Paul Bernardo trial witness loses job
Man diagnosed with PTSD stemming from murder lost job with spy agency
An appeal court has thrown out a wrongful dismissal suit filed by a former spy agency employee who says it ignored the fact he suffered PTSD from his involvement in the Paul Bernardo murder case.
A Divisional Court appeal panel overturned a lower-court ruling and halted the lawsuit of Martin McSweeney, a former Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) computer specialist.
The panel said McSweeney cannot turn to the courts for help since he failed to take advantage of a specially-designed process to challenge his April 2013 dismissal — an event triggered by the loss of his top-secret security clearance.
Under provisions of the CSIS Act, spy agency employees can ask the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC) to investigate and report upon a security clearance denial. The court said McSweeny should have taken his case to SIRC, and it deemed his lawsuit an abuse of process.
According to court documents, McSweeney suffers from extreme anxiety and post-traumatic stress — conditions brought on, in part, by Paul Bernardo’s murder of Burlington schoolgirl Leslie Mahaffy.
McSweeney, then 15, walked Mahaffy home after a bush party on the night Bernardo abducted her from her yard in Burlington.
McSweeney told Bernardo’s 1995 murder trial that he last saw Mahaffy at 1:50 a.m. When he left her, McSweeney testified, she was standing in front of the garage; he assumed she was about to go in the front door.
He told court Mahaffy was worried about a confrontation with her parents because she had overstayed her curfew by several hours.
“Don’t worry,” he quoted Mahaffy as telling him. “Call me in the morning.”
It turned out Mahaffy was locked out of the house. Two weeks later, her dismembered body was found encased in cement in a lake near St. Catharines, Ont.
Although traumatized by his experience, McSweeney went on to earn a degree from the University of Western Ontario and a PhD in software engineering from Royal Military College. He was hired as computer programmer with CSIS in June 2003.
He saw a therapist for his mental health issues, but in April 2012, the therapist broke off contact with him due to her concern he had developed a romantic attachment. He was charged with criminal harassment after allegedly leaving her a profanity-laced voicemail.
That September, he was charged a second time with criminal harassment in connection with an email sent to Ontario Court Justice Lesley Baldwin, one of the Crown prosecutors in the Bernardo case.
CSIS placed McSweeney on paid leave. In February 2013, then-CSIS director Richard Fadden informed him his top-secret security clearance had been suspended. McSweeney was also told he could formally challenge the suspension within 30 days, but he didn’t take advantage of that opportunity or seek a deadline extension.
McSweeney later told court he was experiencing a mental health crisis at the time, and was unaware of his rights.
Without security clearance, McSweeney couldn’t work for CSIS, and he was dismissed in April 2013. Two months later, he asked to have both his clearance and job reinstated, but those appeals — and subsequent grievances — were denied.
In October 2013, all of the criminal charges against him were thrown out of court when a judge ruled he had been denied the right to a trial within a reasonable amount of time.
McSweeney filed suit against the federal government in May 2015. The government immediately sought to have the claim dismissed, but in February 2016, Ontario Superior Court Judge Grant Dow ruled it could proceed.
Without security clearance, McSweeney couldn’t work for CSIS, and he was dismissed in April 2013