INTENDED
APPOINTMENTS
MARTHA MINOGUE-FIORINO
CONTENTS
Wednesday 25 November 1998
Subcommittee report
Intended appointments
Ms Martha Minogue-Fiorino
STANDING COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT AGENCIES
Chair / Présidente
Ms Frances Lankin (Beaches-Woodbine ND)
Vice-Chair / Vice-Président
Mr Rosario Marchese (Fort York ND)
Mr John Gerretsen (Kingston and The Islands / Kingston et Les Îles L)
Mr Michael Gravelle (Port Arthur L)
Mr Bill Grimmett (Muskoka-Georgian Bay / Muskoka-Baie-Georgienne PC)
Mr Bert Johnson (Perth PC)
Ms Frances Lankin (Beaches-Woodbine ND)
Mr Rosario Marchese (Fort York ND)
Mr Dan Newman (Scarborough Centre / -Centre PC)
Mr Joseph Spina (Brampton North / -Nord PC)
Mr R. Gary Stewart (Peterborough PC)
Substitutions / Membres remplaçants
Mr Toby Barrett (Norfolk PC)
Mrs Julia Munro (Durham-York PC)
Clerk pro tem / Greffier par intérim
Mr Douglas Arnott
Staff / Personnel
Mr David Pond, research officer, Legislative Research Service
The committee met at 1002 in room 228.
SUBCOMMITEE REPORT
The Chair (Ms Frances Lankin): I call the meeting to order. The first item of committee business on the agenda is to deal with the report of the subcommittee dated Thursday, November 12, 1998. May I have a motion to adopt that?
Mr Bill Grimmett (Muskoka-Georgian Bay): I so move.
The Chair: Mr Grimmett, thank you. Is there any discussion or debate? Seeing none, all those in favour, please indicate? Opposed? That's carried.
INTENDED APPOINTMENTS
MARTHA MINOGUE-FIORINO
Review of intended appointment, selected by official opposition party: Martha Minogue-Fiorino, intended appointee as member, Council of the College of Dental Technologists of Ontario.
The Chair: The next order of business is the interview of the intended appointment to the Council of the College of Dental Technologists of Ontario, Martha Minogue-Fiorino. Welcome. It's nice to see you here. If you have any opening comments that you would like to make to the committee, please feel free to do so at this time.
Ms Martha Minogue-Fiorino: Good morning, Madam Chair and members of this committee. I would like to begin by thanking you for giving me this opportunity to appear before you to tell you a little about myself and to answer any queries you may have regarding my proposed appointment to the College of Dental Technologists.
I'm a resident of Amherstburg, which is a small, historic town of 20,000 souls situated on the scenic shores of Lake Erie and the Detroit River. I am a freelance conference interpreter. I'm a member of the International Association of Conference Interpreters and the Canadian association. I've been working in this profession over 20 years, since 1977. My language combination is English, French, Spanish and Italian.
At the outset of my career, I selected medicine as my specialization, partly because I was interested in the field of medicine and also because there is quite a shortage of interpreters specialized in that field, which is quite difficult. I have worked there considerably, at various international medical conferences relating to various branches of medicine. I was fortunate to be on the list of various international organizations, UN agencies, European institutions, and I've worked for a number of government bodies and ministries.
My assignment at the UN agency in Rome, the FAO, the Food and Agricultural Organization, gave me an understanding of many issues, for instance, issues pertaining to the eradication of hunger, deforestation, environmental issues, trade, emergency aid, relief of different sorts.
I have also worked considerably for the Council of Europe. This is a European institution with close to 50 member states. I was recruited on a fairly regular basis at meetings up to ministerial level. I've done various meetings for this organization of ministers of labour, ministers of justice, ministers of the environment etc. I have also been recruited to work at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
I have acquired a certain understanding of law as a result of my work since the 1980s for UNIDROIT, an international organization for the unification of private law. This organization drafts international legal instruments and legal conventions on a variety of issues in the private law sector. Its last diplomatic conference, for which I organized the interpretation services, was held in Rome in 1994. It was attended by some 168 states and dealt with the adoption of an international convention on the protection of and restitution of stolen and illegally exported cultural objects.
I've also worked extensively for Vatican institutions that deal with social issues and international relief. I've worked for justice and peace, the Pontifical Council for the Laity and the Pontifical Missionary Societies, so that has given me some insight into social issues.
My work in Canada has mostly been in connection with NAFTA meetings and various international meetings held throughout the country.
