Kevin O'Leary, the business guru who appears on CBC, is facing a new complaint launched by two of Canada's big public-sector unions who say some of his anti-labour comments may have lead to violence. The 340,000-member National Union of Public and General Employees and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union have filed a complaint with CBC Ombudsman Kirk LaPointe over recent anti-union comments it says were offensive."During the September 19, 2011 episode, Mr. O'Leary stated that if he were elected prime minister, he would 'make unions illegal' and union members should be "thrown in jail," NUPGE/OPSEU said in a joint news release.
"Later, he evokes religious imagery to promote the destruction of unions, stating that 'Unions are sheer evil' … 'Unions themselves are born out of evil. They must be destroyed with evil,' and … 'Look, no one could contain unions in hell. They were so evil they came out of hell and they came upon earth.' "
NUPGE president James Clancy said O'Leary's comments "are not only highly offensive, they are very disturbing, irresponsible and potentially illegal.
"Mr. O'Leary's willful promotion of contempt and hatred towards unions reflects a viewpoint that has often ended in violence perpetrated against union members and leaders around the world," he said.
The complaint refers to instances of violence against the unions' members involved in a legal strike against the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology around the time O'Leary made his comments.
O'Leary was already in hot water for his nasty interview of an Occupy Wall St. supporter.
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