When the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal Hearing: Valentyne v. Corus Entertainment Inc. concludes, I'll have much more to say about it on Toronto Mike'd, but in the meantime, I attended the hearing yesterday and listened closely to John Garbutt's testimony. John Garbutt is currently employed by Corus as he's 1/3rd of the Q107 morning show, along with Ryan Parker and Shauna Whelan. Prior to joining Q107 as Technical Producer for John Derringer's morning show, Garbutt worked at AM640, another Corus-owned radio station in Toronto.
If you want to hear me discuss what I witnessed, I popped on the Humble and Fred Show this morning to chat about it with Humble Howard Glassman, Maureen Holloway, and Dan Duran.
What's key here is that Jennifer Valentyne's complaint against Corus is based on gender discrimination. I understand a human-rights claim generally requires a connection to a protected ground under the Ontario Human Rights Code. Based on what I heard from John Garbutt, Corus is hammering home the fact that John Derringer didn't just abuse his women colleagues, but he abused his men colleagues as well. In other words, Derringer didn't have a women problem, he had a people problem.
Garbutt, spoke openly about his "terrible" time working with Derringer. He gave multiple examples of specific instances in which he was, in my words, the victim of severe workplace bullying. Derringer was described by Garbutt as a "snappy" guy who would snap at anyone in the room. In one example, Derringer verbally attacked Garbutt on the streets of London, England because he didn't agree with his chosen wardrobe. This left Garbutt crying in sight of Q107 listeners.
Another example that showed Derringer would be ruthless with everyone, regardless of gender, was that of his brother, radio veteran Bill Hayes. Bill Hayes was added to the Q107 John Derringer morning show and during their very first morning on the air, was asked to name his favourite band. Bill's answer made Derringer irate because it wasn't one of the classic rock staples like Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin. Garbutt explained it was all downhill from there, but the beginning of the end of Bill's time on the show was when Bill attended a farewell gathering for a popular receptionist at Corus who had been let go. Derringer, apparently, did not care for this person, and that was it for poor Bill on Q107.
One nickname Derringer had for Garbutt was "Chaz Bono". When asked why he didn't go to Human Resources regarding Derringer's treatment of him at Corus, Garbutt explained that others had complained to HR and had ended up removed from the show, and he didn't want to lose his job.
Maureen Holloway was lauded for her professionalism as Garbutt said she "made the show better", but this seemed to be used by Corus as a contrast to the "disengaged" Jennifer Valentyne who was "always on her phone".
The final witness in this hearing has now been called and all that remains is Jennifer Valentyne's attorney's final arguments, Corus's attorney's final arguments, and then the last word from Jennifer Valentyne's attorney. Then, we'll finally get a decision.
It is interesting to me that John Derringer, who is not on trial here, may aid Corus by not only treating women colleagues poorly, but colleagues of all genders. An equal opportunity offender, if you will.
More from me when this concludes.
