MANITOBAN Psychologist sues U of M and Shared Health Milan Lukes, staff included the misreporting of studies and data, employees providing services they are not qualified to deliver and other issues impacting patient care. One month after filing the complaint, Keiski was placed on administrative leave without cause, according to the statement of claim. “The only reasonable explanation she was aware of was that she was being terminated for fulfilling her professional and ethical obligations by making her complaint,” states the lawsuit. “The decision to terminate her employment was retaliatory,” claims the lawsuit, and that the employers’ conduct was “harsh, vindictive, reprehensible, malicious and
deserving of judicial condemnation.” Keiski holds a PhD in clinical psychology — specializing in neuropsychology — and was recruited from Kingston, Ont., to jointly work as an assistant professor with the university and as a psychologist for Shared Health. Her term position started in October 2021 and was to end in June of this year. At the U of M, Keiski was to teach at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She was also responsible for administrative roles pertaining to governance, policy formation, curriculum planning and program implementation. With Shared Health, Cont’d p. 4 / Keiski
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clinical psychologist hired to care for sick youths is suing the U of M and Shared Health, claiming that she was wrongfully dismissed after she made a complaint relating to patient care. In the lawsuit filed in the Court of King’s Bench on Nov. 7, Dr. Michelle Keiski said that she was “pressured to engage in misconduct and other violations of professional standards.” According to the lawsuit, Keiski filed a complaint with the Psychological Association of Manitoba in September 2022 to raise concern over issues at the Max Rady college of medicine, including the clinical health psychology department. These issues
U of M begins search for next chancellor Nominations open for the position of chancellor Ngozi Okose, staff The U of M has officially opened nominations for the position of the office of chancellor. Nominations are being accepted from Nov. 4 until Nov. 26, 2024 at 4 p.m. The chancellor search committee was established under the 2011 election of the chancellor policy which oversees the nomination process and recommends a candidate to the committee of election for final approval. The chancellor search committee comprises of the chair of the board of governors, the university president, vice-president (external), secretary, three elected members of the senate (non-students), two elected members of the board of governors, one undergraduate and one graduate student elected by the senate and two members of the U of M alumni association nominated by the alumni association. The new chancellor will begin a threeyear term on June 1, 2025,
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succeeding Chancellor Anne Mahon, whose tenure ends on May 31, 2025, after two terms of service. Chancellor Mahon has previously announced that she will not be seeking another term. The chancellor, a volunteer role at the U of M, is the ceremonial head of the university, confers degrees and participates as a voting member of the board of governors and the senate. The chancellor represents the university, provides advice, leads and contributes to its governance and development. Under the University of Manitoba Act, the chancellor is elected by the committee of election and serves for a three-year term initially, after which one can seek for re-election as there is no limit on the number of terms a person may serve as chancellor at the U of M. The committee of election is composed of all the voting members of the board of governors and the senate. Nominators for the chancel-
5 Editorial
lor position include members and assessors of the board of governors and the senate, students, academic and support staff, alumni and the chancellor search committee. Nomination forms are available online and must be signed by five eligible nominators and submitted by the deadline. Candidates must also provide a curriculum vitae and a brief biographical sketch of two pages or less. After nominations close, the search committee will evaluate submissions and make a recommendation. The committee of election will select the chancellor through a secret ballot, with the results announced after the nominee accepts the role. For more information on the chancellor nomination process, contact Jeff Leclerc, the university secretary, at 204-474-6167 or via email at Jeff.Leclerc@umanitoba.ca.
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University reviews Bisons and recreation brands Taycie Adeoti, staff The U of M announced a major initiative to re-evaluate its sports and recreation brands, including the Bisons — which have not been updated in nearly 25 years, Mini U programs, junior Bisons and U of M recreation services. According to a university-wide email that was sent to the community on Oct. 23, the review process will assess the relevance of the sports and recreation brands to today’s students and the university’s community, while ensuring alignment with the institutional brand introduced in 2019. Douglas Brown, dean of the faculty of kinesiology and recreation management stated that the reason for this initiative “is because the university as a whole has gone through a brand reimagining, renewal over the last three or four years.” However, he clarified some confusion surrounding the topic. “We are not changing the brand,” Brown said. “You can’t simply change a brand, overnight, so we’re really viewing this as a sort of an exploration of how impactful our current branding is.” He continued, “I don’t want people to be confused that the Bison logo is the brand — the brand is about the people, the values and about what we do.” Brown also addressed certain perceptions surrounding the renewal. He said, “I’d like the renewal to make sense, if there are adaptations or changes to the current logo or other symbols associated with it — I’d like it to make sense within the context of what the university is doing as a whole.” Furthermore, Brown expressed that he recognizes the strong bond that current students, alumni and sport members have built with the current Bisons brand and
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logos. He added, “our alumni are very important, and we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors, so any renewal has to make sense within that historical context.” However, the reality is that symbols associated with sports change consistently. He said, “if you look at [professional] sports and the iconography around them, it’s always evolving in some way or another, and that would be my goal, is to see our brand evolve, not stop and start.” Brown hopes that the renewal of the brand is embraced among students, staff and the overall university community in their environment. He said, “I’d like students to go, ‘I love the way the University of Manitoba is being represented. I love this, or I love that, or I feel connected to this.’” When asked how he would measure the success of the new brand, Brown said “it will be a measure that we get from the community, people who are either thumbs up, ‘we like that,’ or ‘we don’t get it,’ or ambivalence. I think the worst thing would be ambivalence, that people [have] no reaction. It’s hard to work with ambivalence.” An online survey that closed on Nov. 3 was conducted to gather insight about the university’s sports and recreation brands. To stay up to date with the brand review initiative, visit umanitoba.ca/about-um/ b r a n d /r e i m a g i n i n g - u m sport-and-recreation-brands during the upcoming months for updates.
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MAiD in Canada
Radical kindness
Sleep before study
Winnipeg’s double win
Bisons beat Bobcats
Study explores underlying reasons for MAiD requests
Make Kindness Great Again
Your health comes first
Sinclair and Undi win literary awards
Nail-biting volleyball victory
November 20, 2024
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VOL. 111, NO. 14