FROLITICKS

If you haven’t heard by now, the CBC Radio, part of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), just fired Jian Ghomeshi the popular host of the national radio show “Q”. The reason apparently has to do with recent public disclosures by several women about sexual harassment, including accounts of his hitting and choking dates during sex without their consent. Mr. Ghomeshi has admitted publicly to liking “kinky” or “rough” sex. None of the women, claiming to have been victims, had pressed charges against Mr. Ghomeshi for sexual assault. Therefore, none of the allegations against Mr. Ghomeshi have been proven in court and he has not been charged as yet with any crime. The CBC publicly stated only that it had received information that made it impossible to continue employing him. In response to his firing (somewhere in his contract there must be some sort of “morality clause”), Mr. Ghomeshi launched a $55 Million lawsuit against the Corporation.

All of this is very disturbing of course. However, what is even more disturbing is a newly disclosed revelation by a female employee of CBC Radio. As a young producer of the “Q” show, she claims that she was sexually harassed by Mr. Ghomeshi. In 2010 she revealed to the show’s Executive Producer that she had been harassed by the show’s host. She was allegedly told by the Executive Producer that Mr. Ghomeshi was too big a celebrity, and she might as well adapt to the situation and not complain. Like many of the women who have come out with allegations of sexual misconduct by Mr. Ghomeshi, the now ex-CBC employee said she was not willing to have her name published for fear of retribution.

What bothers me about this scenario is that there are labour standards laws on the books dealing with workplace sexual harassment and the responsibilities of employers. The CBC is regulated under Canada’s federal legislation. Part III of the Canada Labour Code (Code) has specific provisions dealing with sexual harassment (see Section 247.1 of Division XV.1). Under these provisions, the CBC as the employer is obligated to have in place a policy dealing with sexual harassment and is responsible to make all employees aware of the policy. Under the Code, every employee is entitled to employment free of sexual harassment. In addition, the policy must state that the employer will take such disciplinary measures as the employer deems appropriate against persons under the employer’s direction who subject employees to sexual harassment. Since this was not done earlier in the above case, the CBC would have been found to have violated this particular labour law.

Unfortunately, as is the case in numerous such work situations, employees are very often not aware that they can bring a complaint against their employer to the responsible authorities for such violations. Too often, employees are reluctant to stir up any publicity for fear of some sort of retribution or potential damaging impacts on their future career. The reason that we have such laws is to help prevent such cases now and in the future. However, it is important that employees understand their legal rights and the responsibilities and policies of their employers. Hopefully, harassed employees would then be more aware of the various avenues available for resolving their situations without retribution. In turn, government authorities should do a better job of ensuring that employers are clearly aware of their legal responsibilities to tackle workplace “sexual harassment” issues. It goes without saying: “Contrary to its own policies, shame on the CBC for having waited so long to act!”