As you may have noticed I am no longer posting on a daily basis. After discussing tactics and strategy with friends and family, I have concluded we will have to accept the slow and steady spread of information about the unjust termination of 7990. From time to time I speak to someone who has knowledge of the incident, but they don’t know the whole story. As time passes, more and more people will discover the complete story.
The ongoing poll results, initially published on April 14, 2010, are interesting. When the poll was first posted the daily hit count on this blog was in the hundreds of views, yet very few people choose to vote on the poll. Perhaps many readers would have selected a MAYBE option, had it been provided. As I type, it seems most people want to keep the faces of the people involved in the illegal business enterprise hidden from the public.
Allen (7990) believes the people selling the bootleg DVDs are in no way responsible for his termination of employment, thus he doesn’t want to cause them harm. Allen recently said: “I never wanted the people selling the DVDs to be punished. I just wanted the activity to stop before they got into serious trouble. I will exhaust all other avenues in my pursuit of justice before allowing the photos and video to be published.”
Allen believes he was fired because OC Transpo management was unable to manage the environment they had cultivated. Allen believes OC Transpo management allowed a private business to be conducted in the driver’s lounge for a very long time prior to Allen being hired. When the news spread 7990 (Allen) had reported the activity and asked that it be stopped, as the City of Ottawa Code of Conduct requires all employees to do, the drivers who enjoyed being able to buy the illegal DVDs became angry and began harassing Allen. Allen believes OC Transpo management took the easy way out when they fired him. Allen said: ” They didn’t do the right thing, they followed the path of least resistance. Some people have called them cowards, but I think they reacted consistent with people who felt afraid, uncertain and in need of an immediate solution. I think they were short sighted and failed to contemplate the bigger picture when they fired me.”
Allen has offered to share the letter he read to Mr. Mercier at his Step 2 Grievance meeting. I hope to post the letter in the near future.
I look forward to reading your comments. Please know I won’t approve comments containing unsubstantiated rumours. If you want to attack Allen in a post on this blog, be prepared to provide your source of information and the facts to back up your claims.
Liz
Support7990's Blog 
May 18, 2010 at 11:35 am |
I realize I’m pretty late to this party, but my wife found this blog yesterday and directed me to it. I’m flabbergasted at this situation; it may be naive of me to think so, but in this society, it should not even be possible for an employee to be treated as 7990 has been.
With regard to releasing the videos of his co-workers, however, I’m a little confused. 7990 seems to think that his union oath, specifically the part about not causing harm to his fellow union members, outweighs his moral/ethical duty to report illegal activity to the police. Obviously, this is something he has to decide for himself, but I personally don’t see how one could possibly think think this is the case. I’m not a lawyer, but as I understand it, failing to report a crime can make one an accessory to it in the United States; I’m not sure if the same is true in Canada. Certainly, however, one’s duty to society, as a citizen of this country, must always outweight any duties one has as a member of a subset of citizens (such as the union). That’s how it seems to me, anyway.
Liz (blog moderator) writes:
7990 reported the activity to OC Transpo management.
While some of us agree with you, 7990 has not yet contacted the police.
I expect the activity has ceased at OC Transpo, thus reporting the movie piracy to the police at this time would only get the people involved into legal trouble. 7990 is clear about not wanting to get the people into trouble. However there are citizens of Ottawa who are very interested in seeing the OC Transpo management held accountable for permitting the illegal business to operate on City of Ottawa property for an extended period of time. Anyone reading this blog could contact the police, share the essential details of the activity, and request an investigation. I’m not certain what 7990 would do if the police were to question him.