CBC/Radio-Canada on Thursday made a surprise announcement that Sylvain Lafrance, EVP of French Services, will leave the public broadcaster in October after 33 years of service.

Lafrance in a statement listed off a number of career achievements to suggest the time was right to step down.

“TV, radio and web integration is now a done deal. We’ve begun to build a lively presence on digital platforms. Our efforts to diversify our revenue streams have produced stellar results. And, last but not least, our programming now strikes what I feel is an optimal balance between our need to be distinctive and our obligation to be a unifying force,” he said.

But speculation over Lafrance’s sudden departure immediately focused on a long-running legal dispute the CBC/Radio-Canada boss had with Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau.

Peladeau in 2007 sued Lafrance as part of a $700,000 defamation suit for calling him a voyou, which translates as “thug” or “delinquent,” in a Quebec newspaper interview after Quebecor stopped paying into the then-Canadian Television Fund, a key source of funding for the CBC.

The case was settled out of court last month.

Lafrance in an interview Thursday with the Montreal Gazette denied any link between his legal troubles with Peladeau and his departure.

“There’s no connection at all,” Lafrance told the newspaper.

CBC/Radio-Canada has started a search for his successor.

Lafrance first joined Radio-Canada in 1978 as a reporter. By 1998, he was vice-president of Radio de Radio-Canada, and in 2005 became EVP of French Services.