ICHR - External Investigators
Date: May 28, 2021
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Fully releasable (ATIP)? Yes
Branch/Agency: RCMP
Issue:
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.
Proposed Response:
- 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 and contracting of external investigators in cases that are not resolved informally, as well as providing assistance to decision makers in those instances where the matter is referred to the Code of Conduct 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 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.
- 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.
Background:
Since April 2019, all cases of sexual harassment at the RCMP have been investigated by external investigators to ensure the independence of this process and to prevent re-victimization.
In line with the recommendation of the Independent Assessor and previous reports, over the past two years the RCMP worked with experts to develop a new Independent Centre for Harassment Resolution (ICHR).
Efforts are underway to formally establish the ICHR, to begin operations with interim measures by June 30, 2021, and be fully staffed by early 2022.
The ICHR will be fully resourced with a Budget of $32M over 5 years and $8M per year ongoing.
It has been designed in line with best practices, and to specifically address key issues raised in this and other reports. For example:
- The ICHR will focus on prevention, including awareness and education campaigns, with an emphasis on effectively addressing conflict at the earliest stage
- It will provide access to training for supervisors on addressing workplace conflict, and focus on increasing the use of the Informal Conflict Management Program, where appropriate
- To increase trust and address concerns of retribution and perceptions of bias, the new model is internal to the RCMP but is independent, outside of the chain of command, and uses external investigators
- For harassment complaints, the RCMP will have a roster of expert investigators from outside the organization that will conduct the investigation, reach conclusions, and provide recommendations to restore the workplace
- The organizational structure will include analytical support to promote consistency in decision-making and disciplinary action
- An employee feedback mechanism will measure satisfaction rates at each stage of the process (e.g., service standards, client support, conflict resolution strategies, and communication with the complainant). This will identify areas that need to be adjusted or modified
The ICHR will comply and align with the new Canada Labour Code Workplace Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations under Bill C-65.
As part of the new regulations, measurable service standards will be integrated into the ICHR, including an annual report to the Minister of Labour
The RCMP is mindful that the recommendations called for a fully external body to address all harassment issues. An initial assessment on creating a fully external body found that it would require new legislation and Machinery of Government requirements, and that this would take time. The RCMP has decided to launch the ICHR now, separate from the chain of command, employing an external investigation model, and built so that it can be fully externalized.
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