Hosted by Honourable Matt Wiebe, Minister of Justice and Attorney General, this 90-minute session invited representatives from the labour movement to continue the discussion on Manitoba’s social challenges, with the goal to generate recommendations to mitigate risks to workers and members of the public.

During the event, we discussed possible solutions to workplace violence; gender-based violence; retail crime; mental health challenges and addictions; lack of affordable housing and homelessness. Thank you to our inspiring tablemates from UFCW Local 832, CUPE Manitoba, Manitoba Teachers Society and Canadian Labour Congress – Congrès du travail du Canada for a great discussion.

At the close of the Premier’s summit in the spring, Minister Wiebe committed to releasing a public safety strategy early in the fall. MAHCP looks forward to seeing commitments in the strategy to address escalating violence and improve personal safety in Manitoba’s health-care facilities.

As a fellow participant stated during the roundtable: “We approached our discussion today from the perspective that desperate people do desperate things. We need to improve access to support and resources to address the root causes of crime and rising violence. We can only do that by increasing funding to frontline agencies and accepting as taxpayers that there will be costs to that investment.”

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MAHCP members from all over the province were recognized by the minister and Legislative Assembly, receiving multiple standing ovations for their contributions to care, their expertise, resilience and fortitude.

Minister Asagwara shared beautiful remarks about allied health’s value to a strong and sustainable system, and expressed gratitude for the roles our members play throughout the patient journey.

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Fast-forward to February 2024, and Aylin has joined the MAHCP team as a Labour Relations Officer to support a segment of our membership’s large laboratory technology and diagnostic imaging portfolio.

“I’ve been working in HR and Labour Relations for 18 years, which includes seven years in the health care sector and the last four years in emergency care. Moving into a Labour Relations Officer role felt like the right next step in my career, and MAHCP has a great reputation. The union is dedicated to listening to and supporting its members. It’s important to me to be in a position to champion and take care of others, and I will really pride myself on doing that here with the work we conduct as LRO’s.”

As a busy mom to two soccer-playing boys (ages 12 and 9), Aylin loves spending time with her family, and remains active with hot yoga, boxing and aqua Zumba.

“Family is everything to me. I enjoy parenting my children, who are a beautiful blend of European ethnicities, with my spouse, a proud Canadian-Italian, and we are all very active in the community.”

Aylin’s parents immigrated to Canada just under 50 years ago from Cyprus, and they were disciplined and hard-working. They were dedicated to raising their two daughters to be proud of their diverse heritage: Cypriot Turkish, Cypriot Greek, Iranian, German and Egyptian.

“My father was a large animal veterinarian prior to immigrating to Canada. He practiced for about eight years in Canada, and then switched careers and worked as a first-class power engineer for school division #1 for more than 20 years. My mother was a heavy-duty seamstress for most of her working life, then became a caretaker with the school division. They are both now enjoying retirement, albeit in very different ways. My dad is active while my mom fills her days with heavy and drama-filled Turkish TV dramas.”

Aylin says her parents taught her to embrace the beauty in the differences she possesses, and that they very much influenced the way she treats others.

“They instilled tolerance, patience and kindness, and taught me to treat others with respect and dignity. Being multicultural, I was fortunate to be exposed to all sorts of music, food, religion and travel. I am thankful that I had opportunities as a child and young adult to travel to different parts of the world to meet family and experience different ways of living.”

Although Aylin chose not to complete the nursing degree, she doesn’t have any regrets.

“I changed my path and focused on obtaining a Human Resources education instead. I am a firm believer that things happened for a reason. I was meant to start working towards a career in nursing, as somehow it connected me to my path in HR and Labour Relations. Sometimes, life takes surprising turns.”

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Blaine completed his first two years of law school at UM’s Robson Hall online during the height of the pandemic. “I literally only met my classmates in person for the first time at the start of year three.”

During his time with MAHCP, Blaine has been researching precedent, digging into collective agreements, and offering interpretations on clauses, as the majority of our members begin to live out their recently ratified collective agreements (July 2023).

“It has been great to have Blaine here,” said Jake, who joined MAHCP in 2012. “He is a very proficient legal researcher. He has a quick grasp of the legal issues involved in most of the legal questions we deal with, and he is a very good writer. Plus, he has a positive attitude and a great sense of humour.”

According to Blaine, who did his undergraduate degree in Political Science at Ontario’s University of Waterloo during the fascinating era of Donald Trump’s U.S. presidency, employment law suits him.

“I find labour law challenging and interesting, and I could practice for either side: employers or unions. When you go through law school, you have to take constitutional law – I did NOT like that at all – as well as family law, real estate, corporate and criminal. Many of my classmates jumped at articling opportunities with private firms and some of them already knew lawyers who planned to take them on. When I saw the MAHCP articling opportunity, it jumped right to the top of my list.”

Blaine says the next step for him will be the call to the bar in Manitoba, which unlike other jurisdictions, doesn’t include a harrowing exam.

“In Manitoba, in order to be called to the bar, law grads must article for a year and complete a year of course work, which culminates in a week-long capstone project. This serves as a larger demonstration of our knowledge. Once I complete that successfully, I can practice as a lawyer!”

Blaine loves sports of all kinds, and played high level, competitive hockey until university. Growing up, he also dabbled in basketball, soccer, baseball, lacrosse, football and volleyball, and has recently taken up taunting MAHCP’s diehard Winnipeg Jets fans with his light-blue Toronto Maple Leafs jersey.

“I have really been enjoying my time here with this fun and dedicated team, and I have learned so much from Jake,” said Blaine. “I don’t know where I will end up after my articling is complete in June, but MAHCP has been a great experience for me.”

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