Physicians for Life president, Dr. Colin Merry, is suing the government of Manitoba, because of an agreement that the government made with the Manitoba Medical Association (MMA).
Under a new agreement worked out with the government of Manitoba to ban extra billing and create binding arbitration, the MMA secured the right to require all licensed physicians in Manitoba to pay an annual fee of $595. whether or not they were MMA members. The fees does not give them membership or voting rights.
Dr. Merry is an associate professor of medicine (pathology) on full salary, with no financial interest in billing. The MMA has never negotiates on his behalf. Moreover, he disagrees with the MMA’s stance on abortion, which is to support the Canadian Medical Association’s stance, so that as a matter of principle, he does not belong. Now that the MMA is moving in this new direction, Merry is prepared to fight.
Merry is convinced that the MMA’s action is contrary to the Manitoba Labour Relations Act as well as the Charter of Rights. MMA is not a certified collective bargaining agency and, at time of writing, is not even an incorporated body.
“The CMA did not want Canadian Physicians for Life as an association, but now one of its local divisions is trying to force us to pay money. The idea of being made to financially support them is just no on,” says Merry.
