30 May 1. Ahmar Khan vs. CBC

Before the tweet was deleted, Toronto Sun columnist Joe Warmington saw it, and gave the issue national attention by including it in his November 11, 2019 column defending Don Cherry: “No apology from Don Cherry on HNIC poppy comments.”  In his column, Warmington identified Khan as the CBC reporter behind the tweet.¹Warmington, Joe.  “No Apology From Don Cherry on HNIC Poppy Comments.” Toronto Sun, 11 November, 2019, https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/warmington-no-apology-from-don-cherry-on-hnic-poppy-comments  Khan says in the days that followed, he began to receive many hateful messages via Twitter and email.   As a result, CBC management asked Khan to stay off social media for a while.  

Khan continued to maintain he had not violated the JSP, noting that other CBC reporters had expressed opinions on Twitter in the past, and at least one other CBC reporter based in British Columbia had also tweeted objections to Cherry’s poppy comments.  In his arbitration hearing, Khan testified that CBC’s journalistic policies were being applied selectively.

Unbeknownst to CBC, in the days following his tweet and CBC’s request to delete it, Khan secretly contacted journalists he knew at two other media organisations – Canadaland and Maclean’s – and asked them to let the public know what had happened.   Khan asked his contacts not to identify him as the source of the information.  On Nov 14 Canadaland published “CBC Had Employee Delete Tweet Critical of Don Cherry,”  ²Goldsbie, Jonathan.  “CBC Had Employee Delete Tweet Critical of Don Cherry.”  Canadaland, 14 November, 2019, https://www.canadaland.com/cbc-had-employee-delete-tweet-critical-of-don-cherry/ The item, by Jonathan Goldsbie, reprinted Khan’s deleted tweet.  Maclean’s columnist Andray Domise also posted a tweet revealing that CBC had asked Khan to delete his tweet about Don Cherry.³—2021 CanLII 761 (CA LA), https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/cala/doc/2021/2021canlii761/2021canlii761.html  

At the time, CBC management did not know that Khan was the source, but that changed, about two weeks later, when another CBC reporter discovered the messages after Khan used a shared newsroom laptop, but failed to sign out of his private Twitter and WhatsApp accounts.  While reading through Khan’s private social media accounts, the CBC reporter also discovered messages to friends that were critical of certain CBC managers as well as CBC’s treatment of him v/v the JSP, and yet other messages to Khan’s friends that appeared to contain a homophobic slur.  (CBC management did not investigate the full context or timing of these messages, and it turned out that the message containing a homophobic slur was sent before he started working for CBC.)  On December 3, 2019, Khan was fired 4 months before his contract was due to expire.  According to arbitrator Lorne Slotnik’s ruling, Khan was terminated “…with a letter that cites three areas of inappropriate conduct: contacting external outlets about the order to delete the Cherry tweet; making disparaging comments about CBC management and policies to parties outside the CBC; and using a homophobic slur on WhatsApp, where his profile identified him as a CBC employee (his profile picture showed him wearing a CBC jacket).”⁴—2021 CanLII 761 (CA LA), https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/cala/doc/2021/2021canlii761/2021canlii761.html
The Canadian Media Guild, representing Khan, filed a grievance, and in  January 2021 Slotnik ruled in Khan’s favour saying, “…the grounds cited by the employer for Mr. Khan’s termination amounted to, at most, a minor indiscretion, and are far overshadowed by the breach of his privacy that enabled the employer to discover those activities.  Consequently, my conclusion is that the CBC acted improperly by dismissing him for cause.”⁵—2021 CanLII 761 (CA LA), https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/cala/doc/2021/2021canlii761/2021canlii761.html

In explaining his ruling, Slotnik also acknowledged a much bigger issue at play in Khan’s case  – one he could not rule on because it was not one of the three areas cited in CBC’s termination letter to Khan.  Nonetheless, took pains to point out that, “…there was plentiful evidence in this case touching on such broad and provocative topics as objectivity in journalism and racism in society.”⁶ —2021 CanLII 761 (CA LA), https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/cala/doc/2021/2021canlii761/2021canlii761.html

Objectivity in journalism is a very provocative topic these days, indeed.  But before we get into the debate surrounding the issue, let’s look at what some other large media organisations have to say about objectivity, impartiality and social media use.

• 1
  Warmington, Joe.  “No Apology From Don Cherry on HNIC Poppy Comments.” Toronto Sun, 11 November, 2019, https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/warmington-no-apology-from-don-cherry-on-hnic-poppy-comments
• 2
  Goldsbie, Jonathan.  “CBC Had Employee Delete Tweet Critical of Don Cherry.”  Canadaland, 14 November, 2019, https://www.canadaland.com/cbc-had-employee-delete-tweet-critical-of-don-cherry/
• 3
  —2021 CanLII 761 (CA LA), https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/cala/doc/2021/2021canlii761/2021canlii761.html
• 4
  —2021 CanLII 761 (CA LA), https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/cala/doc/2021/2021canlii761/2021canlii761.html
• 5
  —2021 CanLII 761 (CA LA), https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/cala/doc/2021/2021canlii761/2021canlii761.html
• 6
   —2021 CanLII 761 (CA LA), https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/cala/doc/2021/2021canlii761/2021canlii761.html