Oopsies!
When Marina Glogovac’s appointment as president and CEO of the Toronto Star was announced last week, it was initially seen as a Cinderella story.
Serbian woman in her 20s leaves the chaos of Yugoslavia after the death of Tito, completes a masters degree in organizational change at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, slides into media sales with an alternative entertainment weekly in Toronto, then climbs the corporate ladder to head a national dating site and a major charity.
Then came the golden slipper.
When her appointment as head of Canada’s most left-leaning daily newspaper was announced, she said, very modestly: “When I started my career in Canada at NOW weekly, it seemed a distant dream to be one day be named CEO of the Toronto Star."
But even before she starts her new job on June 1, questions are being raised about her qualifications and judgment. It seems she has the bad habit of using Twitter like a personal megaphone, spreading controversial opinions about Canadian democracy, COVID precautions and tying her wagon to the coat-tails of right-wing politicians.
Glogovac’s dream has turned into a bit of a nightmare—and now the Toronto Star’s new owners are faced with a difficult choice. They have pledged to uphold the very liberal Atkinson Principles, which for more than 100 years have guided the paper’s crusade to uphold democracy, promote social justice and offer readers verifiable facts and fearless journalism. But what to do about a leader they hand-picked who thinks COVID is a hoax, that vaccine mandates are useless, that the federal government is acting like communists and who praised the so-called Freedom Convoy that openly vowed to overthrow it?
As one Twitter user wrote this week, “This is where we pretend the Star isn’t starting its inevitable slide to the right after being bought by two conservative donors.
Furthermore, the paper and its new leader are being accused of a cover-up. Canadaland discovered that several of Glogovac’s more controversial tweets from 2021were erased. One said: “Vaccinated + had Covid, but, I will not step into any establishment that requires passports, on principle. Did the living in a Communist country thing, thank you. … It’s not about safety.”
Also erased were two tweets she wrote responding to anti-vax messages from Roman Baber, MPP for York Centre who was booted from the Conservative caucus by Premier Doug Ford for drafting a letter arguing against his government’s Covid-19 health measures. In one, Glogovac wrote: “It matters what Pfizer executives think and want—we are witnessing a policy and government captured by a massive corrupt drone corporation.”
Well, well, I say good luck attracting advertising to the Star from one of the world’s largest drug companies.
Needless to say, the angry reaction on Twitter hit the red zone.
One said, “The progressive agenda includes embracing science, Marina. Your views are radically wrong.” Several others said they were cancelling their Star subscriptions. One person tweeted: “When the new CEO of one of the largest media outlets in Canada is scrubbing her social media accounts, it doesn’t bode well for openness and transparency in the media outlet.”
Glogovac took to Twitter to clarify her views, but stopped well short of an apology. She wrote: “Again, sorry if my personal views offended anyone. I observe all official public health rules. As for the Star—been a reader and admirer for decades, as someone committed to the progressive agenda and with a track record of fiercely defending editorial independence and freedom.”
Whether CEOs should be disciplined or fired for their personal views is a good discussion point. Noted employment lawyer Howard Levitt says the law is clear. “Outside of the unionized context and federally regulated industries, Canadian employers are free to terminate employees for any non-human rights code reasons so long as it provides adequate notice or dismissal damages. This includes … a questionable social media presence.”
As an example, he cited the police officers who contributed money to support the trucker convoy that shut down Ottawa for weeks to protest vaccine mandates. “If your job is to uphold the law, breaching it is antithetical to your position. And, for that matter, any employee who acts in a manner to damage the corporate ‘brand’ or image of their employer faces dismissal, potentially for cause.”
In a column written for Postmedia newspapers. Levitt wrote: “I anticipate many more cases of employees being fired for acting inconsistently with their jobs or in a manner damaging their employer’s image. Notably, the more senior the executive, the more associated they are with the employer and the more rectitude expected. …And for financial executives and CEOs, it will be easier yet.”
As for Glogovac, the Star clearly has a decision to make. Stand up for her right to express personal views and carry on, or decide that her personal views are anathema to the paper’s brand and rescind her appointment. Beyond that, the Star’s new owners, Jordan Bitove and Paul Rivett, should re-examine the way they screen senior hires. Did they engage a professional search firm to find Glogovac, or did they hire her because they knew her? A professional search firm would have surely vetted Twitter and other social media for a candidate’s embarrassing personal views. Either that was not done, or else they decided to hire Glogovac knowing she had expressed views that many Star readers surely would object to. If that’s the way it went down, it seems to be careless and ill-advised.
There’s evidence, however, that Bitove and Rivett hired her because they already knew her – or thought they did. That seems to be a more serious matter that perhaps the directors of the Toronto Star should look into. Glogovac holds positions on several corporate boards of directors. One of them is VerticalScope Inc., a firm acquired when Rivett and Bitove’s NordStar bought Torstar, the Star newspaper’s parent company. The chair of VerticleScope’s board happens to be Paul Rivett. Still listed as one of his directors is … Marina Glogovac. VerticalScope, by the way, recently went public, making NordStar’s stake worth about $180 million—or enough to pay for the company’s original investment in the Star three times over.
Lots of inside baseball and people tripping over their corporate connections to go around here, I say. Wink Wink.
Or as Cheri DoNovo, a minister and respected former MPP, tweeted this week amid the outcry over Glogovac’s views: “This is why most folk I know don’t get their real news from mainstream media anymore. Time for another voice at the Toronto Star to speak up?”
Let’s hope so.