Dear Colleagues, On July 8, 2015, ATIO issued a call for volunteers to join an Ad Hoc Committee tasked with reviewing the current CTTIC/ATIO certification processes and the role and representation of Candidates for Certification within ATIO, and making recommendations for improvement. In the spirit of good faith and true congeniality, and having - as a group and from the start - advocated a positive approach to working with ATIO on any endeavor, whatever challenging, to achieve these commendable goals, I happily agreed to come on board in an effort to move things forward and facilitate change. Therefore, I joined the committee at the end of July thinking that we could achieve our goals through dialogue with ATIO rather than take our case to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Unfortunately, following the joining of the committee, I realized that the committee was a mere ploy to buy time, water down our demands, and show the public and the Legislative Assembly of Ontario that ATIO is serious about solving the issues that have plagued it for a long time. Some certified committee members in the said Ad Hoc Committee laid the blame on Candidates for Certification and considered them disgruntled individuals “with sour grapes” who are not qualified to pass the test. There was a lot of questioning of the abilities of Candidates for Certification rather than accepting the shortcomings of the CTTIC/ ATIO certification system. The discussions were riddled with futile arguments. Almost all certified committee members were not even willing to accept facts as simple as the existence of a “conflict of interest” given the fact that all exam markers are ATIO certified members. After a few weeks of arguing back and forth, I came to the conclusion that this committee will not achieve any tangible result. I, hence, tendered my resignation from this committee on 20 August 2015, as I refuse to be party to this charade. In the meantime, we will continue our efforts to break this monopoly and create a level playing field to all professional translators in Ontario. Anyone interested in stepping up efforts to bring an end to this monopoly, please send me your email address so I can contact you directly. Thank you all for all your support. ayman