EMSB chair says harassment claims were not taken seriously, calls confidential report 'political vendetta'

EMSB chair Angela Mancini is claiming a confidential report tabled earlier this week, in which it was recommended that she and all of her supporters be ineligible to run for office, was "ill-advised" and "half-baked." 

A copy of the report's seven-page executive summary, completed June 7, was obtained by CBC News Tuesday, with all names, aside from Mancini's, redacted.

The report was prepared by Steven Droz, of Steven Droz & Associates Inc., a firm that specializes in human resources and labour relations. 

Retired MP Marlene Jennings, the EMSB's trustee, hired Droz to complete the report, following harassment complaints made by Mancini.

The board has been under trusteeship since November after a 10-month probe found irregularities in the awarding of contracts and issues with the board's management and human resources.

Now, Mancini claims that her allegations of harassment were not properly investigated by Droz. 

"I deposited a harassment complaint in good faith, expecting a fair process, which I never got. Instead, what I got, was an investigator not wanting to meet witnesses because it 'was not necessary,' stating he knew what they would say," Mancini said in a statement to CBC News. 

Mancini claims Droz only interviewed herself and the two people she accused of psychological harassment in his investigation. 

"His conclusions are based entirely on the perpetrators' denials," Mancini says in the statement. 

"Mr. Droz consistently declined to consider the abundant evidence by witnesses and the material facts that I pleaded he should consider."

According to Mancini, Droz focused his investigation on whether or not she had been a good chair, rather than properly looking into her allegations of harassment. 

"No one under the authority of any law, has the authority to curtail fundamental democratic rights," Mancini said in the statement, referring to Droz's assertion that she not be allowed to run in upcoming elections. 

Mancini claims that one of her "political rivals" repeatedly insulted her in front of the entire board and public, leading her to file the harassment complaint. 

"As if their opinion on my performance has any bearing on the simple question of whether or not they harassed me," Mancini said. 

"It is clear to me that [Droz's] summary is more of a political vendetta and not a simple summary on harassment," she wrote. 

According to Droz's report, Mancini filed a six-page complaint in January about harassment she allegedly faced over a four-year period.

Mancini included a 15-page summary and dozens of supporting documents to prove she was the victim of "all forms of harassment, including psychological harassment."

CBC News has not seen the full, 278-page, report. Droz said he stands by his report and would not comment further. The office of Education Minister Jean-François Roberge declined a request for comment.

Report says evidence was reviewed 

In the seven-page summary obtained by CBC News, Droz describes how he reviewed more than 200 emails, meeting minutes and documents before he came to a decision. 

He describes interviewing Mancini and two others whose names were redacted. 

"Towards the end of the interview process, I informed the interviewees and Ms. Jennings that I had reached the decision that there was little or nothing to be gained by interviewing another twelve commissioners or so, plus several ex and current directors on the administration team," Droz wrote in his report. 

He goes on to say that, had he interviewed other commissioners, he knows there would have been supporters for both Mancini and the accused, given the fact that the parties' arguments were so polarized. 

He goes on to accuse Mancini of filing her complaint in an unethical manner.

"I have every reason to believe that while my report might have been fifty per cent longer or more, my initial and final conclusions and recommendations would not have been any different," Droz wrote. 

Those conclusions included the recommendation that the EMSB's conflict-of-interest policies be more rigorously enforced, and that the provincial government take the "unusual but necessary" step of ensuring Mancini and her supporters not be eligible to run for elections come November. 

This latest controversy to befall the EMSB comes only months before it will be turned into a service centre, along with other English school boards, under a law adopted earlier this year.