Inclusion Policy

As a condition of membership, members of the Dental Industry Association of Canada (DIAC) are required to certify that they are “in compliance with all federal, provincial, and local laws, by laws, rules and regulations as established from time to time by the competent legal and regulatory authorities in Canada” (THE CERTIFICATION).

Committees of DIAC, including but not limited to the Technorama Committee, are required to obtain the same CERTIFICATION from all companies – member companies or non-member companies, foreign companies or domestic companies – in order to exhibit products at any DIAC-sponsored event.

Because DIAC is a voluntary industry association and not a competent regulatory authority, it is necessary to stipulate the precise conditions and processes that must be followed by all officers, directors and committee members of DIAC in addressing violations of a CERTIFICATION.

 Section 1 – Non-Discrimination

1. All DIAC officers, directors and committee members are prohibited from uttering, proclaiming or disseminating policies or procedures that are discriminatory against any member or class of member, or any participant or identifiable class of participant at a DIAC-sponsored event, and in particular, any class of participant by virtue of its business model or domicile.
2. All DIAC officers, directors and committee members are prohibited from engaging in CERTIFICATION enforcement proceedings targeted at any identifiable class of members or any identifiable class of participants at DIAC-sponsored events to the exclusion of other classes.
3. All CERTIFICATION enforcement proceedings must be applied to all members and participants at DIAC-sponsored events on a fair, equal and transparent basis.
4. Nothing in this Policy Statement shall preclude the Board of Directors or any Committee of the Board of Directors from restricting access to a DIAC-sponsored event to member companies only, or from any pricing of DIAC-sponsored events that provide DIAC member companies with favorable pricing, provided that there is no discrimination between and among DIAC members, or between and among non-members, and provided that any such pricing is consistently applied.

Section 2 – Waiting Lists

1. Where a DIAC-sponsored event is or may become oversubscribed, the officer, director or committee member responsible for the allocation of exhibit (booth) space or other form of admission shall cause a waiting list to be prepared and maintained in such a manner that the date and chronological order of application is clearly recorded.
2. The allocation of exhibit (booth) space or other form of admission that may subsequently become available at any event shall be allocated only in the chronological order of subscription and applications received.
3. Where a DIAC-sponsored event does not have a chronological waiting list that predates this Policy Statement, the DIAC officer, director or committee member responsible for the allocation of booth space shall treat all applicants on the existing waiting list as having applied at the same date and time, and will then allocate booth space or other form of admission by publicly drawn lots.

Section 3 – Enforcement of CERTIFICATIONS

1. Nothing in this Policy Statement shall preclude a DIAC member company or individual employee of a DIAC member company, whether or not they are an officer, director or committee member of DIAC, from filing a complaint to any competent regulatory authority in Canada about the regulated activities of any member of the dental industry.
2. Since DIAC itself is not a competent regulatory authority, the rules of the Board of Directors and any DIAC Committee must contain provisions allowing any member or non-member company the opportunity to address and correct any and all breaches of their CERTIFICATION before any prescribed disciplinary action is undertaken.
3. No DIAC officer, director or committee member may undertake a disciplinary action on a CERTIFICATION based solely on a suspicion, or in an attempt to restrain trade. All suspicions of a breach of the CERTIFICATION must be verified prior to commencement of a prescribed disciplinary action.
4. Any member company or other participant in a DIAC-sponsored event that is suspected of breaching their CERTIFICATION must be informed of the suspected breach and given the opportunity to refute or correct the breach prior to a prescribed disciplinary action being taken.
5. In the event that the breach of CERTIFICATION cannot be refuted or corrected prior to an event where product is being displayed and shown, the officer, director or committee member responsible for participation may suspend the offending participant until the breach can be refuted or corrected.
6. No officer, director or committee member may unduly delay a notification to a participant of a possible CERTIFICATION breach from the date they first become aware of a possible breach so as to effectively exclude a participant from an event.
7. No breach of a CERTIFICATION, whether in regard to a membership requirement or a product exhibit requirement shall be deemed to be a permanent breach. Any member or participant in a DIAC-sponsored event must be allowed, by prescribed procedure, to reapply for inclusion on proof that a breach has been remedied, and no reinstatement shall be unduly denied or delayed.

Section 4 –  Non-Compliant Market Restrictions

1. The sale of goods by companies or individuals who are not authorized by the manufacturer to sell those goods shall not be deemed to be a breach of a CERTIFICATION unless the sale of those goods can be shown to be a violation of a law, by-law, rule or regulation of a competent federal, provincial or local regulatory authority.
2. It is the policy of DIAC that the unauthorized (by the manufacturer) sale of licensed goods and services by licensed establishments in compliance with all federal, provincial and local laws, by-laws, rules and regulations in Canada is a civil matter to be settled between the seller and the manufacturer and/or between the manufacturer and its authorized outlets.
3. Any action taken by a DIAC officer, director or committee member, to stop or impede trade in goods in services that is legal, other than by virtue that the trade is conducted by unauthorized distributors, may be an action in restraint of trade contrary to the Competition Act, and is therefore not permitted.
4. Any officer, director or committee member who, acting on behalf of DIAC, attempts to restrain trade will be required to resign their position.