On Thursday, March 23rd, 2023, the president of MAAC sent this email out to the membership. It is so biased and inaccurate that we present here a commentary on it.
In past communications, I’ve described our relationship with Transport Canada and NAV CANADA as cordial and cooperative. All three entities want the same thing; for MAAC to continue representing model aircraft hobbyists in Canada.
We are quite sure that neither NavCan nor Transport Canada have any opinion about who should continue to support model aircraft hobbyists in Canada. If they did have such an opinion, we are equally sure that, as a government agency, they would not express their preference.
If the writer had expressed that these three entities have a single common aim – the safety of aviation and the public – then that would have been a justifiable claim. Even so, the three parties should, if they represent their constituencies properly, each bring a completely different perspective to the discussion.
On Tuesday morning, I was about to call my counterpart at NAV CANADA to discuss restarting discussions on access to controlled airspace when my counterpart at Transport Canada called to share some conversations that happened at a regular meeting between the NAV CANADA and Transport Canada teams. Here are the notes I took from that call:
Clubs and members have contacted NAV CANADA to initiate agreements for controlled airspace access. Their ‘applications’ demonstrate that ‘they have poor knowledge of airspace’, in our contact’s words. NAV CANADA thinks this shows how unready MAAC is to be taken seriously to operate in controlled airspace.
It is interesting that Transport Canada is apparently telling MAAC what NavCan thinks. It is also interesting that NavCan apparently thinks that the knowledge that they bring to the table should already be in the possession of those on the other side of the table. We wonder if anyone thinks that Transport Canada and NavCan shouldn’t be there because they do not bring an intimate knowledge of every single facet of flying model aircraft to the table.
TC has received multiple ATIP (Access to Information) requests asking who knew what and when related to the 2019 exemption and the MAAC / TC relationship. Our contact surmises these ATIP requesters are trying to build a case against the MAAC leadership.
We wonder why (and if) a Transport Canada representative is ‘surmising’ about the motivations behind public ATIP requests. The fact, of course, is that the members are asking those questions because they do not believe what they are told by MAAC’s leadership – with very good reason.
These ATIP requests must be processed and consume TC resources. (The last ATIP request concerning MAAC took over a year to process). Our contact characterized this as ‘sand in the gearbox’.
That may very well be – but it is a part of being in government service today and is inappropriate of a government employee to complain about it.
Our contact said, “It doesn’t look good for the organization”.
Very perceptive of the ‘contact’ – it certainly doesn’t look good for the organization. The reason it doesn’t look good is that it is a true reflection of MAAC under the current leadership – and that is NOT GOOD!
Our contact reiterated that MAAC needs an enforcement process to take action against individuals and club leadership that don’t adhere to MAAC policies and procedures, which he described as ‘not optional’. Enforcement is essential to regaining credibility and building a new exemption.
No question about it – but a ‘kangaroo court’ that lays blame where it isn’t due, a leadership that refuses to accept responsibility for its own inadequacies, a process that resembles the Spanish Inquisition – these are not the things that will regain any credibility for MAAC. In Canadian society law enforcement must be aimed at rehabilitation, not punishment. We do not burn someone at the stake for holding different views from our own (at least, most of us don’t think that is right). We insist on the accused’s right to hear and respond to the charges against him, we insist upon evidence. This Board, by its recent actions, has tried to manufacture a scapegoat in order to distract from the fact that it is its own dereliction of duty that caused the crisis we are in. TC and NavCan know this. Credibility will not be regained by attempting to whitewash the facts and manufacturing evidence against the wrongfully accused.
No Contact Requests
In several earlier communications, I have asked the members to refrain from contacting Transport Canada or NAV CANADA and keep discussions internal with MAAC. Despite members claiming this request was ‘censorship’ and ‘undemocratic’, there was good reason to ask for your support. We were and are entering a sensitive period of discussions with our aviation partners. We need to demonstrate that MAAC is a unified and cohesive organization and that these entities can deal with MAAC confidently and in good faith.
This is farcical. Canadian citizens have the right to contact their governments about any matter of government activity that concerns them. MAAC cannot ask its members to give up that right. MAAC’s leadership needs to understand that, when it misleads its members, when it refuses to apprise them of pertinent facts concerning the future of the recreational activity that their association is supposed to protect for them, those members will look elsewhere for facts. If the members are not satisfied with the leadership that they have – that is not the members’ fault, it is the leadership’s fault.
