# 2021-092 Careers, Cancellation of a deployment

Case summary

F&R Date: 2021-11-26

A news article was published in 2020 concerning a complaint that had been made against the grievor several years earlier, in 2016. Shortly thereafter, the grievor's Outside-of-Canada (OUTCAN) posting was cancelled and an investigation was initiated. The grievor's Chain of Command had dealt with the complaint—which concerned a racist flyer posted in the office—informally at the time that the incident occurred; there was no record of the incident in the grievor's personnel file. The investigation concluded in 2021 and the grievor was not charged with any offence. The grievor grieved the decision to cancel his posting.

There was no Initial Authority decision in this matter.

The Committee found that the decision to cancel the grievor's posting in 2020 was reasonable due to the lack of documentation concerning the incident in the grievor's personnel file and the pending investigation. However, the Committee found that the grievor had been aggrieved by the Canadian Armed Forces' (CAF) failure to take appropriate steps to address the complaint at the time it was originally made. The grievor had never denied his role in the incident; the CAF's failure to adequately address or document it in 2016 left the grievor's superiors with little choice in 2020 but to initiate a lengthy investigation and cancel the grievor's posting. The Committee recommended that the CAF facilitate an appropriate OUTCAN posting for the grievor at the earliest opportunity.

FA decision summary

The CDS disagreed in part with the Committee's findings and he disagreed with the Committee's recommendation that the CAF should facilitate a suitable OUTCAN posting for the grievor at the earliest opportunity. The CDS was of the view that it would have been inappropriate to post the grievor to a multi-national environment where he would be working with employees from multiple nations until such time as the investigation was completed. Any other approach would have conveyed the wrong message, and the CAF takes these allegations seriously. As such, the CDS found that it was reasonable under the circumstances to cancel the grievor's posting until such time as the investigation was completed. There is no assessment by the CDS to actions taken against the grievor, and the fact these actions, including a lengthy investigation, were taken because the incident was made public by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation four years after its occurrence and the grievor's apology, and the fact that the grievor continued to not be considered for OUTCAN postings once the investigation resumed. The CDS agreed with the Committee's observation that the remedial measure was administered almost four years after the first incident and three years after the second, and this is contrary to the spirit and intent of the Defence Administrative Orders and Directives 5019-4. However, the CDS was of the view that although the remedial measure was issued outside what is considered to be a timely manner, it has provided the grievor with additional guidance and tools to ensure he was aware of what is appropriate in a workplace.