The Hydro One employee who was fired for defending the use of an offensive slur that demeans women on live TV, has been rehired. Hydro One had no comment other than to say the issue was resolved through arbitration and that’s the end of it.
Back in May of this year, CityTV reporter Shauna Hunt confronted a group of men who were defending a guy who interrupted an interview she was doing to say “fuck her right in the pussy” live on air. One of those guys, Shawn Simoes, worked as an assistant network management engineer for Hydro One, and after he appeared on TV calling the FHRITP slur “f—king hilarious” he was fired. He may not have made the comment himself, but he made it pretty clear that he thought Hunt was overreacting, and there was nothing wrong with saying it.
This wasn’t the first time someone had interrupted a live news broadcast to say something like FHRITP, and Hunt clearly had no intention of ignoring it anymore. When she questioned the guys around her who were laughing about it, they all confirmed that they thought it was funny, and nothing to get upset over.
But Hydro One obviously didn’t agree. Simoes was fired in May for “violating the company’s code of conduct which forbids discrimination and harassment.” That started a debate over whether he should be fired since the incident took place outside of work hours and off workplace property.
Simoes did issue a written apology to Hunt, which CityTV called “very genuine.” Now that he has his job back (which comes with a reported salary of $100,000 by the way), maybe Simoes will pay more attention to how he acts outside of work, because no workplace wants to be associated with someone who contributes to harassment. Needless to say, his mother probably didn’t “die laughing” at this one.
