CANADA
A report to the Canadian Parliament alleges a senior director at the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) repeatedly screamed at and belittled her employees.
The report said the director created an “environment of fear” that eventually led a whistleblower to report her behaviour to an independent watchdog.
Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, Joe Friday found that Brigitte de Blois, who served as Director of the Offenders Redress Division at CSC between 2010 and 2015, committed gross mismanagement and serious breaches of the Department’s internal Code of Discipline and the broader Values and Ethics Code of the Federal public sector.
Ms De Blois’ subordinates accused her of a litany of outrageous office behaviour, including regular screaming and bullying that left employees afraid to approach her or even be seated near her office.
Witnesses said she referred to someone’s work as a “piece of [expletive]”, and called employees “pathetic losers”, “morons”, “idiots” and “disturbed”.
Mr Friday found the Director also pushed chairs around, slammed doors and slammed her hands on tables, once telling an employee that “now you will shut your mouth, we aren’t allowed to laugh around here”.
Daily staff meetings attended by Ms de Blois were referred to by one employee as a “punishment ritual”.
Mr Friday said Ms de Blois told employees she had “all the power”, and appeared to have little or no empathy for people dealing with personal issues.
In 2016, an employee tried to report this behaviour directly to the Assistant Commissioner at CSC, Larry Motiuk, who appeared “annoyed” by the complaint and did nothing.
The report said Ms De Blois did express regret, saying she expected a lot from her employees in the context of a very busy work environment.
Mr Motiuk denied doing anything wrong.
Mr Friday recommended the CSC consider disciplinary action against the two, which could include termination of their employment.
The case is the latest in a string of similar investigations involving abusive managers in the Federal public sector over the past two years.
Ottawa, 21 March 2018
