CBC Getting Back Into The Game

This article was last updated on May 25, 2022

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CBC News dipping it's toes into the dangerous waters of Human Rights journalism after a ban on stories in May 2013

By Stephen Pate – CBC is getting back into reporting Human Rights complaints across Canada.  Human Rights stories are banned in the Maritimes after CBC took the Human Rights Commission to court in PEI.

CBC Hamilton, the internet blogging CBC location,  reported Student allergy prompts human rights complaint against school.

Lynne Glover, a Hamilton mother, has filed a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario against her daughter's elementary school, claiming discrimination over the way officials handled the girl's serious egg and dairy allergies.

At just six years old, Elodie Glover has already dealt with nine bouts of anaphylactic shock, so her mother decided it was too risky to keep her in school and pulled her out. Glover says the school has failed to follow its own allergy policies and that her daughter is entitled to accommodation for her situation.

We hope CBC keep on this story and support young Elodie in her battle to achieve human rights. Elsewhere in CBC-land, the picture is not so good.

CBC Hamilton didn't get the memo

Andrew Cochran (Linkedin/Twitter photo supplied by Mr. Cochran)

Good for CBC Hamilton newsroom who didn't see the memo from CBC boss Andrew Cochran.

Cochran, CBC Senior Managing Director wrote a memo, according to sources, in May of 2013 stating that CBC was not going to report human rights stories until things cooled down in the area.

In May 2013, Andrew Cochran told CBC Charlottetown station Manager Jim Ferguson that he was not allowed to report the story that the CBC taking the PEI Human Rights Commission to court. CBC was asking the Supreme Court of PEI to quash my Complaint that the local news room discriminated against me on the basis of my disability.  The Complaint was about to go to a public hearing.

It is hard to imagine but the CBC is taking the PEI Human Rights Commission to court.  How much nerve does that take?  Here's the front page of the Court action and here's a link to the whole Court document.

Supreme Court of PEI application for Judicial Review on behalf of CBC and The Guardian

After some detective work, I discovered the fingerprints of the CBC legal department all over this court filing.  Anne-Julie Perrault, of the CBC Montreal Law Department, wrote me  in June 12th and confirmed they hired Alan Parish of Halifax to represent them.  You can read her letter at this link.

Why is the CBC taking the Human Rights Commission to court?

Usually the CBC are white knights riding in to save the community.  In this CBC didn't want me in the Press Gallery because I was disabled and was a part-time volunteer advocate for other people with disabilities.

It is against CBC policy to discriminate against people on the basis of race, religion, sexual orientation and disability. Their website contains this statement,

Policy 2.2.20: Non-Discrimination and the Duty to Accommodate

The Corporation accepts responsibility to ensure that its policies, practices, work arrangements and facilities do not have unlawful discriminatory effects on individuals or groups protected under the Human Rights Act, or identified as a designated group under the Employment Equity Act (women, Aboriginal Peoples, persons with disabilities, and visible minorities).

Follow me on Twitter at @sdpate or on Facebook at NJN Network and OyeTimes.

Note: Andrew Cochran's title is CBC Senior Managing Director, Atlantic Canada, English Services and you can find him on Twitter at @andrewcochran and his Rebel Mouse website https://www.rebelmouse.com/andrewbcochran/

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network

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