Evidence of meeting #62 for Status of Women in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was employee.
A video is available from Parliament.
NDP
Isabelle Morin NDP Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC
What did the evaluation comments you received say?
Interim Executive Director, English Services Human Resources; Executive Director, Strategic Planning and Human Resources Corporate Groups, People and Culture, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
We have just re-launched the online training about preventing violence in the workplace. We are not at the end of the first quarter yet.
Interim Executive Director, English Services Human Resources; Executive Director, Strategic Planning and Human Resources Corporate Groups, People and Culture, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
We do not provide specific training on the prevention of harassment in the workplace. But we do provide it on the prevention of violence. We also provide in-person training on respect in the workplace and we are presently in discussion with our unions about launching those training courses again.
NDP
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Absolutely, It is a joint initiative; the proposal was made by the unions. Not only did we think it was a good idea, we also participated in the training and the organization of the seminars. We are very proud of those seminars. As Monique said, we are presently developing the second phase. We need a second phase. We certainly want to invest in a similar concept again.
NDP
The Chair NDP Marie-Claude Morin
Thank you very much.
Now we come back to the government side.
Mrs. Ambler, you have five minutes.
Conservative
Stella Ambler Conservative Mississauga South, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the CBC for appearing today.
My question is about your policy. We've heard that it dates back to 1990. Do you have five-year reviews? Is that correct?
Interim Executive Director, English Services Human Resources; Executive Director, Strategic Planning and Human Resources Corporate Groups, People and Culture, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Our current policy was revised in February 2010.
Interim Executive Director, English Services Human Resources; Executive Director, Strategic Planning and Human Resources Corporate Groups, People and Culture, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
We have had policies that we can trace back to 1990. It may be before, but they are reviewed regularly.
Conservative
Stella Ambler Conservative Mississauga South, ON
Okay. I wanted to clarify that, in terms of keeping records about the cases themselves, it's only been happening since 2010.
Interim Executive Director, English Services Human Resources; Executive Director, Strategic Planning and Human Resources Corporate Groups, People and Culture, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
No, we have records prior to then. We decided to do a study based on the last three years, given the interest on the files. If an employee has had a clean slate, so to speak, for two years, we will destroy the files.
Conservative
Stella Ambler Conservative Mississauga South, ON
Okay, I understand. Thank you.
With respect to the CBC specifically, and the culture at the CBC, I understand that the nature of your business, media, is somewhat like ours. As parliamentarians, we have long hours, we work closely together, and we tend to feel like family sometimes. We're as close as family, but we also argue like family. The media, I would imagine, is somewhat similar: lots of late nights, lots of intensity in the work that's done. I'm wondering if that means sometimes that there's a little more leeway in relationships. I use that word “relationship” loosely.
Is there sometimes a fine line between interpersonal conflict and harassment? It's a bit of a follow-up from the questions that my colleague, Ms. James was asking earlier. Do you think that might contribute to the culture of potential harassment, the culture that might lead to more potential harassment?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
I think that we are working in stressful environments. You compare our lives with the lives of MPs. We have deadlines, as you do. We have on-air. We don't want to go black; that would be a bad thing. We'd like The National to start on time. We'd like Peter Mansbridge, when he smiles to the camera and introduces a piece, to actually have that piece ready and for it to be the piece that he's referring to. So it all has to happen on time.
That was one of the concerns we had when the Guild came up with the idea of the “Respect in the Workplace” conversations. We found that sometimes words were being used inappropriately. We argued more like family than anything else. We had conversations and maybe some words in a newsroom or between different people that were not appropriate. That's what we really targeted. We have this aired out in a seminar context, with mediators from CBC/Radio-Canada—they're not third parties. We have conversations about ourselves, and we deal with them.
Conservative
Stella Ambler Conservative Mississauga South, ON
Thank you for mentioning that, the fact that your mediators come from within the CBC.
I think what you're trying to tell us today is that when you're dealing with the problem of sexual harassment or—
Conservative
Stella Ambler Conservative Mississauga South, ON
—harassment of any kind, you're dealing with it in-house. You have the expertise to do it. You can do it. You're doing it well. You're training. You have a certain number of cases that you've dealt with. You've dealt with them in an expedient way. We've heard from a number of other witnesses in the study. The RCMP is a federal organization we're studying, and they're doing the same thing.
Would you say that it's possible for organizations like the CBC and the RCMP to deal with these problems in-house in an effective way, one that's fair to all of the employees?
Interim Executive Director, English Services Human Resources; Executive Director, Strategic Planning and Human Resources Corporate Groups, People and Culture, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
I want to clarify what Hubert just said. He was speaking about the facilitation of the sessions. The “Respect in the Workplace” sessions are jointly facilitated by management and the unions. When it comes to an investigation—
Interim Executive Director, English Services Human Resources; Executive Director, Strategic Planning and Human Resources Corporate Groups, People and Culture, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
An investigation may or may not be conducted in-house. We always make sure that whoever's doing the investigation has the appropriate skill set required.
When it comes to mediation of informal complaints, that can happen with employees, or we can bring in facilitators from HR to help with the conversation or the union.
Conservative
Stella Ambler Conservative Mississauga South, ON
If you have to bring someone in from outside, where would you get them?
NDP
The Chair NDP Marie-Claude Morin
I am sorry, Mrs. Amber, but your time is up.
As I said at the last meeting, this is why I warn you when there is a minute left.
So that concludes our meetings with the representatives of CBC/Radio-Canada. The time went by extremely quickly. It was very interesting.
Thank you very much for accepting our invitation and for coming to share your harassment policies with us.
As for Mr. Regan's request, we have found the article in question. So we will send it to members of the committee and see what we can do.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Thank you.