I would like to tell you a little about my volunteer work and my involvement in the community. I am a volunteer at the Windsor refugee centre, and there I assist individuals who don't speak English or speak very little English. I help to explain to them matters pertaining to their application or to their appeal or the rejection of their appeal, and I usually accompany them to various appointments in different parts of the city.
I have also been involved in the planning and setting up of the Windsor children's health care network. This network stemmed from the initiative of a local well-known pediatrician who thought it was important to put under the same roof a number of integrated health care services for emotionally disturbed children and children in distress.
I'm also a member of the school council at the school that my son attends. I've been instrumental in promoting a number of initiatives in this new school council. I was appointed by the Amherstburg municipal council to the recreation committee, the Ranta marina committee, and the local architectural advisory committee. These are non-remunerated positions. I'm particularly interested in the architectural committee, because I have a keen interest in the protection and conservation of cultural property.
As to my own personal interests and leisure time activities, I enjoy music, I play the harp, I sing in the church choir and I'm an avid reader.
With that, I hope I've given you some idea about myself.
The Chair: Thank you very much, Ms Minogue-Fiorino. We will begin questioning with the New Democratic Party.
Mr Rosario Marchese (Fort York): Welcome, Ms Minogue-Fiorino to this committee. I've got to tell you, I am always fascinated by those who are able to do simultaneous translations. Although I studied French and became a teacher of French and English, I always found it difficult to do translations. It takes a great deal of work and skill to be able to do that. How did you find that work in the beginning?
1010
Ms Minogue-Fiorino: I was interested in languages because I had studied French and Spanish in primary and secondary school. I came to know more a little more about this sector of interpretation. I pursued my studies; I studied to train for simultaneous interpreter up to the age of 26.
Mr Marchese: Was it difficult, is the question I asked.
Ms Minogue-Fiorino: Yes, extremely difficult. It is, as you said yourself, quite a difficult profession; it demands a great deal of concentration. You have to have quite a good general knowledge of various issues: economic issues, social issues, a whole variety. You need quite a good general knowledge. You have to read extensively, keep preparing a lot of documentation all the time.
Mr Marchese: I just find that if I have to interpret for someone as they speak, it's really very complicated. You get lost immediately. Does that ever happen to you?
Ms Minogue-Fiorino: That's part of our training. You're forced to listen very carefully and speak at the same time. It's just a matter of training, like many other professions.
Mr Marchese: Your involvement in those organizations that you list at the back, international organizations, was mostly as an interpreter?
Ms Minogue-Fiorino: It was exclusively as an interpreter.
Mr Marchese: Do you do translations as well?
Ms Minogue-Fiorino: I do a small amount of actual written translation work. It only accounts for about 5% or 10% of my actual work.
Mr Marchese: OK, so it's mostly interpretation. As you interpret in those meetings, do you find that you also remember what you interpret or not?
Ms Minogue-Fiorino: First of all, before you go into a meeting you usually have to spend a number of days, at least; depending on the intricacies of the subject matter, you have to spend numerous days, sometimes a week or two weeks, preparing voluminous technical documentation, because you can't go in ignorant of the subject matter. You can't interpret correctly unless you're fairly familiar with all the background documentation. You have to prepare for it. You do, obviously, gain a certain understanding of these issues, too, at the meeting.
Mr Marchese: You said as part of your introduction that you had an interest in the medical, either research or medicine generally, and you did medical interpreting -- a great deal of that?
Ms Minogue-Fiorino: A great deal. I usually did between two and three medical conferences a month.
Mr Marchese: Your interest in this College of Dental Technologists is interesting to me as well. It wouldn't be something that I would find very exciting. Even a word like "fabricating" is almost a turnoff. How did you find this interest in this particular college?
Ms Minogue-Fiorino: I did not apply for that specific position. I didn't apply for any specific position. I indicated my interest in an appointment, in serving on a board, and I was proposed for the College of Dental Technologists.
Mr Marchese: So somebody talked to you about this particular college in terms of an interest?
Ms Minogue-Fiorino: No. I was called and told that I'd been proposed for the College of Dental Technologists on the basis of my --
Mr Marchese: Called by whom?
Ms Minogue-Fiorino: By an individual at the public appointments office.
Mr Marchese: That's great. Can I ask you -- it's of interest to me, because while the New Democrats were in government, we used to worry about appointing New Democrats because we knew that Liberals and Tories would haul all the New Democrats in as soon as they smelled a potential New Democratic Party member. Under Bob Rae, we were very cautious about how many people we appointed who might have had social democratic leanings. In fact, probably 90% we appointed were their buddies or their buddies over here, but it didn't seem to matter. These folks here seem to like to appoint only Tory types of appointments. Just as a question, how do you feel about that?
