Sunshine Village ski area in Banff National Park is facing a $435,000 “wrongful firing” lawsuit and accusations of nepotism after the resort terminated four longtime safety staff in the wake of an incident allegedly involving the son of the resort’s owner, who was caught skiing a closed area.
According to court documents, Taylor Scurfield, son of Sunshine Village owner Ralph Scurfield, was discovered December 17 skiing in a closed area with friends. After being escorted out of the closure by a first year patrolman, Scurfield threatened to “make the ski patrolmen pay,” according to the suit. Twelve days later, four senior employees, Rowan Harper, Chris Chevalier, Ben Chevalier and Chris Conway (Mountain Operations Manager, Snow Safety Manager, Lift Operations Supervisor, and Chief Patroller, respectively), were allegedly fired after being privately questioned about the incident by the senior Scurfield. According to court documents, the stated reasons for their terminations included “loss of trust” and “clerical errors made on waivers.” Chris Chevalier and Rowan Harper have both worked at Sunshine for more than 25 years. The lawsuit, filed January 26, is asking for almost half a million dollars in damages related to lost wages and benefits for all four personnel.
Charlie Hitchman, the patroller whose interaction with the junior Scurfield trigger the brouhaha, was also terminated after allegedly refusing to write a letter of apology for the incident. Hitchman is still considering whether to join the lawsuit.
Sunshine’s media and marketing director, Doug Firby, declined to comment on either the firings or lawsuit, stating it was “against company policy.”
“It is our position that the personnel involved were doing exactly what they’re trained to do in order to maintain safety on the hill,” says Andrew Robertson, the lawyer representing the four employees.
On January 19, all but six patrollers staged a sick-day walkout in protest and the resort opened with only three of 12 lifts running, giving skiers discounted passes. Two of those patrollers, Craig McArthur and Jock Richardson, were fired the next day.
“I got fired, they didn’t give me a reason, they just said it was just cause,” McArthur told the Calgary Herald. “Then they escorted me from the property.” McArthur said he was told he would be prosecuted for trespassing if he returned.
Given Sunshine Village’s reputation is a family-oriented ski area with a deep sense of community among both staff and skiers, the loss of such prominent longtime personnel has prompted no small amount of anger and frustration—some of which was vented on the resort’s Facebook page. That page appears to have been disabled — links on the Sushine home page lead only to facebook.com — but a mirrored version is available with plenty of critical comments. Though the resort denies any negative morale issues among the staff, tensions continue to mount.
A “Support Ski Patrol” page has recently appeared on Facebook and members of the community have held fund raising gatherings in nearby Canmore.
“When the owner starts firing people because they dared to enforce the resort’s policy on closed runs by escorting skiers who violate it off the hill, even if those skiers are their relatives, something is wrong,” said one patrol member who declined to be identified. “The problem is that losing guys like that who have done so much to help the area grow over the last two decades not only hurts morale, it raises some pretty disturbing safety issues for everyone.”
One additional detail that makes the situation ironic is the fact that Ralph Scurfield, Sr., father of Sunshine’s current owner, grandfather of the skier caught in a closed area, was killed in an avalanche in 1985 while heliskiing.
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{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
Provided this is the full story, I’m not at all surprised. Another parent who can’t stand to see his or her child screw up. Always there with the safety net. Nice work, dad.
Even if they lose the lawsuit, at least they’ve made it a pain in the ass for the village owner.
Excellent reporting of the situation. Pretty much defines the term ‘lose/lose’ for everyone involved. Including the paying public as well.
Sunshine owner is an …… if his kid was injured would he fire ski patrol if they helped!!
Good things their are lots of other Good sk areas ….i was hoping to go to Sunshine but not now !!
Way to go Ralfy. Maybe you were hoping to be rid of Taylor in the same manner you lost the old man? What ever, you have definitely lost the local community. A case of “do as I do and not as I say”. Ski hill run by another little rich dictator who cannot see clearly from the bottom of the bottle. To hell with you and Mubarak. I say ski x-country for free and BOYCOTT SSV.
What a dirtbag. Guess I won’t ski there again.
Love you Chris!!!!! What the hell is going on there??? Rules are rules in the ski industry and if the little bleepity bleep breaks them he should be treated the same. I don’t care what you own, if the bleepity bleep can read I may suggest the stats on avalanche deaths in closed areas. Patrol are trained to keep such cityidiots out of these areas, keeping guests/staff safe is what they do. The Skiers Responsibility Code should be tattooed on his ass since his head is up there most of the time. My name is Susan MacDonald and that’s my story.
I love you Susan!
I never went or cared to go to Sunshine and after reading this im flabergasted that these moron are actually able to own a ski resort.
i can just imagine how that went,,,,,daddy,daddy said the boy in tears,,,that mean old safety ski patroller made me and my other rich pals, come away from our skiing in a closed secrtion,,,,,now what are going to do about it….i suppose he said,,,dont worry my little man, he will pay for picking on my boy….actually what mr. scuffield should have done is thanked the ski patroller, and given him a commendation… instead he basically fired the patroller for possibly saving his son and his pals from serious injury or worse…
This is a direct quote from the safety page on sunshine’s website.:
Obey signage. Closed areas are NOT optional or “at your own risk.” People violating closures, slow skiing zones and other safety requirements may be immediately removed from the resort.
I guess this means nothing when you own the resort.
