Thread by @nickwallis

Hello well come to Day 3 Session 2 of Morrison v BFF - we are approximately half way through the evidence of Michele Devlin BFF CEO. This morning's thread is here - it has all the abbreviations etc

https://x.com/nickwallis/status/1988549918919622871?s=20

This was MD leaving court yesterday with BFF co-founder Laurence McKeown.

tbf it was relatively good humoured - she told me I'd already got a phot from Day 1 and and I told her it wasn't very good, hence my second attempt. Anyway - court is sitting, MD should now have the unredacted sentence from the previously redacted legal "advice" which NC argues cannot attract privilege and which J and SD are sort of conceding.

NC Afternoon MD. So looking at the unredacted version it says: "This advice has a number of implications for us, these are basically around the balance of rights as employers and rights of employees" - this could hardly be more generic...

... can you tell us what he said
MD his advice was quite generic
NC did he say what you should do next
MD probably something around seeking legal advice
NC I won't ask you about the content of that advice - did you do that
MD I did

So when LMT says to MC "She was straight on to the Equality Commission and got good advice which
we are actioning." - what was that advice
MD get legal advice
NC so after that nothing much happens in the story till after 25 June
MD yes we continue with our business

NC it's odd isn't it that SM's speech was so terrible you had your head ini your hands, nothing happened
MD it's not odd at all - I have a duty of care to people and I had a huge event coming so I decided to park this till after the event

NC isn't a better answer to that puzzle... in LMT's email to LBD "Overall I think that we need to do a couple of things - firstly we need to review our
contracts of employment just to check that they are in keeping with our value
framework and also we need to review and update our employment policies - the world
of HR moves quickly especially on certain issues and we just need to make sure we are
creating a workplace that aligns with our stated aims around diversity and
inclusion. My view is that we should get these pieces of work carried out by individual/org with
competence in these quire technical area. I further think this should be tied in with a
piece on potential pay rises. I know this all seems a little bureaucratic"

NC and that's what happened isn't it
MD yes
NC and there's no implication in that email that there's any intention at all to investigate SM's conduct
MD no
NC what about your intention
MD my intention was that it had to be something to look into
NC and I am going to suggest...

the EC's advice was a bit disappointing in that they told you you couldn't really do much. But if you wanted to start controlling your employees speech, you need to tweak their contracts to tie them down more tightly
MD no
NC no?
MD no

MD our contracts of employment had not been updated since 2013 and they still haven't been done as our resources have all been drained dealing with this
NC in his email to MD on 25 June MC relates his conversation with SM in a bar in which she states her views on sex realism...

... and MC finishes the email "“I therefore feel that we need to accelerate the process bv which this is sorted,"
NC what process is this
MD investigating what happened
NC not the process to remove her from the BFF
MD no

MD to talk to her about it
NC if there's any doubt about MC's intention, MC says "We can’t have an inclusion/diversity officer who,
many weeks after making such an ill-advised speech, is still standing by her actions completely."

NC he wants to remove her from the BFF
MD no he's saying we need to take her off the Heart (?) project
NC at the end he widens it out though, doesn't he?
MD no - he's talking about taking her off that specific project.

NC After the end of the Docs Ireland festival you had a meeting with [possibly the co-chairs] - was it minuted?
MD don't know
NC was there a follow up email to confirm what was agreed
MD I don't recall
NC we don't have any record of it

NC meeting on 28 June. On 29 June you ask SM to send through the BFF's list of LGBTQ contacts, which she doesn't immediately respond to and you chase and you she sends you the list
MD yes she did
NC I have a few questions of the Pride on Big Screen event - you say you were...

