![]() “It’s an end I wasn’t expecting,” Vitale said. With no settlement apparent, “we decided to fight tooth and nail,” said Radio Centre-Ville’s lawyer Marco Vitale, and they were ready to present their evidence.īut with a judge who apparently was unsympathetic to their arguments, and a lawyer who seemed convinced he was unlikely to win, the dissident group agreed to drop the case. The talks were private, but apparently involved discussion of another assembly with an independent observer, as well as a formal apology. The hearing was delayed twice for settlement talks, not including those that took place over the lunch break. Those dissidents, primarily from the Spanish group within the station’s membership, with support from members of the anglophone group and others, were dejected at the courthouse on Monday, throwing in the legal towel after several animated discussions with their lawyer. “The dissidents labelled me a fraudster, dictator, thief.” “I never felt alone in this adventure,” he said, holding back tears. He thanked his family, his colleagues and his supporters for their support. ![]() Lalanne became emotional as he began his statement, later saying the sense of relief after a three-year battle had gotten to him. (The threat of such a countersuit may have been a factor in the dissidents deciding to drop their case.) Lalanne said he would take some time to recover from this ordeal before taking such decisions, and it’s up to the station’s board of directors as far as the next steps on behalf of the organization. During a press conference broadcast live on-air on Tuesday, Lalanne and his supporters talked about defamatory statements made against him, and Lalanne did not discount the possibility of a civil lawsuit for defamation. To say the battle has been acrimonious would be an understatement. ![]() Radio Centre-Ville General Manager Wanex Lalanne addresses listeners during an on-air press conference on Tuesday, Dec. The dissident group also often got its messages broadcast on the station, as well as through other media like CKUT. Since then, the two have continued to battle for control, each with its own board - General Manager Wanex Lalanne and his allies remained in control of the station itself, while the dissident group was the one listed on Quebec’s business registry, and had control of the station’s Facebook page. ![]() Two other general assemblies followed, one in December 2016 and one in January 2017, to elect members to the station’s board of directors, and each side says the other one was illegal. That proposal may or may not have been rejected at a general assembly of members in September 2016, depending which side you talk to. The dispute started in the fall of 2016, with a proposal by station management that, to control a financial crisis that risked pushing the station into bankruptcy and losing its building on St-Laurent Blvd., it begin selling airtime to independent producers. But after hearing from only two witnesses, the plaintiff, representing the dissidents, proposed abandoning the lawsuit, which was quickly accepted. The case was finally heard on Monday before judge Marc St-Pierre at Quebec Superior Court. But the emotional repercussions of the bitter three-year dispute will likely continue for some time to come. The legal battle between Radio Centre-Ville (CINQ-FM 102.3) and a group of dissidents over control of the community station is over. ![]()
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