FIRED EXECUTIVE FILES LAWSUIT, ACCUSING CBC OF PUBLICLY SHAMING AND “SACRIFICING” HIM OVER THE ORGANIZATION’S OWN FAILURE TO PREVENT WORKPLACE HARASSMENT BY FORMER STAR JIAN GHOMESHI.

A top CBC executive who was fired for his role as a key player in the Jian Ghomeshi affair claims he was politically scapegoated by the public broadcaster, and is suing for more than $700,000.

Todd Spencer, 45, was executive director of human resources and industrial relations, and he led the CBC’s first internal investigation into Ghomeshi’s conduct, after inquiries were made by two journalists in June 2014.

His lawsuit draws into doubt CBC’s claims that it has put the Ghomeshi matter to rest. It also promises further ugly revelations of what happened behind the scenes, if the case ever goes to court. CBC, for example, describes Spencer’s internal investigation as wholly insufficient, but Spencer alleges it was being substantially led and overseen by his superiors, up to the highest levels.

In the lawsuit filed in Ontario Superior Court, he accuses CBC of publicly shaming and “sacrificing” him “to send a message to the Canadian public that the CBC takes matters of workplace harassment seriously.” He claims CBC concocted false excuses to fire him, including claims of dishonesty and negligence, in order to offset the ugly “optics” of paying severance to a top employee over its own failure to prevent harassment by Ghomeshi.

He calls CBC’s conduct “harsh, vindictive, reprehensible and malicious or highhanded” and said it “must not be condoned by the court especially given the CBC’s stature as Canada’s public broadcaster.”

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Reached Thursday at his new workplace, a real estate company, Spencer declined to comment.

In a formal defence, the CBC denies Spencer’s claims and alleges he merely “purported to commence” an investigation, then “deliberately misled” them about what he knew, and failed to pursue concerns about Ghomeshi raised by two employees. CBC also alleges Spencer “determined that there had not been any inappropriate conduct in the CBC workplace by Ghomeshi,” a determination the CBC initially relied on for its public comments about the growing scandal.

Although Ghomeshi was acquitted of sexual assault charges involving three women, in accepting a peace bond in another case, he admitted to “sexually inappropriate” behaviour toward a former colleague, Kathryn Borel. CBC has publicly apologized to her and accepted the conclusion of an independent report that it failed to protect its staff from abusive behaviour.

The only other person fired for cause in the Ghomeshi saga was Chris Boyce, then head of radio, who oversaw the production team on Ghomeshi’s morning radio show called Q. Spencer’s lawsuit says the initial investigation was conducted by him, Boyce, Heather Conway, executive vice-president of English services, and Chuck Thompson, head of public affairs for English services. Spencer claims it was Conway who was “leading the decision making,” and that even Hubert Lacroix, president and CEO of CBC, was “deeply involved with and aware of” the investigation’s progress.

Spencer also alleges that senior management discussed a CBC news report by The Fifth Estate in October 2014, based on interviews with 17 Q staff, which claimed that CBC executives did not ask a single Q employee a single question. He claims management agreed this claim was incorrect.

CBC put Spencer on paid leave in January 2015 as an independent investigation began, under prominent employment lawyer Janice Rubin. He met with her twice. He was fired for cause on April 16, 2015, immediately after her report was released.

His lawsuit asks for $390,000 in lieu of notice, $100,000 for breach of duty, $100,000 for bad faith manner of dismissal, $50,000 in punitive damages, plus an unspecified amount in lost pension benefits and special damages.

“It was the CBC’s reasonable expectation that given his senior leadership position within the Corporation’s (human resources and industrial relations) structure and the seriousness of the issues that were being raised, Spencer would act expeditiously and in a deliberate, thoughtful manner to conduct a fulsome and exhaustive review of any possible workplace-related connections to the allegations against Ghomeshi,” the CBC’s defence reads. It alleges Spencer’s failure to do so caused “serious harm to CBC, including in respect of its public reputation and in respect of its relationships with various stakeholders including government.”

After Ghomeshi was fired, the CBC did another investigation, in which it alleges it found Spencer had “failed or refused” to properly investigate, and falsely claimed to have reviewed Ghomeshi’s personnel file, but then retracted that claim. It alleges he reported meeting with two employees as part of his investigation, when in fact he only met them after he cleared Ghomeshi. It also alleges he deliberately misled the CBC about the seriousness of the concerns, failed to seek out possible witnesses, and overstated the scope of his investigation, leading the CBC to issue inaccurate public comments about its own institutional response.

Spencer started working for the CBC in 1984 as a part-time editorial assistant, then moved into sports. He became executive director of human resources and industrial relations in 2013.

His statement of claim lists the crises he has managed at the broadcaster, including a lockout in 2005 and the 2008 kidnapping in Afghanistan of reporter Mellissa Fung, in which Spencer “led the Crisis Management Team doing the negotiations.”

Chuck Thompson, CBC’s spokesman, did not return a call seeking comment.