History

The Mid-Canada Regional Section of AOAC was conceived on November 18, 1986, at the W.M. Ward Technical Services Lab. The meeting was organized by Will Grieve of the Ward Lab, Dr. Joe Hilliard and Linda Murray of the Canadian Food Products Development Centre, Joe Keenan and Wayne Greenlay of the Winnipeg RCMP Lab, Dr. Ezzat Ibrahim of the Manitoba Department of Agriculture, and Dr. Ken Friesen of the University of Winnipeg. Dr. David MacLean, Executive Director, and Deborah Timmons, Membership Coordinator, of AOAC International assisted with establishing the section.

Thirty-five representatives of laboratories throughout Manitoba attended the meeting. They decided in favour of filing a formal application for an AOAC Section, determined its boundaries and elected Dr. Joe Hilliard as the Section’s first President. Will Grieve was elected as President-Elect, Linda Murray as Secretary, and Dr. Ezzat Ibrahim as Treasurer. Lloyd Smith and Noemi Chuqui-Offermans served as members at-large. On January 28, 1987, the AOAC International Board of Directors granted Charter to the Mid-Canada Regional Section.

From these beginnings, the Mid-Canada AOAC has flourished. Workshops, short courses, seminars, symposia and laboratory tours have been brought to the membership and received with great interest. The Section has been visited by Presidents of AOAC International and addressed by numerous dignitaries from private and public organizations. The Section has presented awards to deserving laboratories in recognition of outstanding achievement, scholarships to deserving post-secondary students and prizes to young scientists at the Manitoba School’s Science Symposia.

In 1989 the Mid-Canada Executive organized an event which led to the most popular of all – the annual Mid-Canada “AOAC Day”. Over 120 members now attend AOAC Day each year to network with others in the Manitoba analytical community, learn from technical presentations and keynote speakers and to visit vendors and view their product exhibits.

AOAC International recognizes the Mid-Canada Section as one of their most active and successful sections!

 

Mid-Canada AOAC “Firsts”

Executive Meeting – December 8, 1986

Technical Presentation – June 20, 1987

Short Course – September 27, 1988

AOAC Day – June 20, 1990

Curling Bonspiel – March 1993

Internet Home Page – October 1996

Golf Tournament – June 19, 1998

Membership Handbook – April 2000

Hockey Night in “Mid-Canada” – November 26, 2005

Mid-Canada NMR Symposium, June, 2017

Mid-Canada Scientific Symposium, “Previously AOAC Day”, April 2018