Another summer passes into history, though I suspect not one of our best ones. It certainly was busy for OGCA, as we dealt with numerous reports and appearances before various Government bodies: dealing with the Legalization of Marijuana, Stress as a compensable disease, Rate Groups, College of Trades, and our favorite, the Lien Act.
We continue to be very active on all these files and can add to that the debate over Community Benefits, planning the next OGCA Safety Awards event , Leadership Day, Safety accreditation, new proposed Federal Tax rules, the continued opposition to the City of Toronto‘s Reprisal Clauses, and other Tendering and Procurement problems.
We have received very good news on support for the League of Champions and we will be making that announcement shortly. CoR continues to expand and we expect many more announcements by owners of the requirement to be CoR certified.
Further on is a great story of how e-Solutions is making great inroads in providing electronic Tendering services to owners who recognize, as OGCA does, that any such system must work for all the parties if it is to be successful.
Coming up this month is a very special event being held here in Ontario as Canada hosts the Invictus Games. Launched in 2014, they are an international Paralympic-style multi-sport event founded by its Patron HRH Prince Harry (Henry of Wales). It serves as an event for wounded, injured armed services personnel and veterans to participate in a number of sports.
It is an on-going duty and responsibility for those of us who have benefited by the sacrifices made by these heroes to support and remember not just the wounded, but those who made the ultimate sacrifice so we can enjoy the freedoms we have today.
OGCA salutes these heroes and wishes them the best for a great time here in Ontario and at the games.
We are very proud of the many volunteers who are assisting in making this event possible and to our own Cheryl Brown, our accounting manager, who is volunteering.
The Games are named after the poem by Victorian poet William Ernest Henley (1849-1903). The next to last line is inscribed on the medals, "I AM THE MASTER OF MY FATE."
Lines from the poem were quoted by Winston Churchill and it was read by American POWS in North Vietnam. Here is the complete poem.
"Invictus"
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the
pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my
unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not
winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is
bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the
Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall
find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged
with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the
captain of my soul.