TORONTO – “Fratelli coltelli”. Or, if you prefer, “Parenti serpenti”. These are the titles of two Italian comedies of the 90s that are well suited to the squalid show that the members of the Rogers family, owners of the homonymous telecommunications giant, are giving, publicly. In English we could translate those titles like “Dearest Relatives, Poisonous Relations”, to say that in the Rogers family there is a real feud that has also ended up on social media, in particular on Twitter where Martha Rogers, director of Rogers Communications, asked her brother Edward to “resign”. But let’s take a step back.
The “war” began after Edward attempted to replace CEO Joe Natale, a move that was blocked by Edward’s sisters Martha and Melinda Rogers-Hixon, and mother Loretta Rogers, according to CtvNews. On Thursday, therefore, Edward was ousted from his position as chairman of the company, while remaining on the board as a director.
Despite being no longer president, Edward still sought to retain control of the company and just last Thursday he announced his plan to remove independent directors John Clappison, David Peterson, Bonnie Brooks, Ellis Jacob and new president John A. MacDonald from the board of directors of the company, appointing in their place Michael Cooper, Jack Cockwell, Jan Innes, Ivan Fecan and John Kerr as new members.
Martha – who said her father Ted Rogers, former president and CEO of Rogers Communications, had put her on the board of directors to ensure that nothing “crazy” would happen within the company – on Saturday he posted a tweet in which she also brings up Trump, announcing that she will reveal “what is really going on” along with evidence of a “Trump scandal” that she is aware of. Predictably, his public outbursts sparked comments.
“Oh stop already w the nasty tweets to get him to resign. The world has bigger problems. Be an adult and sort it out privately. What has this got to do with Trump? This is your OWN family” tweeted @RaptorsUniverse. Marie Boyce added: “Wow family drama. So glad I’m NOT a Rogers customer or I’d be switching by daysend. Stop AIRING your family drama on Twitter.Maybe someone should FIRE all of you. I’m sure Rogers Sr is ROLLING in his grave…”.
Those who, instead, are Rogers customers, like David Lundquist, do not hesitate to write that they hope “your entire firm crashes into the ground all the times that Roger’s nickel and dimed me and charged me hundreds of dollars sometimes thousands of dollars in one rip-off after another”. There is also who, like Murray Chamney, invites to enjoy the show: “She’s a board member, and large shareholder of Rogers Communications, the largest Telco/Internet supplier in Canada. She and her brother are having a major snit on the board. Ever see the show ‘Succession’? This is it. Get out the popcorn, it’s going to be a good show”.
To the “Rogers brothers”, protagonists of the “show”, the Crtc (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) two years ago has renewed the millionaire government television license for the production of multilingual and multicultural content …
In the pics above, taken from their respective Twitter profiles, Martha and Edward Rogers
