The NEW NORM

Michael McKinnon worked as a prison guard for the Ontario Ministry of Correctional Services at the maximum security Toronto East Detention Centre. Michael’s father was Scottish and his mother was First Nations Cree from northern Quebec.

He didn’t hide his ancestry, but it was only after he and his wife, Vicki Shaw-McKinnon (who also worked at the prison), got married in 1985 that many of his colleagues discovered he had First Nations ancestry. It was after the wedding that the racist name-calling went into high gear at work.

At first McKinnon ignored the racist comments, but on April 13, 1988, when his supervisor Frank Geswaldo asked if he was having a “powwow” with a colleague and then called him a “fuckin’ Indian,” he decided to make a formal complaint.

All he wanted was an apology, but instead was told that he was too thin-skinned. Therefore, instead of finding the issue resolved within the workplace, McKinnon made a formal complaint to the Ontario Human Rights Commission on November 29, 1988.

He continued to work at the jail and found things got worse for him and his wife, so in June, 1990, he filed an additional complaint regarding the retaliation, which is also a violation of the law. Instead of settling a matter of whether there was something wrong with an employee being called a “fuckin’ Indian,” the Ministry fought long and hard.

The actual case began in February, 1996 and after forty-five days of hearings, the human rights decision was released on April 28, 1998, a full (get this) ten years and fifteen days after the racist comment was made.

Perhaps if many of these managers had taken my Respectful Workplace online course, they could have avoided years of litigation if they knew they might be liable for a toxic workplace, full of racist comments and many forms of discrimination.

In his 105-page written decision, adjudicator Professor Albert Hubbard found that the Ministry of Correctional Services infringed on Michael McKinnon’s “right to equal treatment without discrimination because of race, ancestry or ethnic origin through permitting a poisoned workplace environment as a condition of his employment.”

Geswaldo and others were found jointly liable as the evidence showed a pattern of racist and inappropriate behaviours spanning years. Hubbard’s final order involved a list of twelve items for which the Ministry and others were responsible, from general damages of thousands of dollars, to back pay for any time McKinnon was off sick, to ordering that both he and his wife get the promotions they were denied, to excluding certain people from working with the McKinnons, to creating a human rights training program. 

That decision was followed by another long adjudication and the 114-page decision of Professor Hubbard on November 29, 2002 with another long list of orders to be met because the “Ministry failed to comply fully with the orders made in its 1998 decision and that, in consequence, the atmosphere of the Toronto East Detention Centre remains racially poisoned.” 

After that, there were more legal proceedings, days of hearings, appeals (the Ministry lost every one) and more decisions than I care (or have the stomach) to write about. On February 8, 2011, Professor Hubbard, in a forty-nine-page decision, requested Ontario’s Divisional Court to “inquire into whether Deputy Minister Jay Hope is in contempt of the board's orders.” (Hope reported directly to the minister of Correctional Services.)

Thirty-four days later, Hubbard delivered one sentence stating that the parties had settled the matter and “this proceeding is terminated.” 

In the end, twenty-three years after Michael McKinnon made a simple request for a simple apology, I hope the settlement allowed the McKinnons to put this behind them. If you want to know more about the hell they went through during the almost quarter century, just read a few of the numerous decisions that are public information.

How many millions of dollars in legal costs, awards and lost productivity did this cost the Ontario taxpayers? It is hard to imagine. In the end we hope some level of justice was served, but the cost in dollars and human misery was much, much too great.

Toronto East Detention Centre

Deputy Minister Jay Hope

The OLD NORM

• digs in his heels, never admitting a wrong was committed.
• will use every legal means to fight what appears to be simple justice at every turn, especially if not paying a dime personally.
• thinks in terms of “us” and “them,” and under no circumstances will back down for fear of looking weak, or allowing someone else to show him up.
• knows she is right, even after every reasonable person has told her she’s wrong.

The NEW NORM

• looks objectively at the facts, making a decision on those facts, not on what people can get away with.
• when he thinks he can’t be objective, will allow others into the process to ensure it’s not biased.
• will spend time, energy and money undoing a “poisoned workplace,” instead of relying on legal proceedings.
• knows that even after an acrimonious process, rational people can put old grudges behind them and work toward a better working environment.

01

Don’t protect just to protect. There are many times we want to support people even when they don’t deserve protection. Perhaps they are our friends or great performers at work. But in the end, you can’t protect people who have made an obvious mistake. Call them on it.

02

Give a verbal “swat to the head.” I don’t want to promote violence, but sometimes when I was a kid and did something boneheaded, my parents would give me a swat to the head. It didn’t hurt – it was just the best non-verbal way of saying “smarten up.” So to be clear, no actual swatting here, but give the verbal equivalent of a swatting to an employee who needs to hear “smarten up.” Imagine how different this case could have been if Geswaldo’s boss had just said, “Are you kidding me? You apologize to Mike now and don’t let me hear you saying anything like that again.” There’s your verbal swat.

03

Know when enough is enough. At first, defending something might seem like a good thing. But if the defeats keep piling up and the bills keep rising, it’s time to give your head a shake and say “enough.” Digging in your heels won’t change a wrong into a right

“With Stephen’s newest book he continues to demonstrate his thorough and introspective knowledge of the dysfunctional personnel dynamics that occur far too frequently in many modern Canadian workplaces. Utilizing appropriate examples from significant past issues as well as newsworthy current events he is able to provide a lucid and thought provoking read on the concerns related to inappropriate workplace behaviors. 

Within each short chapter you will be able to identify with his clear goals; to inform you, encourage reflection and finally stimulate appropriate actions by those of us in the workforce that are entrusted with the responsibilities of supervising and managing personnel in a safe, supportive and respectful manner.”

Richard Craibbe

Chief Training Officer,

Oakville Fire Department