An independent report that led to the resignation last Thursday of the Governor General of Canada, Julie Payette, evokes a work climate «hostile», “negative”, even “toxic” established under his leadership in 2017, according to several Canadian media. These media, among the main ones in the country, obtained a redacted version of the report on Wednesday evening under the access to information law. It was commissioned this summer by the government of Justin Trudeau.
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Provided beforehand to the government, the report produced by an independent consulting firm was leaked in the press which led to the resignation of Julie Payette, representative of Queen Elizabeth II, head of state in Canada. “Screaming, yelling, aggressive behavior, degrading comments and public humiliations” are among the behaviors accused in the report of the 57-year-old former astronaut, appointed to this post by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in July 2017. These are testimonies collected from 92 employees, ex-employees and other people aware of the working climate at Rideau Hall, the official residence of the Governor General in Ottawa.
Almost half of the testimonies collected by the consulting firm Quintet mentioned a working climate «hostile» or “bad”, or both. More than a quarter of witnesses spoke of an atmosphere “toxic” or “Poisoned”, according to the outline of the report of 132 pages quoted by the chains CBC, CTV or the daily Globe and Mail. Twenty people reported acts of harassment.
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The report submitted to the government concluded that there was a serious problem requiring the immediate attention of the Privy Council Office, the ministry of Prime Minister Trudeau. According to the report, employees lamented that they did not have independent channels available to them to raise concerns about the work climate at Rideau Hall. The government had ordered an independent investigation in July after the CBC broadcast anonymous testimonies denouncing a “Toxic climate” in the office of the Governor General and accusing her of “bullying” and of “verbal violence”.
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