A CSIS officer’s allegations that she was raped repeatedly by a superior in company automobiles set off a harassment inquiry but additionally triggered an investigation into her that concluded the alleged assaults had been a “misuse” of company automobiles by the girl.
She is identical officer whose sexual assault allegations in a story revealed by The Canadian Press prompted public pledges of reform final 12 months from David Vigneault, the director of the Canadian Safety Intelligence Service.
The officer stated she was by no means advised she was the topic of an investigation, or that it concluded she dedicated misconduct by utilizing “service tools” to conduct what the investigator’s report stated was a “romantic relationship with a colleague.”
The lady stated she believed the investigation was reprisal for her rape criticism, and she or he solely discovered in regards to the probe this 12 months, 10 months after its conclusion, when she made an access-to-information request for her private data held by the service.
She stated she “completely was not” in a consenting relationship with the opposite officer.
The five-page “administration report” by an out of doors celebration, which the officer supplied to The Canadian Press, says they had been retained by CSIS on Nov. 18, 2021, to analyze “allegations of misconduct in opposition to” the girl.
That was eight days after she had formally complained to CSIS that she was raped 9 instances by an officer many years older than her, who had been assigned to mentor her on surveillance missions as her “highway coach.”
The lady can’t be named due to a legislation banning identification of covert officers, however she is known as “Jane Doe” in a earlier lawsuit in opposition to the federal government.
The Canadian Press first outlined her allegations final November.
She and one other surveillance officer within the CSIS British Columbia workplace stated they had been each sexually assaulted in service automobiles by the identical senior officer whereas on missions between July 2019 to spring 2021. Jane Doe stated that on one event, a mission failed as a result of her coach broke off surveillance of a goal to drive to a parking storage to rape her.
“This report is such an unbelievable violation,” Jane Doe stated of the investigation into her.
She referred to as the administration report “the precise definition of a reprisal,” which she advised an investigator in 2022 was her worry when she delayed reporting the allegations. On the time, she stated she believed she was being interviewed as a part of an investigation into her alleged attacker, not herself.
Jane Doe stated her criticism was the one purpose CSIS turned conscious of her personal alleged misconduct.
“What would I’ve to achieve from making up a faux criticism to attract consideration to myself and the entire code-of-conduct issues that I apparently breached?” she requested.
“It doesn’t make any sense, so the truth that that report is allowed to even exist reveals that I didn’t have a combating probability in hell,” she stated of her makes an attempt to get justice for her criticism.
Jane Doe stated she was advised by a federal labour relations officer that she was not knowledgeable in regards to the report as a result of she was on go away when it was handed down and CSIS believed she must be centered on her well-being.
An e mail from the labour officer on Tuesday, which Jane Doe shared with The Canadian Press, says the report was not “deliberately hidden.”
Jane Doe is at present on long-term incapacity go away, because of being identified with post-traumatic stress dysfunction.
Requested in regards to the investigation into the girl, CSIS spokesman Eric Balsam issued a press release saying: “Instantly upon studying of the allegations of inappropriate office behaviour, CSIS launched a third-party investigation immediately.”
He stated that in conditions the place “harassment, discrimination or misconduct” had been discovered to have occurred, disciplinary motion “as much as the termination of employment” could be determined by a self-discipline committee.
When requested to substantiate that the rape complainant had herself been investigated, Balsam stated “the state of affairs is advanced and delicate” and “it could be inappropriate for CSIS to remark additional on particular labour relations points.”
Matt Malone, an assistant legislation professor at Thomson Rivers College who has dealt with a whole bunch of complaints as a office investigator, stated Jane Doe’s remedy was “mind-boggling.”
Making a office harassment criticism is a “protected exercise,” Malone stated, and complainants who change into targets of investigations with out their data are in “a really weak place.”
“They don’t seem to be conscious that their conduct may undermine the integrity of the investigation,” he stated. “It raises so many troublesome questions.”
Each Jane Doe and the opposite officer who stated she was assaulted have beforehand stated they didn’t really feel they may go to police as a result of the CSIS Act banned figuring out themselves or their alleged attacker as covert officers, punishable by as much as 5 years in jail. The ladies, who’re each nonetheless employed by CSIS, stated a flawed inner criticism course of left victims weak to retaliation.
When the ladies’s claims initially got here to mild final November, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau referred to as them “devastating,” and stated his authorities was following up “very immediately.”
