Canada's newest wireless company Wind Mobile accused Shaw Communications Inc. of making a "racial slur" during a conference call with financial analysts when two of its senior executives, including chief executive officer Jim Shaw, alluded to the upstart as a "camel."
Wind Mobile's Canadian competitors have long raised questions about the nationality of the company, which is backed by Egyptian-based Orascom Telecom Holding SAE.
While the federal cabinet overturned a regulatory ruling that barred Wind Mobile's parent from launching wireless service in Canada because of its foreign financial backing, Canada's incumbent players have argued Wind Mobile should not be eligible to operate in the country's strictly regulated wireless market.
Shaw's contentious comments were made during a conference call Friday after an analyst quipped that the company might hire some executives who recently left Wind Mobile.
"Is the Wind blowing in here?" asked Mr. Shaw.
"Or is that a camel?" interjected Shaw president Peter Bissonnette.
"Or it's a camel," echoed Mr. Shaw.
Anthony Lacavera, chairman of Wind Mobile and its parent company Globalive Wireless Management Corp. said jokes about race are out of bounds, especially when they come from such prominent businessmen. "It's a major step backwards, for a corporate citizen to make a racial slur," he said. "There's no doubt they made a couple of racial slurs in there. I think the company should apologize."
Mr. Bissonnette said he intended the remark to be "lighthearted" and "if anybody took offence to that comment ... I just want to make sure that it's clear that I apologize." He denied that he was making a reference to Orascom when he mentioned the camel. Instead, he said the dromedary was a metaphor for Wind's cellular coverage, which he thinks is comparable to a barren desert.
"I think it was (made) in the jocularity of the moment - out in the desert with no coverage."
Dvai Ghose, a Toronto-based financial analyst with Genuity Capital Markets who listened in on the call, said yesterday in a note e-mailed to clients that the remarks were "inappropriate." He said they are also potentially embarrassing for a cable company that is preparing to launch a new wireless business. "We also wonder why Shaw, which has a multicultural customer and employee base, would want to make such remarks," Mr. Ghose said in his note.
Canada's telecommunications industry is dominated by a small handful of major companies, whose executives are on a first-name basis. It is an accepted sport to knock the competition and Shaw's executives are seldom shy about publicly skewering competitors. The Calgary-based company's conference calls often feature irreverent jokes. Only three months ago Shaw executives quipped it was the fault of competitor Telus Corp when a telephone connection broke down.
Domestic companies opposed Wind Mobile's entry and still complain it was given special consideration when the federal government reversed a regulatory decision last December and allowed Globalive to launch wireless service. That decision is now facing a judicial review.
Shaw is not the only company to allude to Wind Mobile's Egyptian backing.
On the day the licence was granted, Michael Hennessey, a senior vice-president with Telus, posted the following on Twitter: "If Wind is Canadian then so was King Tut."
Mr. Hennessey said he did not consider his tweet inappropriate because he was criticizing Ottawa's decision, not Wind's backer.
"Hopefully that wasn't inappropriate. I don't think it was," he said. "I still believe they're Egyptian-controlled. There you go. But I'll leave that for the courts to decide."
