Warning message

Please note that this page is from our archives. There may be more up-to-date content about this topic on our website. Use our search engine to find out.

(St. Johns) Lawyers for the Canadian Union of Public Employees are upping the ante in the case of the assault on the premiers son.

CUPEs Legal Branch has sent a letter to Premier Danny Williams’ office demanding an apology and a retraction of defamatory statements he made linking the incident in the St. Johns bar district with the current strike by public employees.

CUPEs Wayne Lucas says, The facts in the case are now in and they confirm what we have said all along the assault on Danny Williams son was a totally unrelated incident which the premier then chose to turn into a political football.

Premier Williams has impugned the character of 20,000 CUPE and NAPE members and he now has an obligation to apologize to these hard-working, law-abiding citizens. Our lawyers have also asked the premier to retract his so-called warning to union members, says Lucas.

The day after the assault, Mr. Williams warned striking union members to stay away from his family, stating, Let me serve notice right now to anybody out there who is in a union: Dont go near my family, my home or the homes of our ministersI can tell you right now they will be out until the cows come home if they go near any members of our families.

Williams also said, That’s probably the price that he has paid for having a father who went into politics and is trying to do something to straighten this province out.

CUPE says, given the widespread media coverage of the premiers defamatory statements, and the atmosphere created as a result, such an apology and retraction will only be satisfactory if it is made by Williams personally, if it is complete and unreserved, and if it is made in such circumstances as to ensure that it receives the same widespread coverage as his original defamatory remarks.

For information:
Wayne Lucas
President, CUPE NL.
(709) 727-2509 (Cell)

Dave Reynolds
CUPE National Rep.
(709) 753-0732 (o)

John McCracken
CUPE Communications Rep.
(902) 222-8457 (Cell)