services in union-busting. During a round of bargaining in October 2016, Herald made numerous additional demands, including further cuts to the union's bargaining power, reduced sick leave pay, a further four per cent wage cut, eight more layoffs (amounting to a total of 26 layoffs), and the closure of Local Xpress and the signing-over of all Local Xpress content to the Herald. In November 2016 the union filed a complaint with the Nova Scotia Labour Board accusing the Herald management of "bargaining in a manner designed to end union representation", preventing an agreement from being reached. As a result of this strike, CEO Mark Lever won rankandfile.ca's annual Scumbag of the Year award for 2016. It was the second time in three years a Nova Scotian won this award. Strikebreakers and quality issues Throughout the strike, the Halifax Typographical Union used social media to draw light to typographical and factual errors that plagued the paper since the strike began, and alleged that these quality issues were a result of using inexperienced "scab" staff. In addition, the union and others lambasted the strikebreakers for questionable journalistic practices. The use of strikebreakers is banned in many countries, but Quebec is the only jurisdiction within Canada that outlaws the practice. Several faculty members at the University of King's College, which is well-regarded for its journalism program, advised graduating students against crossing the picket line. The Herald approached several King's students and were rebuffed. Investigative journalist Tim Bousquet, of the Halifax Examiner, questioned the newspaper's practice of printing advertorial content nearly indistinguishable from regular news. Similarly, the union pointed out instances of the "scab Herald" reprinting press releases nearly verbatim. Of the quality of the newspaper during the strike, Bousquet wrote: "Without the professional journalists, the paper is crap [...] The Herald has zero credibility. And the complete abandonment of any journalistic standards is showing in spades." Alex Boutilier of the Toronto Star spoke out after the Herald reprinted one of his articles and attributed it to his name only, with no mention of the Star, making it appear as though he was writing as a strikebreaker. Boutilier stated that he could not find the piece on The Canadian Press news wire while Bousquet commented that aside from the Star, the Herald appears to have been the only other newspaper to print the story. The Herald subsequently removed his byline from the online edition.