B.C. Nurses' Union nomination committee nixes candidacy of members for top three posts

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      Over the years, Vancouver General Hospital nurse Will Offley has been an outspoken member of the B.C. Nurses' Union, as well as a health and political activist, writer, and researcher of the anti-abortion movement.

      Late last year, one of his articles was published in the B.C. Medical Journal.

      He's also been an independent provincial candidate in Vancouver-Hastings, a critic of the 2010 Winter Olympics, and was a member of a group called Left Turn, which opposed the rightward drift of the NDP.

      In addition, Offley has served on the BCNU executive committee.

      Recently, he had been campaigning to become BCNU president but that came to an end when the nominations committee kiboshed his candidacy. The committee defended its action in a bulletin on the BCNU website saying that Offley and two others, Sharon Sharp and Mary Jean Lyth, had been removed from the ballot.

      Sharp was running for vice president and Lyth was a candidate for the treasurer's position.

      Offley, Sharp, and Lyth are members of a slate called B.C. Nurses Vote for Change.

      "Rather than face their membership in an open and democratic vote, we believe the BCNU leadership has chosen to take the most alarming possible measures to prevent that vote from happening," the group stated on its website. "Members now are not being allowed to express their wishes as to what direction our union should be going or who they wish to see in the leadership of BCNU. We believe this action is unprecedented in the history of BCNU."

      The decision ensures that the incumbents—president Gayle Duteil, vice president Christine Sorensen, and treasurer Sharon Sponton—will be reelected.

      Gayle Duteil (right, seen with Dr. Patricia Daly) is suing Will Offley for defamation.

      The nomination committee alleged in its bulletin that trio had breached an undertaking "to retract false information in their campaign literature and for violating the Union's policies and guidelines by which they agreed to conduct their campaigns when they each signed their nomination forms".

      This came after complaints about previous published statements, "some of which was a re-publication of alleged defamatory statements that are the subject of a civil lawsuit between Gayle Duteil against Will Offley".

      "At the time of their nomination, each candidate signs a standard declaration acknowledging that they understand that if they violate the Union's election guidelines, e.g., the BCNU Constitution & Bylaws, the Union's election policies, including the Candidate's guidelines, and BCNU's Climate Goals, they may be either asked to withdraw from the election or be declared invalid by the Committee," the bulletin stated.

      The bulletin maintained that these "misleading or false statements" concerned such things as a BCNU grant program for an MBA in healthcare, return-trip airfare for spouses of executive committee members, and maid service at a condo occupied by the union president.

      The claim about the maid service remains on the B.C. Nurses Vote for Change home page as of this writing.

      The committee declared that these statements prevented "a free and fair election".

      "The Committee had previously warned these former candidates that as a result of their misconduct as candidates they may either be asked to withdraw from the election or the Committee would remove their name from the ballot."

      The union's acting executive director and general counsel, Umar Sheikh, posted a statement on the BCNU website telling members that the nomination committee "acts independently and its members are in no way affiliated with, or influenced by any candidate".