PBC failed to respond to reports of misconduct, effectively document incidents of harassment, says Public Sector Integrity Commissioner
The Parole Board of Canada (PBC) failed to protect its workers from “unwanted advances” from a former board member over a span of eight years, according to the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner of Canada.
This is because the PBC failed to adequately respond to reports of Michael Sanford’s misconduct and effectively document incidents of harassment, said Harriet Solloway, integrity commissioner.
According to Solloway, Sanford “committed a serious breach of a code of conduct when he repeatedly behaved inappropriately towards female employees.”
And the actions taken by PBC management “failed to convey the seriousness of the matter, and actually fostered an environment that enabled the Board Member’s misconduct.”
Nearly half (47%) of women and 31% of men report experiencing inappropriate sexualized behaviours in a workplace setting, according to a previous Statistics Canada study.
History of ‘unwanted advances’ towards women
The integrity commissioner’s report was based on an investigation it started in May 2022, two months after the office received a disclosure of wrongdoing relating to several incidents involving Sanford.
The investigation found that one employee reported that she started to get “signals” from Sanford that made her feel uncomfortable following their first meeting in April 2014. Sanford repeatedly called her “beautiful” in a flirtatious manner, even after she had asked him to stop. He also pressed his thighs against hers and put his hands on her shoulders and arms, according to the report.
Colleagues noticed the inappropriate behaviour and reported it to the employee’s supervisor. The supervisor recommended that the employee speak to Sanford, and she did. After that, Sanford’s behaviour stopped.
However, in May 2015, while planning a business trip, Sanford suggested that he and the employee reserve rooms in a separate hotel from others and have a private dinner. He also sent her a link to a song about having an affair. The employee reported the incident to her supervisor, but declined to make an official complaint.
PBC management attempted to resolve the matter through informal discussions with Sanford and the employee, and the “inappropriate behaviour” stopped following the intervention.
However, another female employee reported that, in 2019, Sanford entered her workspace and began to sing her a romantic song. He also greeted her with a kiss on the lips at a holiday lunch.
Another female employee reported that, in May 2020, she received a series of text messages in which he asked whether she would like a photo of him, and stated he was “lonely” and “horny.” Employee C responded, “What??? This conversation is DONE!” but Sanford continued to message her and even called her late that night.
A fourth worker noted that between September 2021 and January 2022, she was “sexually harassed” by Sanford. Within that time frame, Sanford:
- indicated to worker that he was having marital problems and was lonely and invited her for drinks
- put his hands on the female worker’s shoulders while she was working at her desk
- repeatedly contacted the worker to make dinner dates, which she declined
- made “specific and lewd comments” regarding her body.
“Following months of unwanted contact, the situation culminated with an incident in January 2022, when Mr. Sanford asked to speak with Employee D. When she refused, he became insistent. Employee D got scared and hid from Mr. Sanford in the washroom. When she exited, Mr. Sanford was still waiting for her and tried to get her into a hearing room alone to talk,” said Integrity Commissioner Solloway.
“Employee D was able to make it to her workspace, where she asked a colleague to wait so that they could leave together. Mr. Sanford’s inappropriate behaviour impacted her so much that she was shaking.”
Resignation in 2022
Sanford was first appointed as a full-time member of the parole board in March 2014 by then Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney. At the time of his appointment to the Ontario regional office in Kingston, he was listed as an inspector with Ottawa's police service, according to a CBC report.
He was reappointed in March 2020 for five years by then Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, according to the report.
Sanford resigned in 2022 after then Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino agreed to hold a judicial inquiry into his behaviour on the recommendation of the board's chairperson Jennifer Oades, who invoked a section of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA).
"This provision in the CCRA is the only mechanism available to exercise discipline, suspend without pay or remove from office a Parole Board of Canada Board member," Oades wrote in her response to Solloway's report. "The Minister agreed to launch this inquiry on April 25, 2022, and when notified about this decision, Mr. Sandford resigned."
In a recent grievance arbitration case in Alberta, a worker was terminated for making inappropriate comments of a sexist nature in the workplace.
Integrity commissioner’s recommendations to combat harassment
Following the investigation, the integrity commissioner made the following recommendations for PBC:
- Implement a structured process to assess the past workplace behaviour of prospective board members, prior to declaring them qualified to hold such a position.
- Establish policies and procedures to manage information related to incidents of harassment in the workplace, to ensure that employees are protected from potential harassment by known perpetrators.
- Conduct a management review of the PBC Ontario Regional Office in Kingston, with particular attention to workplace well-being.
Marie-Lynne Robineau, communications adviser for the Parole Board, said the board's management will heed Solloway's recommendations.
"The Parole Board of Canada's senior leadership team is committed to ensuring compliance with these recommendations and will undertake necessary follow-up action," Robineau said, according to CBC.
The PBC also concurred that the incidents that occurred in 2014 and 2015 were not properly documented. However, Oades’s office does not agree that these “serious errors enabled new PBC management to ignore the evidence of Mr. Sanford’s prior misconduct” and enabled his appointment to the Board in 2020, according to the PBC response detailed in the integrity commissioner’s report.
“The new PBC management did not have this information and therefore could not act on it. I would also like to clarify that Mr. Sanford had to reapply for his second appointment and was subject to an open, transparent and merit-based process, which included questions related to past workplace behaviour at both the interview and reference stage of the process,” said Oades.
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