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Investigations Involving Health Care Providers – 5 Questions to Ask at the Start

October 23, 2019
| By Janela Jovellano

Being the daughter of a retired health care provider, I observed from an early age the balancing act of providing patient-centred care while wanting to do one’s best in a workplace that can be emotionally charged, fast-paced and ever-changing (I know that these descriptors not only apply to working in health care generally, but could apply to an employee’s experience in just one shift). 

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Starting an Investigation when no one asked (or wanted) you to

October 21, 2019
| By Sarah Hellmann

You hear things.  A whisper here and there.  An overheard comment about a colleague crossing the line with another colleague.  Repeatedly.  Or maybe it’s more than a whisper.  Maybe it’s more of a resounding chorus.  And the voices are all offering alarmingly similar and compelling descriptions of a colleague engaging in a pattern of behaviour that – according to multiple reports – is decidedly unwelcome.  The information may even be set out in writing in a formal letter of complaint.  But the author of the letter has chosen to remain anonymous.

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“She told you what?!” How to use confidant evidence in a workplace investigation

October 17, 2019
| By Elizabeth Bingham

When we ask complainants in a workplace investigation whether there were any witnesses to the events that form the basis of their allegations, it is not uncommon to hear, “Well no, but I told my partner/best friend/colleague everything.” This is especially true in cases of sexual harassment or assault, where the events in question often take place in private, without witnesses present.

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Too Scared to say #MeToo: Are you the Silencer?

October 4, 2019
| By Dana J. Campbell

I recently attended a talk at Hot Docs on the book ‘Had it Coming: What’s fair in the Age of #MeToo’ authored by journalist Robyn Doolittle. In this book, Doolittle challenges the social attitude around sexual behaviour and sexual assault. She advances the notion that the “laws aren’t the problem,” as Canada has some of the most progressive sexual assault laws.  Instead, the problem is our attitudes, more particularly the negative attitudes of police officers and those in the justice system, and the myths that pervade those institutions. These attitudes have adversely impacted the way sexual assault complaints are handled in Canada. 

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