I think the issue of confidentiality sometimes can work in early stages, but the reality is that if someone is going forward with a formal complaint against someone and entering either an official quasi-legal process, such as a grievance procedure, or a legal process, then there has to be respect for the respondent wherein the respondent is aware there's a complaint and what the complaint is about, so that the respondent is able to speak to it.
Where confidentiality is an issue—and this is part of what happened in the situation with the death of Theresa Vince.... She initially wanted to be confidential with her managers and say: “I have a problem. My boss is engaging in inappropriate behaviour, and I would like to get some advice. But I also want you to take seriously that it's a complaint.” It's a case of allowing employees to be able to explore, to ask questions, and to have some of this early information-gathering on the part of a complainant be confidential. But I have seen, in the case of our sexual harassment officer here at U of T, and I have talked with others in other places, that there reaches a point at which you have to say to a complainant: “If you're going to take this further, it will not be confidential, because we have a right and a responsibility to allow the respondent to know this information.”