Independent Centre for Harassment Resolution (ICHR)
Date: April 28, 2021
Classification: Unclassified
Fully releasable (ATIP)? Yes
Branch/Agency: RCMP
Issue:
The RCMP is improving the work culture, and contributing towards a more respectful, inclusive, and diverse workplace.
Proposed Response:
- It is imperative that employees are provided with a safe and respectful work environment, free from harassment and violence, where employees are held accountable for their actions.
- The RCMP has long been criticized for its handling of incidents of harassment, resulting in a multitude of reports and recommendations to improve the process, including the report from the Honourable Michel Bastarache, the Independent Assessor for the Merlo Davidson claims process.
- In response to the recommendations made in each of these reports, a new independent harassment and violence prevention resolution regime will be implemented to ensure that employees have a trusted and consistent resolution process that is accessible, timely, and supports accountability.
- The Independent Centre for Harassment Resolution (ICHR) will be launched on June 30, 2021 and will modernize the RCMP harassment and violence prevention and resolution process.
- The ICHR is responsible for implementing the full harassment resolution process, including intake of complaints, case analysis and resolution, referrals to the Informal Conflict Management Program, contracting of external investigators in cases that are not resolved informally, as well as providing assistance to decision makers to help ensure consistency in decision-making and disciplinary action.
- The ICHR will be a centralized unit within the RCMP, with resources who are outside the employee’s usual chain of command and independent of the environment where the harassment occurrence originated.
- A civilian senior executive has been selected to lead the development of the ICHR and will lead the process to assess a fully external model.
- 43% of the ICHR positions are currently filled, with completion of all staffing actions scheduled for summer of 2022.
- The ICHR will also allow the RCMP to effectively implement the changes brought about by the Canada Labour Code Work Place Violence and Harassment Prevention Regulations, which came into effect on January 1, 2021. (See separate Note on Bill C-65)
Background:
The Independent Centre for Harassment Resolution (ICHR) is responsible for implementing the full harassment resolution process, including intake of complaints, case analysis and resolution, referrals to the Informal Conflict Management Program and contracting of external investigators in cases that are not resolved informally, as well as providing assistance to decision makers in the process.
The ICHR will be a centralized unit within the RCMP, with resources who are outside the employee’s usual chain of command and independent of the environment where the harassment occurrence originated. The ICHR will report through the civilian ICHR Executive Director to the Chief Administrative Officer of the RCMP.
This independence will help to promote employee trust and address any fear of bias or retaliation. Increased effort will be placed on prevention initiatives and early informal resolution of complaints.
To address recommendations in the Bastarache report, the ICHR will contract investigators that are external to the organization.
The ICHR will also allow the RCMP to effectively implement the changes brought about by the Canada Labour Code Work Place Violence and Harassment Prevention Regulations, which came into effect on January 1, 2021.
Harassment Process:
- The RCMP received financial support of $32.9M over five years starting in 2020-2021, and $8.2M ongoing for the creation of the ICHR. The ICHR will be staffed by experts solely dedicated to ensure that we are addressing these issues.
- The assessment of harassment complaints will be done externally to the RCMP, by external expert investigators. These investigators will assess and investigate, conclude on whether harassment has been found, and may make recommendations for restoring the workplace.
- The RCMP is already operationalizing much of this process –while the RCMP agreed to move to external investigators, they have been working with the bargaining agents/subcommittee to build an approved list.
Conduct Measures:
- This will ensure that those that have been harassing will be held accountable and that the appropriate discipline is taken, up to and including termination.
- To strengthen the Conduct Regime, the RCMP are launching a process to review and revise our Conduct Measures. It will look at the current Conduct Measures guide against the recommendations from Justice Bastarache and against the best practices in other police jurisdictions to ensure we have disciplinary measures that are consistent with the public’s expectations.
- The RCMP is also doing an assessment of how our Conduct and disciplinary process has been applied. Were disciplinary measures actually applied, has it been applied equitably and consistently.
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