STAGE 17: THE SOCIETY II
Wanda Sanginesi left the Society to take a job in York University. This was an unfortunate as Wanda was honest, if not particularly diplomatic.
Wanda was replaced by Matthew Kellway, slippery and dishonest.
On February 27th, 1998, I met with Matthew and Michael D. Wright, the Society lawyer from a law firm called Cavalluzzo Hayes Shilton McIntyre and Cornish. The meeting was a bit of a disaster: Michael D. Wright obviously didn’t believe that Ontario Hydro had done anything wrong, which surprised me. Fortunately, Mr. Richard Darrah had warned me several times that union lawyers were dishonest, so I wasn’t totally surprised. Michael D. Wright told me that all he could hope to get for me was about $100-150,000 plus a gag order. Well, I wasn’t going for a gag order, especially when I had lost a lot more than $100k when dismissed.
On March 17th, 1998, Matthew, Michael D. Wright and I had another meeting. This time, the Internal Audit and Arthur Anderson reports were presented. I knew the IA report was a cover-up beforehand, and there were a number of clues, particularly the financial information.
But the Arthur Anderson report was a gem. It looked like a newspaper article, just a single column of text weaving down the page; absolutely nothing to disturb the eye as it traveled down the page, except for the large AA logo on the top of the page. The logo dominated the report. There were no names on the top, no names on the bottom, no signatures. I was stunned. This report obviously never went through the Arthur Anderson system; it was un-referenceable. It was without doubt a forgery.
As I recovered from my semi-divine inspiration, the Society lawyer said:
"I don’t see anything in there." Nor did I, but that wasn’t what he meant. I asked Michael a number of questions, such as would it make a difference if the AA report was a forgery. Michael’s pat reply was a quick smile and "Maybe". The lying union lawyer had struck, just as Mr. Richard Darrah had predicted.
This time, Michael D. Wright tried to get me re-instated, with a gag order. This was incredible: how could I possibly go back to Ontario Hydro after being fired, and not tell anybody what had happened? I couldn’t do that, and said so. We danced for a while on this issue, but between this idiotic game and Michael’s lies, the meeting was not a great success.
After I went home, I checked the purchase order from CARIAD that I had (legally) copied. It didn’t match any of the Internal Audit Purchase Orders, so that threw the IA report into question immediately. The Arthur Anderson report, saying that it was going to check the IA procedures, stated that they didn’t check the financial accounts because Internal Audit had already done so! Hardly what one expects from a world class company (except that Arthur Anderson didn’t write the report). I faxed my objections to Matthew Kellway.
Michael D. Wright sent Matthew and me a "lawyer’s letter" stating that, in his opinion, I had sinned and was out of line. A wonderful letter, except it ignored one detail: the Arthur Anderson report was a forgery. I couldn’t let that go.
The Society3, documents/the_society_3_2.gif, documents/the_society_3_3.gif, documents/the_society_3_4.gif, The Society4
Matthew Kellway advised me to consult my lawyer on the issue. Mr. Richard Darrah was amused that yet more of his predictions had come true, and advised me firmly to "take it to court". Seemed like a reasonable request … after all, isn’t that what unions should do? The Society5
On June 3rd, 1998, The Society sent me a letter saying that they would pursue the case no further, and I could file a grievance if I so chose. The Society6
The next stage was an internal grievance procedure. I went to the Grievance Appeal Panel (September 29th, 1998), which consisted of three typical Hydro engineers (no tie, no jacket, no business cards) and Matthew Kellway. The Society7, The Society8, The Society9
We determined that the Arthur Anderson report had major problems, and was likely a forgery. Sounded encouraging. But somehow, somebody told these three gentlemen that the GAP should not support this case. Anyhow, I got a letter dated October 26th stating that the GAP would not support my appeal. The Society10, The Society11
The next step, and the last step, was to appeal to the Ontario Labour Relations Board.
STAGE 18: Ontario Labour Relations Board
