theathletic.com
Do you have an excerpts or highlights from the article to share?The piece by Mendes and Strang that's been heavily rumoured is finally out. Thinking this'll merit its own thread.
The Eugene Melnyk era in Ottawa: Hopeful, then bizarre and tyrannical
From "beyond embarrassing" meltdowns to puzzling personnel decisions: An in-depth look at Melnyk's mercurial two-decade reign
I'm not all the way through, but "highlights" so far include open aggression against the 'Hockey is for Everyone' campaign supporting the LGBTQ community and the Black Lives Matter campaign, a few drunken rants to players where he wasn't able to identify anyone beyond the stars, caustic emails to employees who didn't respond to emails while on holidays or overnight, and weird policies including no more than 10 people on an email chain. And that's just on my first skim, I'm sure there'll be plenty to dissect here, not much of it good for Melnyk or his legacy.
It was widely known that this piece was in the works long before Melnyk's passing. I find it hard to fault them for not shelving a piece of public interest that they've been working on for years. This was originally meant to come out in the summer, if memory serves.
The article also suggests that he attempted to frame a longtime employee in Barbados (who considered Melnyk to be a father figure) for theft after the employee attempted to move to Canada to take an IT job in Ottawa, which Melnyk apparently perceived as disloyalty.
Not in this article, the poster is trying to change the conversation. That was from Mendes' retrospective on Melnyk immediately post-passing, which you can find here: Mendes: Looking back at Eugene Melnyk's complicated legacy in Ottawa
The subscription is definitely worth it when they have the sales, not sure if the 1 dollar a month thing is over yet but they do give some steep discounts at times.
