It’s ironic that the former chairwoman of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal was, as a report found last week, herself harassing and insulting her employees.
In a disturbing report to Parliament last week, that’s exactly what Canada’s public sector integrity commissioner found following an investigation of former tribunal chairwoman Shirish Chotalia. An immigration, human rights, and employment lawyer from Alberta, Chotalia became tribunal chairwoman in late 2009.
Among the findings, the report concluded Chotalia referred to employees in derogatory terms, questioned their competency, and spread misinformation about them in the workplace. The complainants included members of the tribunal itself, one of whom was subject to insults and defamatory comments. Chotalia, the report noted, brought up issues about the member’s health and capacity to work in front of other employees. “Ms. Chotalia also attempted to prevent this member from interacting with employees of the CHRT and to control the member’s personal relationships with former colleagues, including judges and police officers, by forbidding the member to meet with them unless she was present,” last week’s report states.
The list of disturbing actions noted in the report is long. Chotalia, the report found, called another tribunal member “immature” and a “child;” ordered staff to spy on an employee without valid reason; maintained a secret file on a staff member; and made unreasonable demands such as requiring employees to work outside of regular hours and be available around the clock by BlackBerry. “She also asked individuals to come to work when on sick leave and to work while on holidays,” the report states.
Chotalia, the report found, also accused people of stealing from her and talked of conspiracies related to the fact that she was a Conservative appointee, is a “brown woman from Alberta,” and the unions didn’t like her. Inexplicably, the report found, she ordered staff to go ahead with a trip to Vancouver for a mediation session despite the fact the parties had come to an agreement. She flew to Vancouver anyway and, according to the report, “transferred onto a San Diego bound flight for a previously planned personal trip.”
The public sector integrity commissioner noted his office was unable to interview Chotalia as part of the investigation. “Ms. Chotalia never responded to any of our further requests to participate and comment,” the report states. In the meantime, she resigned from her position late last year.
The report, which found Chotalia committed gross mismanagement, is disturbing on a number of levels. As someone whose role is to uphold human rights and work against discrimination and harassment, Chotalia’s actions, as found by the commissioner, are especially troubling. As the report points out, the federal government needs to do a better job of screening its appointees to ensure they adhere to the values inherent in the jobs they do.
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Glenn Kauth
