Shoan wins appeal of CRTC dismissal; judge sends decision for reconsideration

Raj Shoan was denied procedural fairness when he was fired from his job as the CRTC’s regional commissioner for Ontario last summer, three years into a five-year term, a Federal Court justice has found, sending the decision back to the governor-in-council for reconsideration. In an 82-page decision Friday, judge Cecily Strickland granted Shoan’s application for judicial review of his dismissal, which was handed down in June 2016 by the governor-in-council (GIC) on recommendation from Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly. “I am aware that the GIC’s decision on redetermination may well be the same but, based on the record before me, I am unable to determine that this is inevitable,” Strickland wrote in her reasons for decision. Strickland acknowledged that Shoan’s “relationship with the CRTC was a difficult one,” as it was fraught with clashes between him and Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais, legal challenges about Blais’ authority, and an investigation and subsequent finding that Shoan harassed a senior CRTC staff member. The investigation, finding and related consequences stemming from the harassment claim were later set aside by another Federal Court justice, Russel Zinn. The setting aside of that harassment investigation, which came months after Shoan was dismissed, played a major role in Strickland’s decision, though she wrote she was “not convinced that the GIC acted unfairly by continuing with the decision-making process while Justice Zinn’s decision was under reserve. However, while it was open to the GIC to proceed, significant consequences arise from its decision to do so.” In her February 2016 letter to Shoan warning him that his position was in jeopardy, Joly referenced, among other things, the 2015 harassment finding by a third-party investigator. Joly’s letter as well as an accompanying summary of concerns “underlie and form the basis of the GIC’s decision,” Strickland noted, adding that it isn’t clear how heavily that finding weighed in the final determination to dismiss Shoan. The minister's office declined to comment on the decision Friday evening. Further, since the governor-in-council made the call before Zinn reached his decision on the judicial review, “which ultimately quashed the decision of the Chairperson of the CRTC accepting the recommendation of the Harassment Investigator, is that it is not possible to determine, from the record before me, whether the Applicant was afforded a fair hearing and procedural fairness,” Strickland wrote. There was enough on the record to lead Strickland to believe that it’s possible for the governor-in-council to “have reached the same result if the Harassment Report and related concerns were not determinative factors in its decision-making,” and she highlighted the allegations that Shoan met inappropriately with CRTC stakeholders who had business before the commission. Procedural fairness also lapsed in the minister’s response to Shoan, or lack thereof, after he addressed the concerns she laid out in her February letter. Strickland emphasized that Shoan was given fair notice and opportunity to respond and that he never specifically asked for a formal oral hearing or meeting with Joly, but did “make it clear that such a meeting would be desirable.” However, Strickland also said that if the “Minister was of the opinion that the matters raised by the Applicant in his Response did not warrant a meeting with her or her officials or further inquiry into the matters alleged… then the duty of procedural fairness required her to advise the Applicant of this and, at least on a summary basis, why she reached that conclusion.” — With reporting by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Shoan wins appeal of CRTC dismissal; judge sends decision for reconsideration

Broadcast | April 29, 2017

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Shoan wins appeal of CRTC dismissal; judge sends decision for reconsideration

Broadcast | April 29, 2017

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