NC-301 - Harassment

The Appellant brought a harassment complaint (Complaint) against the Alleged Harasser, who held a supervisory role at his Detachment. The Complaint contained a total of 35 alleged incidents involving the Alleged Harasser. An investigation took place, as a result of which the Appellant, Alleged Harasser and several other witnesses provided statements. Investigators also gathered relevant documentation. After reviewing the investigation report, the Respondent issued a written Decision, finding that the Complaint was not established.

The Appellant appealed the Respondent’s Decision. He provided arguments relating to the Respondent’s individual assessments of a number of incidents. He also argued that the Respondent had not properly conducted the required cumulative assessment of the events alleged in the Complaint.

The ERC found that the appeal should be allowed because the Decision was clearly unreasonable and was based on errors of law.

The Decision was clearly unreasonable because of certain findings made by the Respondent when individually assessing incidents. In some instances, these individual findings omitted to grapple with important evidence. In other instances, the rationales underlying the findings contained reviewable errors.

The Decision also contained errors of law. The Respondent had imported the Alleged Harasser’s intent and subjective opinion into the assessment of certain individual incidents, rather than relying on an objective test based on the perspective of a reasonable person.

The Respondent’s reasons recognized the principle that harassment is normally a series of incidents, and indicated that the incidents had been reviewed in their totality. However, the above-noted errors impacted the Respondent’s ability to properly assess whether the series of events outlined in the Complaint could reasonably have been construed as harassment.

The ERC recommends that the appeal be allowed, and the matter be remitted to a new decision-maker, for a new decision.