Days after the story was revealed, Vigneault referred to as a town-hall assembly for all 3,000-plus CSIS workers in regards to the girls’s allegations that he stated left him “deeply troubled.” He advised workers the alleged rapist had left the service the day earlier than the assembly, and that he was ordering the “pressing” creation of an ombudsperson’s workplace to deal with office issues “with out worry of reprisal.”
Vigneault additionally stated the company would launch annual public studies on harassment and wrongdoing within the company.
There was no point out that Jane Doe had been put below investigation.
Investigation made officer ‘nauseous’
The surface investigator’s “remaining report” into Jane Doe is dated April 12, 2023, however she stated she solely discovered about it this February.
She stated discovering the investigation made her “nauseous.” When she initially learn that the investigators had been retained to look into her conduct eight days after her rape criticism, she thought it was a typo.
“I don’t know if they’ve been investigating me mainly since I submitted the criticism or if this was a response to the investigation,” she stated. “Regardless, I didn’t know that they had been doing it, despite the fact that it claims that I did.”
The misconduct report is closely redacted. But it surely concludes Jane Doe breached the service’s code of conduct because of “inappropriate use of service tools whereas on responsibility,” and withholding “data from administration concerning a romantic relationship with a colleague.”
It quotes her alleged attacker as saying he’s “sorry {that a} consensual relationship resulted in improper use of presidency (redacted) and time.”
The report says Jane Doe didn’t report the “relationship” over “worry of reprisals,” quoting her as indicating that she “was afraid of how it could have an effect on my employment within the service, the way it (would) have an effect on my popularity and my skill to proceed working there, and I used to be not mentally and emotionally able to just accept what had occurred.”
The report says her alleged breaches of CSIS’ conduct coverage “surfaced within the context of a harassment investigation.”
She advised The Canadian Press that in her 2022 interview, the investigator didn’t ask her any specifics in regards to the alleged sexual assaults, which she had documented in her criticism with dates, instances and places.
On the time she thought the investigator was being thoughtful.
“I even thanked him on the finish of it for not asking as a result of it was nonetheless a really new factor for me to speak about and I used to be so nervous and so uncomfortable,” she stated.
Now, understanding that she was being investigated, it felt like she was put in “a entice.”
The shortage of specifics in that interview was “bizarre” as a result of “there have been so many issues that he didn’t wish to know.”
“It was like he wasn’t asking in order that he didn’t should have the reply, in order that he wouldn’t have to incorporate that in any of his findings, so the much less he is aware of the higher,” she stated.
She stated the “proof” the report relied upon to conclude that the connection was consensual, together with the opposite officer’s claims and photos of the 2 collectively outdoors work, had been “lies.”
“So, him and I had been in {a photograph}, a bunch {photograph}, collectively. Did that show I wished to have intercourse with him at work?” she stated.
Malone stated that whether or not an employer’s actions in opposition to an individual who lodged a criticism may very well be thought of “retaliatory” relied on many elements, together with the time between the 2 actions, or “temporal proximity.”
“Antagonistic actions following an worker criticism that come inside a short while body may recommend that there’s retaliatory motive on the a part of the employer,” he stated. “On this case, temporal proximity is a significant component, as a result of it’s mere days.”
Malone stated it was customary apply to tell an worker in the event that they had been below investigation to allow them to reply. Jane Doe stated she believed the service breached its personal coverage by failing to tell her.
Malone, who reviewed the CSIS “Breaches of Conduct” coverage, stated he was “shocked” by what he referred to as a “clear deviation from their very own coverage.”
“However past that, it’s a deviation from due course of and honest process,” he stated.
The service’s coverage says workers below investigation have to be notified in regards to the nature of the allegations in opposition to them, be given an opportunity to reply, be notified in the event that they’re present in breach and be given a duplicate of the report. Jane Doe stated none of that occurred.
“I can’t defend myself in opposition to one thing that I don’t know something about,” Jane Doe stated.
The B.C. Supreme Courtroom dismissed Jane Doe’s lawsuit in opposition to the federal authorities, claiming constructive dismissal and searching for damages, in September 2023. It didn’t rule on her allegations however discovered she hadn’t exhausted CSIS inner criticism mechanisms.
She stated she has now deserted plans to attraction and is exploring CSIS’ formal grievance procedures.
“It’s already been my life for over two years and the injury that it’s achieved to my psychological well being, and my profession, clearly, is now non-existent, and I don’t see myself having the ability to get that again on observe with this hanging over my head,” she stated.
“They only put on you down till you possibly can’t take it anymore. I’m positive I’m not the primary and I’m positive I gained’t be the final.”
The lawsuit by the second officer who says she was sexually assaulted has not acquired a response from CSIS.
