LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 63
eir report made nine recommenda-
tions and pointed out CBC management's
numerous missed opportunities to act ear-
lier to mitigate Ghomeshi's toxic impact on
the women he worked with. It has served as
a guideline of what to do when rumours or
complaints of bullying, harassment, sexual
harassment or other destructive behaviours
circulate through a workplace. Two things
stood out in the report for Gallagher
Healy. e first was about capacity — the
resources at hand, especially a clear policy
and proper training that give an organizai-
ton ways to prevent or reduce harassment
of any kind. Only then can an organization
investigate and deal with harassment if it
happens. e CBC was found lacking.
"e other idea that came out of the
Ghomeshi situation was this idea of 'host
culture,'" says Gallagher Healy. "is idea
that the host was untouchable. What the
report ultimately drives home for employ-
ers," continues Gallagher Healy, "is that
no one is untouchable. Everyone should be
bound by the proper rules of how we treat
each other."
Gallagher Healy got a lot of anxious
questions from clients aer the Ghomeshi
report went public, "particularly around
the issue of, when is there sufficient infor-
mation [before the complaint] for the em-
ployer to take action or do an investigation."
Oen, especially when harassment involves
superiors, victims are reluctant to file offi-
cial complaints for fear of inaction or retri-
bution. So they suffer silently. It doesn't help
that, in Canada, some companies still fail to
provide adequate means for harassment vic-
tims to discreetly and reassuringly express
their complaints through the right process.
Rubin omlinson recently surveyed
companies about, among other things, the
percentage of employers that had improved
their harassment complaint mechanisms
with a confidential hotline.
Janice Rubin was dismayed by the re-
sults. e respondents were generally from
companies that had more proactive harass-
ment policies, "yet only 50 per cent of them
had [created a hotline]," she says.
Clearly, from the cases worming to the
surface in the US, there's been a long-stand-
ing and significant sense of untouchability
by powerful men across a wide spectrum
of business and political arenas. at has
ranged all the way up to the presidency of
the United States. Bill Clinton allegedly
propositioned and exposed himself, with-
out consent, to Paula Jones and, though he
paid an $850,000 out-of-court settlement,
he le office with the highest approval rat-
ing of any president since the Second World
War. More recently Americans have seen
Donald Trump elected to the country's
SHANA FRENCH
>
SHERRARD KUZZ LLP
If you don't have
a workplace policy on sexual
harassment and provide
training on it, and hold your
managers accountable for it,
there is significant liability.
Not just from a brand
perspective, but from
a legal perspective.
| IN-HOUSE ADVISOR: HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE |
