New Brunswick hires former U.S. ambassador as softwood envoy
FREDERICTON — The New Brunswick government has appointed a former U.S. ambassador to Canada as the province’s special envoy on the softwood trade dispute.
David Wilkins served as ambassador to Canada from 2005 to 2009, when George W. Bush was president.
During his term, Wilkins helped resolve an earlier dispute over softwood lumber, which the province says won support from most of the Canadian lumber industry.
“Softwood lumber is an important product that New Brunswick businesses export and American families need,” Premier Brian Gallant said in a statement Friday. “We must continue to communicate this to decision makers in the U.S., and that is exactly what Mr. Wilkins will help us do.”
A lawyer and former state legislator from South Carolina, Wilkins now leads an international law practice group with a focus on U.S.Canada interests.
As New Brunswick’s envoy, he will promote business, provide advice to the government and act as a lobbyist in the trade dispute.
“It has always been evident to me that New Brunswick and the United States have a very strong and mutually beneficial trading relationship,” Wilkins said in the government statement. “I am honoured to work in support of that relationship in Washington.”
Last month, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced it would subject Canadian lumber imports to tariffs ranging from three to 24 per cent, saying Canadian producers have an unfair advantage because they can charge less for wood that comes from Crown land.
Provincial governments in Atlantic Canada have warned that the duties could lead to mill closures and lost jobs.
“The duty imposed is unfair, particularly to the employees, families and communities caught in the middle,” said Rick Doucet, New Brunswick’s resource development minister. “I want those families to know that we will continue to bring that message forward at every opportunity, alongside our partners in the federal government.”
It’s the fifth time since 1981 that Canada and the U.S. have sparred over softwood, and Canada has prevailed every time it has challenged the U.S. through the North American Free Trade Agreement, the World Trade Organization or in the U.S. court system.
Last month, New Brunswick called for negotiations to ensure softwood lumber from the Maritimes is granted an exemption from countervailing duties. During previous trade disputes, the region was granted exemptions.
New Brunswick has also set up a task force, assembled from 11 government departments. As well, it has organized trade missions to Europe and China later this year to expand markets for its softwood products.
TORONTO — An Ontario man who worked as a sexual surrogate as well as a therapist has been denied certification as a psychotherapist after two regulatory bodies found there wasn’t enough separation between his two practices.
Earlier this month, the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board upheld an earlier ruling by a committee from the College of Registered Psychotherapists and Registered Mental Health Therapists of Ontario refusing to grant the man grandfathered certification.
The college was established in 2015 and gave existing practitioners two years to apply to have their qualifications recognized in order to keep working.
The man, whose name has not been made public, is trained and practises as a psychotherapist and also serves as an intimacy coach and surrogate partner, a role that may involve sexual contact and possibly intercourse, the board’s decision said.
Sexual relations between a psychotherapist and a patient are prohibited and considered sexual abuse, the board noted.
In his application to the college committee, the man said he maintained a clear separation between his two services — an argument neither the committee nor the board accepted.
He said new clients would come in for a consultation during which the appropriate form of treatment — psychotherapy or intimacy coaching — would be determined, the board’s decision noted.
Some psychotherapy clients may eventually transition to his other services but only after being referred to another therapist, who would then refer them back to the man, he explained, according to the decision.
“The applicant submits that his motive is not to exploit former patients for his personal pleasure, rather it is to offer a valid healing alternative to patients,” it read.
“He submits that if his purpose was to have sexual contact for his own pleasure, he would not choose the most shy, inexperienced, anxious, fearful, conflicted or ambivalent, traumatized, sexually dysfunctional, or otherwise unattractive people he could find, and then intentionally await permission from an independent third party to whom he would report his activities.”
The college committee said that the initial consultation was already part of the psychotherapy process, and that the possibility of the man having sexual relationships with recent psychotherapy patients was unacceptable.
The board that finding.
“Clients in an initial consultation that could lead to psychotherapy or another service are receiving a psychotherapy service,” it said. “Clients that receive psychotherapy and then go to another psychotherapist for referral back to the applicant for sexual services or intimacy coaching could not be considered to be fully independent of the applicant’s psychotherapy practice.”
In his appeal, the man had suggested his application was rejected due to bias from religious or conservative members of the committee, but the board rejected that argument, saying there was no evidence to support it.