TORONTO -- The association representing Ontario's doctors is apologizing after some members expressed anger that female physicians were not represented in a calendar created by the group.
Ontario Medical Association chief executive officer Allan O'Dette apologized to the approximately 5,000 people within the associations' membership who received the calendar.
The OMA says it spent $15,000 to design, create and distribute the calendar, which was to be a snapshot of artifacts in its archives from the past 139 years. Several male physicians are represented on the pages of the calendar.
The association says it should have distributed a note to those who received the calendar explaining the context of the document and its purpose in featuring the archived items.
It also says female physicians comprise nine of 23 members on its current board of directors, including its president.
In a statement, the OMA says it is a champion for gender parity in Canadian medicine and "carries out research, advocacy and educational events to promote women in medicine and address issues facing female physicians."
Dr. Kulvinder Gill, president of Concerned Ontario Doctors, a group that has called for culture change at the association, was critical of the calendar.
"This wastes $15,000 on a paper calendar which physicians are not going to utilize and when physician members are struggling to keep their clinics open," she said.
