A former dog handling of the Canada Border Services Agency who presented a complaint about the program’s maternity leave policy faced a “harassment” of harassment and harassment that management knew, found an external researcher.
For years, Danielle Getzie said he had the work of his dreams, working with his canine partner Nova to help stop smuggling at Vancouver airport.
But the program’s family license program never sat well with her.
The Dog Service Policy of the CBSA detector limited the time that coaches can be far from their animals at 90 days, which makes it incredibly difficult for new parents, especially mothers, return to work. At that time, the border agency justified the policy as necessary to ensure that detector dogs remain connected to their coaches and do not lose their skills.
After seeing a colleague return within 89 days after a baby in 2018, Getzie said he decided to file a formal complaint about the 90 -day policy, arguing that it was discriminatory.
A judge agreed with her, but Getzie said she hasn’t had much to celebrate in later years.
The policy not only remained in the books until this year, but Getzie told CBC News in 2023 that his colleagues “terrify” and that he finally frozen from the specialized dog program.
The case landed with the National Integrity Expenditure Center of CBSA (NICE), an independent unit that responds to accusations of inappropriate behavior in the workplace.
According to a third -party researcher brought to review the case, Getzie “was a victim of harassment through Mobbing, through the lack of management responses.”
The report, which was shared with CBC News, defines mobbing as harassment and harassment of a group of employees. In the case of Getzie, the researcher discovered that a colleague had “a strong disgust of her and because they were in a position of power, other staff members” used intimidation tactics “to comply or next to the leader.
Management response: Report
It had a hard language for higher levels in CBSA and how the organization operates.
“It’s a system failure,” he says.
According to the investigation, “management behaviors were reported to management, which were received with lack of action, and a subsequent lack of responsibility for the alleged people who committed harmful acts.”
He said that the only real action management was to change the work schedule “which was an insufficient response.”
“The mentality of the mafia is alive and real,” Getzie said in an interview.
“Management did not protect me against severe harassment and harassment in the workplace.”
The good research process does not have the mandate to find the fault.
He recommended that CBSA should have an evaluation in the workplace to “demonstrate the lack of policies or the application of such policies if they exist.”
Luke Reimer, a CBSA spokesman, said they could not comment on the case of Getzie citing privacy laws, but added that the agency “takes all the findings very seriously and works to guarantee a safe, healthy work environment and without violence for all employees.”
Updated policy in April
Reimer said that the dog program license policy was modified in April and “now evaluates all situations in case by deciding how to handle the detector dog during these periods.”
“When the reason for the license is protected by the Human Rights Law of Canada, the manager will be allowed to resume his position assigned to his return, which may be with his previous dog or a new canine companion,” Reimer said in a statement.
Getzie’s case is not harassment and harassment for the first time within the CBSA.
A 2020 general auditor report found that CBSA knew about continuous problems with harassment, discrimination and violence in their workplaces, but did not do enough to address them.
That is why Getzie, who is still on unpaid as she fights against her labor complaint and waits for the Human Rights Commission to intervene, said she is willing to do the job to promote more changes.
“The next person who chooses to stand up and fight for this, I want it to be easier for them,” he said.
“I need to do what happened to me: this attack, this punishment, reprisals, all that, I need to make that mean something“
