by SUSAN MANN
The Canadian Honey Council will likely discuss an Ontario Beekeepers’ Association request to replace the national organization’s chair at its next board meeting.
The Ontario Beekeepers’ Association requested in an Aug. 5 letter to the council’s board that it immediately ask Alberta beekeeper Kevin Nixon, the Canadian council’s chair, to step aside and for the national organization to elect a new chair.
Ontario Beekeepers’ wants Nixon to step side because of comments he made in the August issue of HiveLights magazine criticizing the provincial association. HiveLights is the national magazine of the Canadian Honey Council.
Ontario Beekeepers’ board “believes that Mr. Nixon’s unexpected and unwarranted tirade raises serious issues as to his qualifications to lead the CHC (Canadian Honey Council),” Ontario president Tibor Szabo says in the Aug. 5 letter.
Nixon couldn’t be reached for comment.
UPDATE: August 16, 2016 — Canadian Honey Council chair Kevin Nixon says the Ontario Beekeepers’ Association doesn’t fully understand the comments he made in the August issue of HiveLights questioning why the group is still a member of the council.
Nixon says it’s premature for him to say whether he’ll step down or not since “we haven’t met as a (honey council) board. We’ll discuss that as a board and see where that conversation goes.”
Nixon says he hasn’t directly responded to the Ontario beekeepers association about its comments on his HiveLights magazine commentary so “it may not be too fair of me to say anything now.”
However, he says he wrote his comments in HiveLights as an Alberta director and not as the honey council’s chair.
“It was just thoughts and questions that I had in my head,” he explains. “I throw out the questions to both sides. Why would the OBA (Ontario Beekeepers’ Association) continue membership in honey council but at the same, why does honey council continue allowing them as a member when (the two groups’) values don’t align.”
Nixon says there has been almost four years of the two groups having different values and “at what point in time do you say enough is enough and part ways? Maybe that’s not the answer, but I’m throwing it out there” as something for both sides to consider. END OF UPDATE
The Ontario association posted on its website both Nixon’s commentary and its response.
In a telephone interview on Thursday, Szabo said the Ontario organization hasn’t yet received a response from the Honey Council.
Szabo said what Nixon did was totally unprofessional “and not something that a leader should be doing.”
Rod Scarlett, Honey Council executive director, said “we probably won’t address that letter (from the Ontario association) until at least our next board meeting, which hasn’t been scheduled yet. It might be late August or it could be late September. It just depends on the availability of the majority of the board members.”
Furthermore, Scarlett isn’t sure if a provincial association that’s a member of the Honey Council, “has the authority to ask something of the board.”
He explained that the Honey Council rules require the board to act on resolutions from an annual meeting or semi-annual meeting of a provincial organization.
“The only actions we can take are in response to something that is brought forward by a resolution of a (provincial) board,” he said. Requests for the Honey Council to act must come through resolutions passed at provincial annual or semi-annual meetings because that’s the way the national organization knows “the membership is supporting” it.
The Honey Council’s board could respond to the Ontario association’s request to replace Nixon, Scarlett added, but “there’s no official mandate to do anything. This is like a suggestion.”
What’s for sure right now, though, is the Honey Council won’t be doing anything with Ontario’s letter until the board meets to discuss it, he said.
Scarlett said he’s been the executive director at the Canadian council for five years and during that time there hasn’t been another request to replace the chair.
Provinces have, in the past, publicly discussed dropping out of the Honey Council at their provincial meetings, he said.
“It’s not unusual for there to be regional variances and regional opinions on matters,” he said.
About this dispute between Nixon and the Ontario beekeepers’ organization, Scarlett said he’d characterize it as “an airing of opinions in public.” BF
Comments
This stems from the OBA becoming nothing but a mouthpiece for environmentalists groups like the Sierra club and getting upset when other Provinces don't share their same views on bee health.
The OBA isn't a "mouthpiece" for anyone or anything and can handle its own affairs extremely-well, a point made crystal-clear by OBA President, Tibor Szabo, when, during last year's kerfluffle with the Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO), he accused GFO of using "deny, delay, distract" tactics, an accusation that completely-demolished whatever waning credibility GFO might have had at the time, and then some.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
Ontario has become a rogue Province when it comes to Bee health and it should come as no surprise if Mr. Szabo has them optioning out of the Canadian Honey Council.Maybe it a good idea, since they don't have the other Provinces support on many Bee health issues.
However they do have the Liberal Government and a bunch of environmentalists support and of course the urban media and l guess that's all that matters.
Stephen is right on the money on this one.
Stephen seems to have no interest in being right, only contrary
GFO asked for the science which takes time but they also asked members to put on dust deflectors , participate in studies and to communicate with bee keepers about when they would be planting so the bee keepers could themselves help their bees .
So how is it that GFO asking for the studies to be complete any different than todays story and the letter from Minister Leal to Farm Products Chair that states that a study must be done ?