There are no “discussions internal with MAAC”. That is precisely the problem! No dissension of any sort is allowed, no discussion of alternatives. If the members had been asked to provide a list of existing flying fields none of this would have occurred. Instead, a stone wall of secrecy.
We cannot “..demonstrate that MAAC is a unified and cohesive organization…” because it most clearly is not! MAAC’s current leadership is out of touch with its membership – and clearly wishes to purge its membership of all dissent. Totalitarian regimes can get away with that (for a while at least) but it has no place in a recreational association in a free and democratic country.
Working against the interests of MAAC
Now it is plain to see that the actions of some members are damaging MAAC’s ability to work in good faith with our two principal aviation partners towards new agreements. Through their contacts with NAV CANADA and TC ATIP requests, these members are working against the interests of the greater membership who want to return to flying.
This is equally farcical. There are no members working against the interests of the greater membership. In response to the question “Does Transport Canada require that no member of MAAC, other than a single named contact, be allowed to communicate with either Transport Canada or NavCan on matters relating to the operation of model aircraft in Canada? The answer received from Transport Canada was “ Any Canadian is welcome to reach out to TC for questions or to engage in the regulatory development process.” It is quite clear that simply by contacting Transport Canada or NavCan no member of the association can be claimed to have been ‘working against the interests of the greater membership”. It is interesting that Mr. Anderson chose those particular words in his message – and emphasized them in bold face. Let us look at the words of clause 12 of the By-Laws – the iniquitous clause that has recently been used to railroad a blameless ex-director of MAAC. The clause reads, in part, as a reason for the Board to suspend a person’s membership “carrying out any conduct which may be detrimental to the Corporation as determined by the board in its sole discretion; ”. There is a clear threat here that any member who in any way attempts to thwart the will of the Board, regardless of cause or justification, will be prevented from practicing their hobby. For Mr. Anderson it is “My way, or the Highway!” The majority of members of this association should find this to be a despicable misuse of power and an entirely inappropriate attitude on the part of its leadership.
In addition to not helping with our efforts to secure better agreements, dealing with these issues, like writing messages to members, takes hours away from working towards getting our members back in the air to enjoy their hobby. It’s a huge time-wasting distraction, and it must stop.
What must stop is the leadership of this recreational association misleading its members and making threats against them.
Choices
We’ve been tolerant of ‘alternate’ approaches and viewpoints in the past. Now it’s different. In any large member-based organization, factions may feel wronged or mistreated or want whatever leadership team is in place to go away. These actions sabotage efforts to secure a better future for most members who want to enjoy their hobby. These members have a choice: support the program and the leadership team and stand down or take up a new hobby outside of MAAC.
Again – “My way, or the Highway!”. As for the leadership of this association having been “tolerant” is that supposed to be a joke? So, under the Mike Anderson regime, if we don’t agree with what he is doing, or how he is doing it, or even if we just want to find out whether what he tells us is the truth, we should either simply give up any hope of encouraging MAAC to be operated properly or else give up the recreational pursuit that we have enjoyed and helped build for decades – some of us since before he was born – and find another activity to enjoy. That is the Mike Anderson method of leadership.
Staying the course
Despite these occasional setbacks, we keep going because, to quote Winston Churchill, “When you’re going through hell … keep going.” Your leadership team remains energized and dedicated to the task at hand; to get as many of our members flying again as possible. The groundwork has been laid and is about to pay dividends. Please don’t let our efforts be in vain.
If the efforts turn out to be in vain it will be because they were vain efforts – not because of anything that any of the other members of this association, outside the SAG and the TCAG, have done.
Latest SOC update
The review program is working. As of Wednesday evening, we’ve issued 142 Site Operating Certificates for sites in uncontrolled airspace outside of three nautical miles of aerodromes. Soon we’ll start issuing SOCs for sites inside three nautical miles of an aerodrome.
The program is not working. The program was never necessary. The total flying ban was never necessary. None of this should have happened. None of it would have happened if the leadership of this association had done the job properly that they were elected to do.
Model Aviation Canada
The 2023 January/February edition of Model Aviation Canada has been cancelled. So many fast-moving and demanding changes have affected our operating regime that we couldn’t pin down anyone for contributions. Look for a February/March issue coming soon.
Mike Anderson, President (president@maac.ca)