‘We are big … we will ruin you” CBC tells a woman in sexual harassment case
By Stephen Pate – (with stories from TVA Nouvelles) – A Quebec journalist was driven to depression when she was criminally sexually harassed by a CBC / Radio Canada journalist.
CBC management told the victim “Nous sommes une grosse boîte, nous allons vous ruiner” in English “We are a big box (operation) we are going to ruin you.”
CBC is re-victimizing the female victim with arduous and expensive litigation. CBC has tacitly admitted to more than 60 human rights cases of sexual discrimination. This is one of few in which criminal sexual harassment has been proven.
Radio Canada is the Quebec based French division of the CBC, Canada’s taxpayer funded broadcaster.
Gordon MacDougall convicted
CBC journalist Gordon McDougall, who was also a union representative at CBC Radio Canada, plead guilty on October 29, 2014 to “charges of stalking a colleague last May. Between 2009 and 2012, the journalist made sexual advances to the victim “in their workplace, even up to follow her home.”
“I had a depression for nearly seven months,” said Mrs. Z the victim. “After that, I made a gradual return for three months and I’ve been medicated for two years.”
“It is hell for me, I am suffering and my family suffers. It is not only fear, but it is suffering, dignity also. You know depression is seen very badly in Chinese culture. This whole business of harassment, it is shameful for me”, she added. “Harcelée par un collègue à Radio Canada international «J’ai fait une dépression de sept mois» TVA Nouvelles
Mr. MacDougall was dismissed by the CBC.
CBC Sexual Harassment Grievance
Along with criminal charges, Mrs. Z, an announcer-producer at the Chinese Section of Radio-Canada International filed a sexual harassment grievance filed on June 13, 2012.
This is the CBC policy on sexual harassment in the workplace said CEO President Hubert Lacroix in his testimony to the Parliament of Canada before the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, dated March 5, 2013.
“That commitment actually comes from our corporation’s policy on anti-discrimination and harassment, which is posted on our website.
“The policy defines discrimination and discriminatory harassment and gives examples. It sets out mechanisms for redress including disciplinary action. It establishes confidentiality provisions and tells employees how to get action on complaints or concerns.”
CBC management’s actual practice is hiding sexual predators like Jian Ghomeshi, who was not fired until The Star gave the CBC advance notice of their Ghomeshi story.
Mrs. Z filed the grievance against MacDougall hoping the CBC would follow policy. MacDougall was a fellow union member and a shop steward.
The joint Union-CBC strategy is the financial exhaustion of Mrs. Z. Mrs. Z has hired and paid her own lawyer while the CBC lawyer is taxpayer funded.
‘We are a big enterprise : we will ruin you,”a CBC HR manager told Mrs. Z’s husband during the CIRB hearing (“Nous sommes une grosse boîte, nous allons vous ruiner”).
“From the fall of 2009 to May 14, 2012, I was the victim of multiple instances of harassment, sexual harassment and discriminatory harassment by Gordon MacDougall my union representative, up to his dismissal on May 28, 2012,” said Mrs. Z in her filing.
“Macdougall, the union and the CBC”, said Mrs. Z in her claim “should be ordered individually or jointly to pay me monetary, moral and punitive damages; that the union be required to reimburse me for the fees of counsel of my own choosing to represent me in any proceeding under the collective agreement.” Sworn statements accepted by Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) on January 14 and 15, 2014, in Montreal, Quebec .
For the complete CIRB record see – Reasons for decision – Z v NC-CSN and Société Radio-Canada
The grievance, which is still pending, was never publicly admitted by CBC management to Parliament, despite being an active file at the time Lacroix have his testimony.
But Mrs. Z nightmare is far from being over. Using the inexhaustible deep pockets of the Union dues, the is now dragging Mrs. Z. into the Federal Court of Appeal, to reverse the CIRB decision and keep the control over Mrs. Z’s grievance.
With research and text by JP Belisle. Featured image – Gordon MacDougall, CBC journalist, plead guilty to criminal sexual harassment, with his lawyer (La Presse photo)
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