[Via G&M]

CRTC commissioner departs after more than a year of legal battles

Raj Shoan is no longer a commissioner at Canada’s telecom and broadcast regulator after more than a year of legal battles that have revealed deep tensions at the commission.

The federal cabinet has issued an order in council that relates to Mr. Shoan, a spokesman for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) confirmed on Thursday evening.

Mr. Shoan’s CRTC e-mail address is not active anymore and a source with knowledge of the situation said he is no longer a commissioner. Reached late on Thursday, Mr. Shoan declined to comment on the order, but said he would issue a statement on Friday. The order had not been posted online as of Thursday night.

Mr. Shoan has clashed with Jean-Pierre Blais, the chairman of the CRTC, on multiple occasions and their animosity has spilled into the courts, with Mr. Shoan filing three separate legal actions challenging the chair’s authority and the commission’s processes.

Documents filed in the cases have revealed unpleasant office politics and dysfunction at the federal regulator. Multiple commissioners and the chairman himself have referred to the working environment as “toxic” or “hostile,” but disagree on who is to blame. The federal government appointed Mr. Shoan, 40, to a five-year term as commissioner for Ontario in 2013.

According to the rules for federal appointments, CRTC appointees can only be removed “for cause” by an order of the federal cabinet.

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