is taking that he is planning a trip to Thompson this July to get a "first-hand account" of what is taking place.
"For the last six months or so I've been very much concerned about the direction that the regional health authority has been going up in Thompson. I've heard a great deal of concern in regards to the staffing and personnel issues to concerns regarding the children of the North not necessarily getting the type of services that they should be. That concerns me greatly," Lamoureux explains.
He goes on to say that banning Guisti from board meetings is "highly irresponsible."
"Whether they like it or not, the public does have a right to know in terms of what decisions are being made within the regional health authority and I suspect that if it was the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, and they did that to a media outlet, it'd be an outcry."
Back in March Lamoureux was circulating a petition for the legislative assembly requesting the provincial government to allow all regional health authorities to be questioned on an annual basis by a standing committee of the legislature. The petition had four points to it. The first said that Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger and the NDP government need to recognize the need for more accountability in health care. The second point said that the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority's "incompetence" has led to a reduction of emergency services at community hospitals and an "explosion" of health care bureaucracy, while the third point states that "serious concerns" had been raised about the BRHA's behaviour towards staffing issues and the need for more doctors in rural Manitoba. The fourth and final point stated "as hundreds of millions of tax dollars are being spent on our health care system, MLAs should be allowed to question health care decisions being made my politically appointed health boards."
Don Marks, editor of Grassroots News, the Winnipeg-based publication Guisti writes for, says they're still trying to determine if it was legal for Guisti to be barred from the meetings. He says Guisti is consulting with his lawyer at the moment, and said at this stage they're just investigating the issue further before deciding what to do next.
