# 2012-066 Harassment

Case Summary

F&R Date: 2012–09–14

The grievor, a member of the Regular Force who was posted to a bilingual unit, alleged that he was subjected to racism, prejudice and mistreatment by his superior officer who, knowing he was a unilingual Anglophone, conducted the vast majority of his meetings in French without providing translation assistance. The grievor further alleged that, at the bilingual unit and on deployment, his superior officer used racially charged language directed at visible minorities in general and at him in particular. The grievor also complained that he was selected for posting from the bilingual unit because he was single.

As redress, the grievor requested apologies from his superior officer for the harassment and from his chain of command for failing to listen to his complaint. He further requested that he be reimbursed for his legal fees and receive support for a compensatory ex-gratia payment. He also requested that the harassment policy be revisited.

The initial authority (IA), the Formation Commander, ordered an administrative investigation to examine the grievor's complaint. The IA accepted the results of the investigation and concluded that there did not appear to have been a deliberate intent to disadvantage Anglophones, that there was sufficient evidence to indicate professional shortcomings on the part of the grievor's superior officer, and that the decision to post the grievor was based on his inability to deploy and not on his marital status. The IA granted partial redress, directing a review of the process for selecting personnel to be posted to the unit, a review of the application of the official language and harassment policies, and that a copy of his conclusions be forwarded to the new Commanding Officer of the grievor's former superior officer.

The Board found that the Harassment Guidelines were not followed by the investigation and that the concept of harassment seemed to have been misapplied and misunderstood by the investigating officer. The Board concluded that the fatally flawed investigation, as well as the IA decision which relied exclusively on the results of the flawed investigation, should be set aside.

Since the original complaint lacked a proper investigation, the Board found that it was not possible to consider the merits of the allegations and that a procedurally fair and complete harassment investigation was required.

Additionally, the Board observed that had the grievor responded to requests from his chain of command to provide full written details of his harassment complaint, a proper harassment investigation could have been undertaken much earlier and the procedural issues that arose during the grievance process could have been avoided.

The Board recommended that the Chief of the Defence Staff partially uphold the grievance by directing that a new harassment investigation be conducted.

The Board further recommended that any administrative action against the grievor's former superior officer be stayed or cancelled and any record thereof purged from his files pending the results of a new investigation.

Finally, the Board suggested that the harassment and grievance policies be coordinated so as to ensure that grievances regarding harassment are dealt with under the harassment policy.

CDS Decision Summary

CDS Decision Date: 2013–03–04

The CDS agreed with the Board's findings and recommendation that the grievance be partially upheld by directing that a new harassment investigation be conducted. The CDS also agreed that administration action against the grievor's superior be cancelled and struck from his records pending the outcome of this investigation.

Regarding the Board's observation, the CDS directed Chief - Military Personnel, with the Assistant Deputy Minister Human Ressources - Civilian, will harmonize the Harassment Prevention and Resolution Guidelines with DAOD 2017-1 to make it clear that harassment complaints must first be dealt with under the harassment policy and only after a proper harassment investigation has been completed.