Harassment complaints soaring
Internal data shows surge in employee complaints at CRA and Canada Post
OTTAWA — Complaints of workplace harassment and violence have risen sharply at several federal departments and agencies in recent years, according to internal data.
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) saw harassment complaints jump 82 per cent to 166 between 2016-17 and 2018-19.
The RCMP says it received 1,132 harassment complaints over a five-year period, with numbers increasing by more than 50 per cent between 2015 and 2017 before levelling off.
The RCMP figures follow an independent report in November on misogyny and homophobia in its ranks that called for fundamental change to rid the Mounties of a toxic culture.
At Canada Post, complaints about workplace violence have grown every year since at least 2011, doubling to 641 between 2011 and 2015 and swelling to 870 in 2019. Most concern interactions with the public rather than fellow mail carriers.
Harassment complaints filed to Fisheries and Oceans Canada shot up to 66 in 2018-19 from four in 2016-17.
In a response to an order paper question from the NDP, the CRA said the figures “are not necessarily an indication of more discrimination and harassment,” but rather the result of greater public awareness and beefed-up internal processes that encourage victims to come forward.
“It is not clear whether these statistics can be attributed to an increase in reporting or an increase in incidents,” Mary-Liz
Power, press secretary for Public Safety Minister Bill Blair — who oversees the RCMP — said in an email.
She highlighted efforts that include an Independent Centre for Harassment Resolution set to launch this summer and a management advisory board established in 2019 to identify internal policy improvements around violence and harassment at the police agency.
New Democrats sought to link the higher complaint tallies to the Liberal government, which the NDP says has avoided reforms toward a healthier environment for federal employees.
“In the context of the investigation report on the former governor general that led to her resignation ... the Liberals knew that federal workers were increasingly subjected to a toxic and insecure working climate
and failed to take the right measures to improve the working conditions of civil servants,” NDP labour critic Scott Duvall said in an email.
The accusation comes after reports of habitual bullying and belittling of staff by Julie Payette, who stepped down as governor general last month.
Duff Conacher, co-founder of advocacy group Democracy Watch, said the federal integrity commissioner and a broader consciousness around workplace mistreatment have helped root out bad actors, but the government has not followed through on recommendations from a parliamentary committee to protect whistleblowers in the public service.
A government operations committee report from 2017 sought to shield federal workers who speak up about wrongdoing,
including harassment, through amendments that would prevent employer retaliation and shift the burden of proof from the whistleblower to the government in cases of reprisal.
“You’re going to have a lawyer paid for. You’re going to be rewarded if your claims are found true. If they try to do anything to retaliate against you’ll get compensation for that,” Conacher said of the would-be legislation.
“In other words, you won’t be on your own ... and you can do it anonymously.
“Obviously that deters people from harassing people and abusing them in other ways, because you know that person is going to have a place to go that is dedicated to protecting them,” Conacher said.
WASHINGTON — The warden who ran the beleaguered federal jail when disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein killed himself has been put in charge of another prison despite an ongoing federal investigation and in direct contradiction of a public pronouncement from the Bureau of Prisons that it would delay any move until the inquiry was finished.
Lamine N’Diaye was placed into the position of acting warden at FCI Fort Dix, a low-security prison in Burlington County, N.J., earlier this month, according to four people familiar with the matter. They were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The bureau had attempted to place N’Diaye in the job at Fort Dix about a year ago, but the move was stopped by then-Attorney General William Barr after The Associated Press reported the transfer. The bureau said at the time that it would defer any transfer until the investigations surrounding Epstein’s death had concluded.
The Justice Department’s inspector general has not completed an investigation into lapses that allowed Epstein to end his life. Officials have said they would not conclude the criminal case against two officers who were supposed to be guarding Epstein before the watchdog’s review could finish. Those officers are awaiting trial on charges they lied on prison records because they were sleeping and browsing the internet
instead of doing their jobs.
The department also is conducting an internal review into the circumstances that led to Epstein’s death, including why he wasn’t given a cellmate.
The bureau refused to answer questions about why it was once again transferring N’Diaye despite the continuing investigation, whether senior agency officials had sought approval from the top levels of the Justice Department or who authorized the transfer.
The warden’s reassignment points to further dysfunction inside an agency already under fire on a number of fronts: chronic violence and staffing issues at its facilities, the highprofile deaths of Epstein and Whitey Bulger, a coronavirus outbreak at federal prisons that sickened thousands of inmates and led to 220 inmate deaths, and an unprecedented number
of executions in the span of just a few months after a 17-year hiatus.
Barr ordered N’Diaye be reassigned to a desk post at the bureau’s regional office in Pennsylvania after Epstein’s death as the FBI and the inspector general investigated. Epstein took his own life in August 2019 at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City while awaiting trial.
His suicide cast a spotlight on the federal prison agency, which has been plagued for years by a staffing shortage and violence, and on safety lapses inside one of the most secure jails in America. In recent months, the bureau has struggled to address the exploding number of coronavirus cases amid criticism that it didn’t do enough to stop the spread of the virus.
N’Diaye is being placed at a prison where more than 61 per
cent of the inmates have tested positive for the virus. As of Monday, the bureau said 1,610 of them had recovered. Thirty-six staff members at the prison also have current positive test results for the virus and one inmate died.
Shortly before N’Diaye’s move, the former warden at Fort Dix was reassigned to the agency’s regional office weeks after members of Congress from New Jersey raised questions about the number of coronavirus cases at the prison and concerns about the transfer of federal inmates. The letter, signed by Democratic Sens. Robert Menendez and Cory Booker and 10 House Democrats, said it was “clear that BOP does not have an effective plan to ensure COVID-19 positive incarcerated individuals are not transferred between facilities.”