Radio host Wheeler drops 2018 wrongful dismissal lawsuit

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This article was published 31/05/2023 (323 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A wrongful dismissal case involving a Winnipeg radio morning show host has concluded.

Dave Wheeler discontinued his lawsuit against Rogers Sports & Media in May, five years after he sought court-ordered damages from the Toronto-based corporation he claimed encouraged him to be controversial on the air.

An employment lawyer representing Rogers Sports & Media, the corporate owner of 92.1 CITI FM radio station, confirmed the lawsuit was dropped.

“I can advise you that Mr. Wheeler chose not to proceed with his case,” lawyer Howard Levitt stated.

Neither Wheeler nor his lawyer Matthew Duffy responded to a request for comment Thursday.

Manitoba’s Court of King’s Bench registry shows a notice of discontinuance on Wheeler’s statement of claim was filed in court May 26. Trial dates had been set for October, but were cancelled.

Wheeler was fired in July 2018 from his 92.1 CITI show Wheeler in the Morning, after he made an anti-transgender comment on air and doubled down in subsequent Facebook messages. He later apologized for the remarks, but advertisers began to pull ads from the station and social media campaigns called for Winnipeggers to boycott the radio show.

He was suspended and then fired, and Rogers Media (now Rogers Sports & Media) publicly apologized for his behaviour, stating: “There have been multiple disciplinary incidents, and in spite of numerous conversations, he has continued to offend our audiences.”

In his statement of claim filed two months later, Wheeler argued those public statements were defamatory and hurt his ability to work in radio in Winnipeg.

“Rogers’s media statements served to embarrass and harm Wheeler’s reputation, impugn his character and interfere with his ability to carry on business in Winnipeg,” the claim states. “Further, the media statements ignored the facts that, at all material times, Rogers condoned, encouraged, and promoted Wheeler for being controversial, agitating and provocative.”

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He was fired partway through his second five-year contract with the Winnipeg radio station. He was being paid $335,000 a year, and had sued for lost earnings and bonuses.

In August 2020, Wheeler joined Energy 106 FM (owned by Evanov Communications) as host of its new morning show, Wheeler in the Morning with Jasmin Laine and Tyler Carr.

His termination from 92.1 CITI came after he compared transgender people to actors pretending to be “different things” during an on-air discussion.

Wheeler and his co-hosts had been discussing actress Scarlett Johansson’s decision to withdraw from a film in which she had been cast to play a transgender man. Wheeler was previously suspended in 2016. for posting online videos “Transcona Girls” and “North End Boy” that were described as sexist and racist.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Katie May
Reporter

Katie May is a general-assignment reporter for the Free Press.

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