Before I started Expedia.ca, I was with Signature Vacations which was Canada's largest packaged vacation company. Our Vancouver office was run by a long-time airline guy, one of these buttoned-down, big-talking, operations-focused veterans who, like many in the Canadian aviation landscape, had begun at Pacific Western, then moved on to what became Canadian Airlines, and with its passing found other things to do.

His name was Mel Crothers, and that same Mel Crothers today finds himself on the cover of the Globe and Mail in a quarter-page, above-the-fold, full colour picture and huge story under the heading "This WestJet staffer blew the whistle on his employer's corporate spying. He's still waiting for someone to say thanks."

Wow.

In reading the piece, I have to say that I am not at all surprised to learn of Mel's reaction. He always struck me as a very principled man, and I can only imagine how difficult it has been for him to walk away from the industry he loved. I was surprised to read the in the account that he called Steve Smith at Air Canada's Zip, rather than taking it up the food chain within WestJet. Sure, Clive was on holiday - but what about Don Bell or somebody else? In any event, I don't doubt that Mel was doing what he thought was right.

I was startled to see the name of Duncan Bureau in the piece, identified as the guy who showed Mel the Air Canada internal website his computer screen with Air Canada's logo and load factors between Calgary and Vancouver. When we were firing up Expedia in Canada, Duncan was our go-to sales guy at WestJet, who we saw as an aggressive, upcoming and sharp mover-and-shaker. From the piece:

"It all came down to four hours on the Friday afternoon of Dec. 19, 2003. At 1:30 p.m., Mr. Crothers was having a “casual conversation” at the desk of Duncan Bureau, WestJet director of sales, according to the informant's sworn affidavit.

Mr. Bureau couldn't be reached Tuesday for comment.

Mr. Bureau displayed his computer screen bearing Air Canada's logo, said the affidavit, and the screen also showed Air Canada's load factors, or the proportion of available seats filled, between Calgary and Vancouver."

I have no idea where Duncan fits into this picture - I don't even know if he is still at WestJet. And he certainly was a friend to Expedia.ca. But, I for one cannot help but get an awful niggle about the oh-too-often link between "agressive mover-and-shaker" and "pushing it too far". I mean, we have all seen that movie too many times.

UPDATE: Duncan called me this afternoon, and told me that he is now VP Sales for WestJet. This was the first time I had ever spoken with him, as in the past this relationship was held by other people who worked for me when I was running Expedia Canada. After speaking with him, I also made the change to the paragraph above, reflecting more accurately what was said in the Globe and Mail article. To be clear, the article does not state that it was Duncan who showed Mel the AC site on his computer, but refers to an affadvit which makes the claim quoted above.

In the story, Mel wonders if he will ever get a Thank You card from Uncle Miltie over at Air Canada. He clearly isn't expecting one from Clive.Well, given that I have my doubts over whether Miltie would even know what a Thank You card is, I'd say don't hold your breath.

But Mel, regardless, you did the right thing.

UPDATE: I have received a lot of email traffic on this post today, which is oddly not reflected in the comments. The biggest question most people are asking is why Mel went to Steve at Zip rather than taking it up the chain internally. Fair question, and as I said in my post, I continue to imagine that Mel must have had what he thought were good reasons and it is still best that this came out.

Tags: , , , , ,