Exclusive: Mazza's emotional speech stuns Ornge employees ahead of firing

As a growing scandal was threatening to bring down then-Ornge CEO Chris Mazza more than a year ago, new video shows the embattled executive claiming an enemy was out to get him and blaming the media for his plight in a rambling and emotional address to the company that left employees stunned.

The video, taken during a company meeting in December 2011, has never been broadcast publicly and was obtained exclusively by CTV Toronto’s Queen’s Park reporter Paul Bliss.

At the time, allegations were swirling around Ornge over financial irregularities at the provincial air ambulance service, as well as about Mazza’s seven-figure salary.

Mazza was later fired, and the OPP was brought in to continue to investigate financial deals involving the agency. The coroner is also probing nearly two-dozen deaths that may be linked to the way Ornge was being run.

No charges have been laid in relation to any of the allegations.

As Mazza opened his remarks to employees, some say it became clear their leader was in trouble, and that he and the agency were unravelling before their eyes.

“In 2009, my biggest struggle, my biggest fear was the complete collapse of the helicopter system as we knew it, because a gun was being held to my head,” Mazza said in the 2011 speech.

“I was terrified because I knew people were gonna die. What floored me then and still was nobody cared about those who don’t have a voice.”

At the time of his remarks, few people knew that Mazza was making about $2 million that year.

“This has never been about economic gain,” he told his employees. “It’s been too painful for that. And there’s too many easier ways to do that. It’s been a mission.”

Mazza acknowledged that it may be difficult for employees to go to work, given the allegations at the time.

But he insisted Ornge had done nothing wrong, blaming the media for the controversy and insisting people were out to get him.

“We’ve done nothing wrong as an organization other than be committed to excellence. And being committed to excellence, make no mistake, we made enemies,” Mazza said.

“When I started people said to me, ‘Why are you going to do this, Chris, they’re going to get you?’ ‘Well, what do you mean they, who’s they?’ ‘You can’t make these changes, eventually they’ll get you for making them.’”

Within weeks of the meeting, Mazza took a medical leave from Ornge. He was fired by the government not long after, when details of his salary came to light and questions arose about the multi-million dollar deals made to acquire the company’s helicopters.

On the video, staff can be seen bringing Mazza water and scrambling to ensure that the recording equipment is working. Some employees who were at the meeting later said they were shocked and disturbed by what they saw, while others reported Mazza’s executive team cried while he spoke.

Mazza said he was always “very focused” on trying to stick up for the underdog.

“It’s just kinda who I was. I was the kid in the playground who would go and defend the person who’d just been beaten up or whatever. Inevitably, I got thrown into a lot of lost and found boxes by senior students. But that’s who I was.”

He also openly discussed the death of his son in the 2011 speech.

“On Mar. 5, 2006, my oldest child died in an accident. Such was my belief in the system, such was my belief in my mission, I came back two weeks later. What we’ve built, I’ve done through a period of mourning,” Mazza said.

“It’s not just my child that’s gone, but the rest of my life that existed then too is gone. And yet, I’ve continued to build this. Why? For economic gain? Because I believed. I believe in what we’re doing and I believe that the people who have no voice deserve a voice. And nobody else ever did.”

Mazza’s address lasted 28 minutes before he asked his stunned employees if they had any questions. No one raised a hand to speak, and Mazza slumped in his chair amidst a round of applause.

With a report from CTV Toronto’s Queen’s Park reporter Paul Bliss