Ms Minogue-Fiorino: How do I feel about --
Mr Marchese: About the fact that the Conservative government members are unabashedly fearless in their appointment simply of Tory types of candidates most of the time. Would that bother you?
Ms Minogue-Fiorino: Are 100% of the appointees put forward by the government?
Mr Marchese: Well, the appointments are made by the ministries, of course, and I would say that 99% of them are very much affiliated with the Conservative Party. How do you feel about that?
Ms Minogue-Fiorino: I think what's important are the qualifications of the individual and that the individual has an interest in making a contribution in serving the public interest. I think that's what matters most of all, regardless of who they are put forward by.
Mr Marchese: I just wanted your personal opinion in that regard, not to question your own skills, because I find you very qualified to do the job. I wish you the best in this appointment. I think you'll do very well.
The Chair: Thank you very much. We'll move to the government members.
Mr Grimmett: Good morning, Mrs Fiorino. Welcome. The question about the dental technologists -- I wonder if you've had any interaction with people in that field.
Ms Minogue-Fiorino: Personal interaction: not prior to my proposed appointment, because dental technologists, from what I gather, deal directly with dentists. So there's no relationship between a public individual and a dental technologist when they require some dental work. My only contact, following up on my proposed appointment, was with the registrar of the college to gain a little information pertaining to the college and its activities.
Mr Grimmett: So you've done that and you have some understanding of the responsibilities this job would have.
Ms Minogue-Fiorino: Yes indeed.
Mr Grimmett: Do you see any possible problem with your current work schedule?
Ms Minogue-Fiorino: No, because as a freelancer, I'm free to accept assignments or to refuse them. This isn't a profession that you can perform every day. In fact, most interpreters work between 80 and 100 days a year.
Mr Grimmett: I'm sure the board would be enthusiastic about having a harpist come on board. I just wondered if any of your background in the community might -- I'd like to have your view on whether that might put you in a position to provide a different view than perhaps is on the board now. Have you had any opportunity to talk to people on the board as to what your background might be able to help them with?
Ms Minogue-Fiorino: No. I've had absolutely no opportunity to do that. I was just made aware very recently of this proposed appointment, so I've not had an opportunity to speak or meet with anyone.
The Chair: We move to the Liberal Party.
Mr Michael Gravelle (Port Arthur): Good morning, Ms Minogue-Fiorino. Your professional background is really impressive. Your activities in a personal sense, in terms of your involvement in the community, are marvellous. It does lead one -- I think Mr Marchese was referring to it as well -- to wonder why you weren't being appointed to some other organization where some of the activities you've been involved in would apply. Did you indicate to someone that you were interested in serving in some capacity? May I ask you who it was? Or did you indicate it to anybody?
Ms Minogue-Fiorino: I submitted an application and my resumé to the department responsible for public appointments. I didn't request any specific vacancy or any specific post.
Mr Gravelle: I take it, then, that you're quite happy to be placed in this particular position. I don't want to, by any means, minimize the importance of this board and agency. It just does not seem to be one, necessarily -- although, with your background in terms of translation for medical, it makes some sense. In that sense, you're quite happy to be appointed to this position?
Ms Minogue-Fiorino: Yes. It gives me an opportunity to serve and to serve in a new area. It would be a new interest for me. Yes, I am interested indeed.
Mr Gravelle: I must admit, you will be well qualified. Have you got a sense of what it is that you want to accomplish in terms of your time on this board?
Ms Minogue-Fiorino: I certainly want to make a contribution and I want to ensure that the interests of the public are served. I'd like to make sure that matters are handled with fairness and integrity when it comes to decision-making. I'd like to make sure that the interests of the public are taken into due account.
Mr Gravelle: Thank you very much. I wish you well.
The Chair: Ms Minogue-Fiorino, we appreciate your joining us here today. The committee will now be taking a decision with respect to this. Thank you.
Mr Marchese: I move concurrence, Madam Chair.
The Chair: OK, we have a motion for concurrence in the intended appointment of Ms Martha Minogue-Fiorino as an intended appointee to the Council of College of Dental Technologists of Ontario. Is there any discussion or debate?
Mr Toby Barrett (Norfolk): I ask for a recorded vote, please.
The Chair: Any further discussion or debate? Seeing none, all those in favour, please indicate.
Ayes
Barrett, Gravelle, Grimmett, Marchese, Munro, Newman, Stewart.
The Chair: Thank you. That's unanimous. That's carried.
Again, we appreciate your joining us and taking the time today. Good luck. I hope you enjoy your appointment.
Ms Minogue-Fiorino: Thank you very much.
The committee adjourned at 1019.