Manitoba’s lone federal cabinet minister harassed employee during stint at RRC Polytech, 2019 probe found

Manitoba’s sole federal cabinet minister was found to have repeatedly harassed an employee she managed in a role she held at Red River College Polytechnic five years ago.

A whistleblower has leaked the findings of a 2019 workplace investigation into newly elected Liberal MP Rebecca Chartrand’s conduct when she was employed by the post-secondary institute in Winnipeg.

Chartrand was elected to represent the riding of Churchill-Keewatinook Aski in the April 28 election.

Prime Minister Mark Carney appointed the rookie politician to his inner circle just over three weeks ago. Chartrand, minister of northern and Arctic affairs, was tasked with overseeing the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency.

Documents obtained show RRC Polytech hired a local law firm to probe a complaint made about Chartrand, the school’s then-executive director of Indigenous strategy, in September 2019.

The complainant was informed three months later that her grievance had been substantiated by third-party investigators from Rachlis Neville LLP.

“Specifically, they found that Ms. Chartrand’s conduct amounted to personal harassment,” Curtis Craven, director of human resources for RRC Polytech, wrote in a Dec. 19, 2019 letter to the employee.

Craven’s summary noted the investigators found “severe” issues related to Chartrand’s approach to engaging with, assigning work to and managing the performance of the complainant between June and September of that year.

“(Chartrand’s) conduct could reasonably cause an individual to be humiliated or intimidated and was repeated, and had a lasting, harmful effect on you,” he wrote.

The employer had no plans to take “any further corrective actions,” given Chartrand’s departure — the circumstances of which were not made clear in the letter — from the campus, the HR director added.

RRC Polytech spokeswoman Emily Doer said Chartrand, who was appointed to a senior role in June 2017, resigned in December 2019 “to pursue new opportunities.”

Doer did not provide further comment, citing privacy legislation.

The experienced Anishinaabe leader from Pine Creek First Nation in Treaty 4 has since moved on to various other jobs, including with the Seven Oaks School Division and Indspire.

In 2022, Chartrand co-founded Indigenous Strategy Alliance, a consulting firm in Winnipeg, with her now-Liberal MP colleague Ben Carr.

Toronto lawyer Jack Siegel oversaw the federal Liberals’ “green-light committee,” which is tasked with approving candidates to run for the party, in 2015.

Chartrand ran under the Liberals’ banner in that race, although she came second to NDP Niki Ashton a decade ago. She beat Ashton by 3,433 ballots during their recent rematch.

Siegel said his team collected detailed questionnaires from nominee hopefuls, as well as their credit and criminal record checks, at the time.

“I don’t know whether there’d be a question that would even trigger an HR issue that was supposed to be kept in a sealed personnel file,” said the partner at Blaney McMurtry LLP who practises in the areas of both employment law and election and political law.

This case is now in the hands of the Prime Minister’s Office, he said.

He suggested there are two scenarios, either Carney’s team was made aware of this case previously and had accepted Chartrand’s defence, or they are now scrambling for answers.

“Employees who are the subject of an investigation will sometimes take the path of least resistance rather than incurring $50,000 worth of legal bills to defend the situation, understanding that it’s all going to remain confidential so it’s not as if (a wrongdoing conclusion) is of biblical import,” Siegel added.

Conservative MP Raquel Dancho told the House of Commons that the RRC Polytech employee attempted to contact the Liberal Party of Canada about the matter, and never received a response.

“What message does this send to victims that, if your boss engages in months of psychological warfare, the prime minister of Canada may promote them to the highest offices in the land? Truly, this is an unacceptable standard,” the Kildonan—St. Paul representative said during question period Thursday.

Ashton said in a statement that the 2019 HR findings would have had an impact on the election results, had voters known about them before heading to the polls.

“But the most important thing is to respect what the victim went through. No one should have to go through what they went through, especially in the workplace,” said the runner-up in Churchill-Keewatinook Aski, who held the seat between 2008 and 2025.

Chartrand has also faced backlash in recent weeks about a social media post she made in response to online criticism about her track record at RRC Polytech.

Then an MP-elect, she took to Facebook about a month ago to accuse another user on the platform of slander and publicly solicit information about the critic’s location and employer.

Government House leader Steven MacKinnon defended his colleague, whom he called “a person of integrity,” on Parliament Hill Thursday.

“She’s committed to healthy workplaces, she’s committed to respect, she’s committed to compassion and she will be working hard to deliver results for her constituents — the people of Manitoba and, indeed, all Canadians,” MacKinnon said during question period.

A spokesperson for the minister of northern and Arctic affairs echoed those comments in a statement issued Thursday evening.

Press secretary Kyle Allen said Chartrand is committed to collegiality and mutual respect in the workplace, and she “deeply regrets” the language and tone she expressed in her controversial Facebook post.

Chartrand participated in “a rigorous due diligence process” in the course of becoming a candidate, Allen added.

This story was originally published in The Free Press. It is republished under a Creative Commons license as part of the Local Journalism Initiative.