Posted September 06, 2018 05:30:56The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has been hit with a lawsuit alleging that it intentionally mischaracterized the nature of the show’s relationship with a notorious child molester.
The allegations were made in a lawsuit filed in Ontario Superior Court by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
The complaint, filed in June by lawyer Paul J. Bissonnette, alleges that the CBC falsely portrayed the show as having been produced by a former “victim of child sexual abuse.”
Bissonnette alleges that in addition to the CBC, the producers of the TV show also produced a number of other programming and had the ability to hire and fire employees.
“In fact, at least one of the employees that [producer] Robyn Leung worked with in the production of this program was known to the victim of child sex abuse and was fired after being charged by the CBC with child pornography,” Bissonette said in the lawsuit.
The alleged incident occurred in 2003, according to the lawsuit, when Leung was the co-producer of the program with his wife, Linda.
The complaint also states that in 2005, when the program aired, the production company had been accused of hiring a man to molest a minor.
The complainant, who was 15 at the time, alleged in the suit that when he was told of the allegations, he said he had been working on a documentary on child sexual exploitation in Canada.
Bissonette, who is a professor of law at the University of Toronto, also alleges that Leung told him the network was not involved in the allegations.
“The alleged sexual abuse and exploitation occurred in Canada,” the complaint states.
“The producers of this television series were not involved.”
According to the complaint, the allegations against the network were also “misconstrued” by a number people in the media, including The Toronto Star, which said in a press release that it had been “mischaracterized” as “a CBC production that featured allegations that [the CBC] had not aired.”
“The portrayal of the CBC as a victim of this alleged child sex trafficking, along with the use of the term ‘victim’ as an epithet, is wrong,” the statement said.
The lawsuit seeks damages and damages for breach of trust and negligent misrepresentation.
The CBC is not named in the complaint.
The allegations against The CBC were first reported by The Globe and Mail.CBC declined to comment.