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In a note to union members last month, Unifor87-M demanded a “third-party investigator’s mandate to include workplace health and safety, and harassment issues.” The Star earlier rejected the call; now the paper says the person who leads the independent review, to be named next month, will have the authority to question managers and staff.

“We see value in getting the conversation started,” said Paul Morse, Unifor87-M’s President, noting that the union will participate in the Star’s review. However, Morse said the union does not believe the review constitutes a full independent investigation, and that the union “made it clear to the company that we agreed to the review without prejudice to our call for an independent investigation.” Morse said one concern for the union is that the Star’s review will not have a mandate to investigate the circumstances surrounding Aulakh’s death.

The union has filed a grievance against the Star, the resolution of which is still pending, asking for a full independent investigation. “Obviously the grievance will be administered in accordance with well established procedures,” said the memo from Honderich and Cooke.

On June 7, after the union made its demand known to its members, Star public editor Kathy English wrote in a column that “Those in the highest levels of senior management at the Star have told me they have conducted a thorough internal investigation following revelations and allegations made by the reporter in emails sent to several people in the newsroom shortly before she died.”