Now imagine what would have happened if his son would have died if they didn’t stop them?? I think Mr Scurfield should be thankful that they were following the rules and protecting his son’s safety. No matter how great a skier/snowboarder you are, anything can happen out there. the fact that they followed procedure and abided by their training, they should be given a medal, not repremanded.
Shame on those who believe rules don’t apply to them.. and shame on management for getting rid of the solution to the problem and not the problem itself.
Letting go of those who have shown years of committment and desire to keep everyone who visits there safe has given me less desire to come to the resort as I know I will be safer elsewhere knowing you no longer have a well-trained ski patrol team. I would rather spend my money where I know my life is not in danger because the owners son has his own way.
For the junior Scurfield.. it sounds like you are just like your grandfather.. wreckless and unconcerned about anyone else but yourself. It goes to show that safety is not a concern to you.
wow
godspeed
All these people who say they will boycott Sunshine are going to really miss out in Sunshine’s pre season deals next year. Ralph will just drop the season’s pass price so low that as much as you will hate what he did, you won’t be able to pass up the discount. You’ll be back. Also despite the fact that Ralph probably fired the lads because of his spoiled brat son, he wouldn’t be so stupid to not have the paperwork to cover his butt. Reality is, he probably has reason to fire everyone at Sunshine for something they have done but if he did, he’d have nobody to work for $8/hr.
Well, I am sure the grandfather is rolling over in his grave………having died in an avalanche, with any luck this spoiled little puke will too. Having read the good that the grandfather did in his life it is very disappointing he raised such a poor person to have raised an even worse one. Unfortunately money is not all that matters to these pompus scumbags, power and disgracing people is at the top of there list.
What a joke!! I will not ski there anymore. I know my loss my season pass will not make a difference to these Jack-a’s ,but at least I will be able to ski knowing I am not supporting that spoiled brat’s trust fund/inheritance. My father would leave me out of his will, if i ever acted like that !
It is encouraging to read so many comments regarding the recent Fiasco about the Firing of dedicated Ski
Patrollers. This shows that a lot of people share the same opinion, that this was wrongful dismissal and I hope
that Mr.Scurfield will have to compensate these Patrollers for their Job Loss. Mr Scurfield showed extremely poor Judgement when he protected his spoiled Brat Son and his Friends instead of taking their Lift Privileges
away. I know that boycotting Sunshine Village in Future by a few thousand people would hurt Mr.Scurfield but this will probably never happen. Some People have already mentioned that they will no longer ski at sunshine;
I hope many more will do the same. The Amount of $ 400.000 should be increased tenfold and Mr.Scurfield
should apologize to the Patrollers and if they still want to work there, they should be given their Jobs back.
Spread the word, skiers and Boarders everywhere and ski in other Areas where Patrollers are treated with the Dignity they deserve.
http://www.facebook.com/SupportSkiPatrol
If this is a true story, I won’t go skiing there again in support of those who have lost their living for such a stupid reason. They will definitely prevail in court those guys, they should ask for much more money.
Scurfield… It’s cool there is a new way to say retard with out actually using the word retard. Wow that guy sure is a Scurfield.
Provided that this wasn’t the full story, Sunshine has submitted their Statement of Defense outlining the causes for termination (theft, extortion, sexual harassment, amongst others…)
Senior staff and managers were stealing from the company and clients, drinking while on duty and while operating machinery, endangering the public, and demanding and then pocketing cash from clients and guests. Over $12,000 was discovered in their “Patrollers Benevolent Fund” which was made up of selling booze, charging guests for medical supplies, and teaching avi certification courses for cash, while they were supposed to be working for the hill!?!
Copies of the Statements of Defense can be found here:
http://ramzee.net/Files/SSVDefence.pdf
http://ramzee.net/Files/TTSDefence.pdf
Sunshine’s “allegations” are just as valid as the fired employee’s “allegations”. I can’t wait for discovery at trial, when Sunshine will have to provide evidence and the four will have to explain themselves!!!
Isn’t that resort on crown land? Shouldn’t someone with more integrity maybe be running the place?
What a disgusting example these scurfields are.
I’ll never ski there.
Granted, Ralphie has done some dumb moves in the past… this one I would not call such a dumb one after-all. This is the other part of the story:
http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/Sunshine+Scurfields+fire+back+after+avalanche+slurs/4388038/story.html
If you have worked at sunshine you will find that as there is probably some truth what Chevy’s has to say, there is probably lots in the defense of Sunshine claims.
For now, I will ski there!
What a crock of BS! Facebook has wimped out and censured due to Sunshines threats. “Power Corrupts, Absolute Power Corrupts Absolute”.
Robin Hood.
CMac
I suggest that you read the “Reply to Defense” that was filed on March 11 and posted here on March 14.
http://www.ramzee.net/blog/?p=8578
After reading these documents, I would be interested in your comments.
I may be wrong, but I think that some of the 12g in the “Patrollers Benevolence Fund” gets donated to cancer research or something.
CMac.. you jumped right on the SSV support wagon…..”theft, extortion, sexual harassment…senior staff and managers were stealing from the company and clients, drinking while on duty and while operating machinery, endangering the public, and demanding and then pocketing cash from clients and guests.”
Do read the response to the lofty claims made by SSV.
keep in mind that throughout this, SSV/owners/staff have lied, corrupted the media, pressured people to stay quiet, have created/generated missleading comments everywhere and refuse to reply to questions on thier blog that they know only proves how self serving SSV remains. Prior to this several people did not return to the hill this year, several have since quit and more will be fired or quit before this is over.
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