COC to expand Aubut probe
MONTREAL • The Canadian Olympic Committee has announced an expanded investigation into the actions of its president, Marcel Aubut, after two additional women came forward with stories of sexual harassment.
“The Canadian Olympic Committee finds the allegations that have appeared recently in the media extremely disturbing,” the committee said in a statement Friday.
On Wednesday, the committee announced that Aubut was stepping down from his position as president while a retired judge conducted an investigation into a formal complaint of harassment from one of Aubut’s colleagues.
Since then, Montreal lawyer Amélia Salehabadi-Fouques and an anonymous former assistant to Aubut have gone to the media with stories of mistreatment by Aubut.
Salehabadi-Fouques said Aubut, 67, planted an unwanted kiss on her mouth after one meeting, lured her to another event in an attempt to sleep with her and later propositioned her in front of her teenage son. The former assistant at Aubut’s law firm told TVA Aubut regularly groped her and once called her into a conference room where he was in his boxers. She eventually quit the firm.
As the crisis inside Canada’s main amateur-sport body deepened Friday, the committee called on anyone with “a concern” about harassment by anyone within the organization to contact it. It said it is seeking an independent third party to look into allegations beyond the formal one submitted on Sept. 25 by one of Aubut’s co-workers. The first complaint is being investigated by François Rolland, former chief justice of Quebec Superior Court.
“Having a workplace environment that is healthy and safe for all of our employees is critical to our organization, and we will examine every possible way to enhance those protections,” the committee said.
“We are very concerned by the allegations that have been made and about the well-being of those who may be affected.”
Aubut, who issued a brief statement Wednesday saying he “never intended to offend or upset anyone,” declined an invitation to respond Friday to the new allegations and the expanded investigation.
La Presse reported Friday that Aubut had been warned by the COC in 2011 to stop touching female employees and making sexual allusions in front of them. The newspaper obtained a letter to Aubut from the COC’s then secretary-general detailing “serious allegations” stemming from an event in Moncton. The letter said Aubut was observed touching inappropriately and kissing a woman at the event. Because the woman did not file a complaint, there was no investigation and the committee was satisfied with Aubut’s assurance that the behaviour would stop, La Presse reported.
In an interview with the
It will help others to come out and to put a stop to it
National Post, Salehabadi-Fouques, a member of Soccer Canada’s board of directors, said the COC did not do enough after the 2011 incident. “They could have prevented other women from being put in that position, and I feel they did not do it,” she said.
She said she did not initially come forward with her story because she feared the impact it could have on her career.
“I’m a professional lawyer with a lot of experience abroad in very difficult situations,” she said. “I’m used to those kind of comments. I want to do business. I don’t want to be a victim.”
But when she heard news Wednesday of the harassment complaint against Aubut, she said she felt obliged to tell her story. And she felt guilty that she had not spoken up earlier. “I think if more women stand together and say, ‘ No, we were victims. We don’t agree with it,’ it will help others to come out and to put a stop to it,” she said.