Saying that "the OBA isn't a "mouthpiece" for anyone or anything" would be like saying that you are not a mouthpiece for those opposed to Supply Management . Makes no difference if I agree with you on SM or not .
seems like oba is the bully in the canadian hive
There is a story on page 14B of the Ontario Farmer this week that states the Varroa mite pesticides can be harmful to bees . Just might be that the Canadian Honey Council knows something . Also why are not all bee keepers having the same problems ? Neonics are used every where . Why is it just a problem for Ontario bee keepers ? If it is a dust issue because of the planters used here as compared to the west then an exhaust air filter system should be mandatory .
I wish that posters still trying to flog the varroa mite shibboleth had ignored the edict issued by the Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO) and had, instead, gone, as I did, to one of the round-table meetings where, completely by chance, I sat at a table with professional bee-keepers from two different apiaries in the London area and who make it abundantly clear that their many post-mortems all showed their bees died from neonics poisoning.
GFO, I suggest, didn't want (and still doesn't want) its members to hear directly from professional bee-keepers who know what they are talking about and who have something to say and, in this case said it well.
Throughout the entire neonics episode, GFO did everything horrribly-ineptly by adopting a "deny, delay, distract" policy, while OBA did everything right by stuck to one simple message - "Neonics are killing our bees".
Since farmers seem to be creatures of habit, and seem to adopt the same thought processes across sector lines, it appears highly-likely that any vegetable marketing consultation process will see vegetable farmers adopt similar "deny, delay, distract" tactics while the processors will unite, with one voice, and stick to one simple message - "single desk selling is killing our industry".
One would hope that all farmers would have learned from GFO's horrible bungling over neonics, but since it's rather obvious that grain farmers have learned nothing, it's not very likely, judging from their actions to date, that vegetable farmers have learned anything either.
GFO always asked for the science to be proven but never denied that neonics could attribute to the bee deaths . OFA too asked for the science to be proven after they realized that they really made a big mistake with the combined press release with Environment and Climate Change but really it was just a look good see what we asked for window dressing oops we screwed up after thought .
Any other livestock farmer would have his livestock taken away if they treated them as some beekeepers have and do . It has been proven that some were being starved by removing all or too much honey . Queen quality has also been recognized as a problem .
Now for the deny and distract , that is what bee keepers are & have been doing so now that you have been proven wrong , get over it already . And yes I did attend one of the round table gong show meetings .
The denial factor that trumps them all is that the high cost of wind electrons and wages in Ontario will eventually make Canadian processors move south of the border.
HELLO... the article is clearly about the OBA disagreeing with the Honey council not about veg farmers OFA, GFO, NFU, CFFO etc. It would appear you are mixing stories in order to deny and distract from the articles subject. The update of Aug. 16 states the issue at hand very clearly. Quote: “I throw out the questions to both sides. Why would the OBA (Ontario Beekeepers’ Association) continue membership in honey council but at the same, why does honey council continue allowing them as a member when (the two groups’) values don’t align.”
Nixon says there has been almost four years of the two groups having different values and “at what point in time do you say enough is enough and part ways? Maybe that’s not the answer, but I’m throwing it out there” as something for both sides to consider. END OF UPDATE
It's unfortunate that OBA and Glen Murray MOE minister will not work with Ontario farmers on resolving the issue. Using neonic treated corn and soys seed, I am treating about 25 square feet per acre. The alternative is spraying the entire 43560 square feet and killing all bugs - beneficial and harmful - not to mention impacting farmers and applicators health. Yes there is a problem with some planters so let's address that issue. There are a lot of OBA members who have left the organization because of the executives hard line stance.
Claiming that the Ontario Beekeepers Association (OBA) and Glen Murray, Ontario Minister of the Environment, "will not work with Ontario farmers" to resolve the neonics issue is not just the ultimate in chutzpah, it has things completely, and conveniently, backwards.
The only organization refusing to work with anyone regarding neonics has been, and continues to be, the Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO). After all,
(a) GFO told its members to boycott the public meetings claiming its message was "too important" to be diluted at this venue.
(b) GFO walked out of the further consultation process, thereby leaving the OFA to represent the interest of farmers.
(c) some GFO locals mounted a campaign to try to get the OFA to apologize for "betraying" GFO by not walking away from the government consultations when GFO did.
(d) GFO launched a lawsuit against the government
(e) when the lawsuit failed, GFO hired a consulting firm to document the "damage" caused by the new neonics legislation - there's almost no chance whatsoever that the consulting firm will ever be allowed to consider the benefits of increased bee health and financial benefits to beekeepers of this legislation thereby making this consultation just as much of a travesty as the many one-sided, pro-ethanol reports commissioned by GFO.
Finally, claiming that the executives of the OBA have a "hard line stance" is nonsense and pales by comparison to the ultra hard line stance that continues to this day at GFO.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
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