In the recent Bob Varaleau arbitration decision some startling information was revealed and a gross miscarriage of justice occurred. "Let me show you how deep the rabbit hole goes." Morpheus to Neo in the Matrix
On the top of page three the decision admits that "the video clip of the TELUS Idol performance was posted on the Corporation’s web site to be accessed by other employees who were unable to attend the event or by TELUS employees generally." It was not removed from the Corporation’s web site until after Jeff Morris filed a human rights complaint. Before that is was used as a training video. The cover up was not to hide it from the employees. Darren Entwistle was flaunting it to brag to the employees. The cover up was to hide it from the wives of all those married men because spouses or significant others were "not allowed" to attend that conference.
Page 4 names Hope Cummings as the one who signed off the TELUS Idol cover up by the Union in exchange for the workplace harassment policy that many employees claim failed to resolve the ongoing issues presented in TELUS Idol. However, as noted on the top of page 5, the Letter of Agreement signed October 22, 2004 was approved by Bruce Bell and the TWU Executive at that time which has been changed through the democratic process. It was somewhat ironic to give employees respectful workplace training when it was the CEO who was the offending party. This was not his first offense nor was it his last. "An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit."
Hope Cumming admitted in an interview with the Tyee that the behavior displayed in TELUS Idol was not resolved with the respectful workplace training. "Cumming said that, despite the respectful workplace policy, there have been similar incidents since. Managers have forced employees to watch offensive clips from television shows and movies, she said. The clips portray people in demeaning ways, Cumming said. In one example, a tape containing racist comments from 'Saturday Night Live' was shown, she claimed."
Mr. Kaltenbach became aware of discussions about TELUS Idol among the general membership on Voices for Change, the same private member forum TELUS blocked from those who access the Internet through TELUS. Mr. Kaltenbach had TELUS security become involved in order to locate the source of information being dissembled (page 5).
The decision not only quoted private posts Bob made on VFC, it also references his private E-mail (page 7) Are we *allowed* to talk about the legality of TELUS monitoring and hacking into private e-mail? No one believed AFI were following TWU members home after the picketline and filming their children until after they were caught and charged. Maclean's wrote about "When the spies are out of control." Mark Klein blew the whistle on Big Brother in the US.
In this decision, Bob Varaleau was falsely accused of being the one who released TELUS Idol to the public. Jeff Morris already publicly confirmed he was the one who acquired it and complained about it to Brian Canfield. This was the e-mail Jeff sent and the response he received. His public confession was recorded on the CKNW interview.
Page 9 of the decision under the heading Public Domain states: "With all due respect, the facts do not support the Union’s first argument. I do not agree that the Grievor was merely distributing information already in the public domain. The Grievor did not simply republish the existing TELUS Idol video. What he did, as noted earlier, was: edit it; select the most salacious and negative details; add his comments; and, add a number of unflattering still photographs of the CEO. He did all of this with a view to bringing both the CEO and the Corporation into disrepute."
WTF? That is a bold face lie!!! Jeff Morris was and went on record during the CKNW interview, as the one who ordered TELUS Idol and leaked it to the public. He was the shop steward who complained about it. After the failure of the respectful workplace training he gave me a copy of the extended version. I previously had a copy of the short version given to me by a postal worker who downloaded it off the Internet.
After I acquired the extended version of TELUS Idol, I was the one that posted the screen shots from the extended version in addition to the ones I posted from the short version. I am the one who took the screenshots from the video on my computer and I am the one who posted it on my website. I did it not with the intent of bringing both the CEO and the Corporation into disrepute. I did this to expose what in my opinion was criminal harassment in hopes that it would properly be dealt with so that the CEO might be held accountable for his actions.
Darren's TELUS Idol Team were not disciplined as Rob McArthur erroneously claimed. Darren was given a huge raise and he took his team to see Moulin Rouge in Paris on a very extravagant business trip as a treat. That song was in the extended version of TELUS Idol by the way and the behavior, as Hope Cummings pointed out, did not stop.
"Unflattering still photos of the CEO?!" He was standing on stage playing the air guitar and doing the disco roll. He made Jill Schnar do her rendition of Avril Lavigne's "Skaterboy" for him a second time so he could join in and be seen dancing on stage while she was filmed singing the song lying on stage at his feet. Those still photographs revealed the truth of what really happened that night. The truth might hurt, the truth might be unflattering but the truth is not unlawful and does not constitute actual malice.
Arbitrator Richard I. Hornung, applying the William Scott test, denied Bob Varaleau’s grievance and ruled that the discipline was warranted. Bob however, was innocent. The arbitrator obviously failed to take that fact into consideration. Aside from that fact we see a pattern emerge. Jeff Morris was demoted for complaining about Banff 2000 and this decision shows that Bob Varaleau was given a two week suspension for complaining about TELUS Idol. Just how deep does the rabbit hole go Alice?