Following on the heels of the Armstrong Williams affair is a case currently undergoing arbitration in Vancouver, Canada. Wyng Chow, a former real estate reporter for The Vancouver Sun, is accused of receiving a "secret benefit" from a property developer. Chow was fired from the paper in December over this issue, after 32 years at the publication. He denies any wrongdoing and his union has filed a grievance over his dismissal
The Georgia Straight, a Vancouver weekly, has been following the case and has a detailed report here.
Excerpts follow:
Union lawyer Carolyn Askew told McDonald that Chow did not engage in any misconduct. She described Chow's transactions with Concord Pacific as "private and personal" business: "There was nothing untoward in his conduct and certainly nothing that would give rise to his termination."
Askew claimed that between the time Chow bought a presale townhome in 1995 and when he moved into the unit two-and-a-half years later, the floor plan had been altered without his knowledge or consent. Askew said that Chow eventually sold this townhome and later bought another unit in a different Concord Pacific project.
"The entire transaction was essentially a wash financially in a period of time when he could have reasonably expected to earn a profit," Askew said.
The first witness, Vancouver Sun editor-in-chief Patricia Graham, testified that she received an anonymous phone call last August 5 from a person claiming that Chow had been taking "sweetheart deals". Graham said that the reporter claimed there was no truth to the allegations. She added that Chow acknowledged he and his wife had previously had a "problem" with Concord Pacific over a floor plan. "They then purchased another condominium for a lower-than-market price," Graham said. "He would not provide details because he said he had signed a confidentiality agreement."
She claimed that after examining sales prices in his building, she concluded that Chow paid much less than his neighbours. "Mr. Chow told us he had received a financial benefit from a party he was covering," Graham claimed. "That's a conflict of interest."
She claimed that after Chow was fired, the company received copies of his correspondence with Concord Pacific over a two-and-a-half-year period. In one of those letters, Chow referred to company officials as "fuckers", and in another Chow claimed that a Concord Pacific executive had "killed the relationship we have built up in the last four years".
Under cross-examination, Graham agreed with Askew's assertion that the Sun had no written code of conduct for newsroom employees at the time Chow was fired. However, Graham claimed that all reporters know that certain things are unacceptable, including making up facts for stories, stealing someone else's work, and writing about someone who is providing a financial benefit to the reporter.
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[company lawyer Don] Jordan later claimed that Chow paid $39,000 less than other buyers for a unit in another Concord Pacific project in 2001. Chow responded that this occurred because a former Concord Pacific executive had "offered to settle our long-festering dispute". Chow also claimed that he had no idea what other purchasers paid for their units in the building.