... planning this since Feb 2023.
MD yes
NC yet there is no doc trace of this in the bundle of any planning of this event prior to 3 July
MD there are minutes from support and supervision meetings and in SM's end of year appraisal

MD and we had a lot of convos in the team about the use of this new large LED screen we had acquired and were keen to showcase and to use to encourage people to hire it - effectively a mobile outdoor cinema unit which cost in excess of £100k

... and an explicit use of that was agreed for the Belfast Stories site and for a project with IntoFilm which SM and I had had a number of meetings about.
NC but I was specifically asking you if there was any documentary trace before 3 July 2023 about Pride on the Big Screen...

... where would we find it?
MD a number of documents - before the pandemic we had screenings at Pride and in 2022 we re-initiated it and SM was part of the delivery of that and this was going to be the second of those.

NC so you say somewhere in the possession of R there will be docs which specifically mention the use of the big screen in Pride on the Big Screen.
MD yes
NC you say in par 18 of your WS a screening had been discussed for Belfast Pride - that sounds like maybe one day...

... you'd do this
MD "no we had a specific plan to do something at Pride and this was going to be the second year of it"
NC what happened at Pride 2022
MD screenings at a [local] cinema
NC and when did that happen
MD around Pride
NC and the 2022 Pride brochure is still online?

MD I don't think we did it in time to make the brochure
NC yet you were planing the 2023 Pride event from Feb?
MD [answers]
NC in 2022 the Belfast Rainbow project asked to hire a room
MD no that's not it

NC so what happened in 2022
MD I'll have to go and check this
NC you're making this up, aren't you
MD [laughs] No! I actually find that quite rude

NC so you met with Pedro Donald the sponsor of Pride on the Big Screen and he was worried he might get boycotted because of SM's association with an anti-trans event - so he's saying on 5 May he'll be worried his bar will be boycotted
MD yes
NC you didn't do anything about those

... concerns
MD she told me she'd not do it again
NC was that enough then
MD I hadn't had a chance yet to sort it out
NC but you did report it back to the co-chairs

NC we've seen this already - you sent "I was at a meeting today and Pedro Donald the owner of the Sunflower said to me ‘what is
going on with Sara Morrison' - that a number of people had said to him, "what is the BFF Inclusion
Officer doing speaking at a rally with this far right-wing crowd.” He added that the reputation of BFF
as a progressive LGBTQ supportive organisation was at risk."

NC you don't mention the Pride on the Big Screen Event in that message to the co-chairs, do you?
In your WS you mention the Pride in the Big Screen event, but not at the time
MD I was concerned we were going to lose a sponsor
NC if what you say is true that he raised a concern re the PBS event, why you didn't report this back to the co-chairs

NC but he's a sponsor, he's an owner of the pub, and it was where the event was going to take place, so if he wasn't happy, the event wasn't going to happen, was it
MD he sponsored the power supply - the event was going to take place at the Belfast Stories site - he didn't say...

... it wouldn't happen.
NC you don't tell them this is threatening BPS
MD I didn't feel at that point it was a threat to the event
NC presumably it would be quite an important event in your calendar - a big deal
MD it was an event
NC there'd be a lot of work...

... involved - SM would do gfx for it, you'd have to plan to get the screen up, you'd need to advertise it
MD we'd need to put an advert in the brochure if we were on time, use our own channels
NC I'm trying to suggest there's quite a bit of work to do - so can you be...

... specific about what plans had already been formulated by end June
MD we had applied for a licence to the council, we had an event delivery plan
NC written down somewhere?
MD we did a similar event at the same site, so we had it all done, we just needed a name change...

J asks to clarify the event
MD it was the Docs Ireland event in June - so it was a good use of resources... sorry I'm finding it really distracting you...

... keep looking behind you and nodding [MD is addressing Simon Chambers] - they both are [she appears to be addressing Charlott Elves]
J are you taking instruction from your client
[SM is in the room]

SC I'll try to be more discreet.
J Do we need to rise so you can take instruction?
SD perhaps this would be a good time for the mid afternoon break - we've been going 45 mins
[all agree. J rises]

I am going to end this thread here and start a Day 3 Session 3 thread.

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