Supreme Court of Canada
declines to review arbitrator's
ruling
Canadian
Media Guild | CWA Canada
Local 30213
A CBC Radio reporter fired for inappropriate
behaviour will be back on the payroll this summer after
the highest court in the land declined to hear an appeal
of an arbitrator's ruling that he be reinstated and
given a three-month suspension instead.
Lise Lareau, national president of
the Canadian Media Guild, which grieved the dismissal
five years ago of Bob Keating, told the Globe and Mail
that "this has been a long, long case that should
have been settled at the outset."
Keating, who sent tainted chocolates to an activist
who he thought had wronged him, but called and warned
the man before the package arrived and admitted to
his CBC bosses what he had done, was fired for gross
misconduct in February 2003.
The CBC pursued the matter through
several legal avenues in British Columbia, up to the
B.C. Court of Appeal, which upheld the arbitrator's
ruling. The CBC then turned to the Supreme Court of
Canada, which not only refused to hear an appeal, but
ordered the CBC to pay a portion of the CMG's $100,000
in legal expenses and partial back pay to Keating.
"It was really a waste of money for the CBC to
be doing all of this," Lareau told the Globe. "That's
the way the CBC has been of late — very litigious."
However, the outcome has allayed the CMG's fears that
a high court would overturn an arbitrator's ruling
on a labour matter.
"If there's any lesson to be had out of this," CMG
lawyer Sean Fitzpatrick said in an interview with the
Globe, "it's don't waste your money on trying
to get past an arbitrator's decision that was well
reasoned, based on established jurisprudence."