In August, a judge reinstated Carr as president after the union had put her on administrative leave.
One of the largest federal unions in Canada has been in disarray for several months with internal disputes surrounding its elected president leading to investigations, a lawsuit and, on one occasion, calling the police.
Jennifer Carr became the president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) in January 2022., and it didn’t take long for tensions to rise between her and several members on the board of directors.
She campaigned on a platform of change in the union election. Once elected, she said the disputes stemmed from her mission to reform how the union operates.
“I truly believe that the old guard, the establishment of the people who’ve been hanging around, started influencing some of my vice presidents,” Carr told the Ottawa Citizen. “I ran on a platform of change, a platform of transparency and accountability and I was not an established insider. I was not somebody who had been there for 15 or 20 years.”
Carr, who was locked out of her office for four months and put on administrative leave against her will, was only reinstated as union president after launching a lawsuit against more than a dozen PIPSC board members, including the interim president.
“Fundamentally dehumanizing”
Things came to a head at the union’s annual general meeting last November.
Carr, who has been open about having both physical and learning disabilities – including depression, chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia – said she was approached on the third evening of the event by the union’s director of human resources who told her that she couldn’t travel without a doctor’s note.
Carr had required some health accommodations at the annual general meeting and the union had been concerned about its legal liability as her employer if her health deteriorated while she was travelling to attend COP28, the United Nations’ climate change conference in Dubai, which she ended up attending as an observer.
“That hit right at the core of my being because I’ve been doing my job for, you know, two and a half years, I’ve been traveling across the country,” Carr said, adding that she had used a mobility scooter and had a rehab support worker with her during the meeting, which she feels was held against her. “As the head of a union who has worked in disability rights for 15 years that was really shocking.”
Carr said the union’s concerns about her needing a doctor’s note to attend led to “some very tense conversations” with the union leader reacting “strongly.” Those conversations, in turn, led to complaints being filed, both against and by Carr.
“I feel that my disabilities, my hidden and my learning disabilities, became weaponized against me,” Carr said, adding that she feels the actions were discriminatory. “For that to happen within a union context just was really really fundamentally dehumanizing and and disappointing for me, especially coming from people who are activists and should know better.”
Evening Update
Complaints filed against Carr by board, staff
Following the incident at the annual general meeting, board members Chris Roach and Mark Muench filed complaints, in addition to an unnamed staff member, according to a warning letter from the board of directors to Carr dated Sept. 19.
The letter said Carr had “engaged in harassment” towards both Roach and Muench on “multiple occasions” between June 2023 and February 2024. A formal investigation, conducted by Helen Nowak of HN Workplace Investigations, found that the “harassment and intimidation continued” even after the complaints were filed.
Allegations detailed in the investigator’s report included that Roach alleged that Carr had screamed at the board at a meeting in Petawawa in June and that she had yelled at him at a meeting in November, accusing him of being misogynistic and stating that “she was going to ‘fire his ASS, as soon as the AGM ended.’”
A second report, posted on the union’s website on Sept. 19, found that Carr had engaged in “threatening and intimidating actions” against the unnamed staff member that “caused serious harm” and “most likely” led to the employee resigning.
The board has subsequently decided to suspend Carr for a week without pay, subject to approval by members at a special general meeting, and threatened that further misconduct would lead to disciplinary sanctions and potentially dismissal. In its Sept. 19 letter, the board said Carr was required to apologize to the three complainants and attend counselling, sensitivity and anger management training.
Carr is currently appealing the decision.
The Ottawa Citizen reached out Roach, Muench and all of PIPSC’s other board members for comment but did not receive a response.
PIPSC also released a financial review on its website, claiming that Carr was inappropriately filing expenses.
Carr said PIPSC released the three reports before she’s been able to go through the appeal process, which is “unethical, unprofessional” and “meant to malign” her character. She noted that she has also filed her own discrimination complaint.
Legal action gets Carr reinstated as president
On April 10, Carr was at the office getting ready for an event when a newly-hired executive director told her that the board had chosen to put her on administrative leave with pay.
While waiting for more answers as to why the decision was made, Carr found out that she would no longer have access to the building or her staff.
“It was something that I was not expecting,” said Carr, who was locked out for four months.
Arguing that the board made the decision without following the union’s official process, Carr then filed a lawsuit against 14 board members, including her interim replacement as president, Eva Henshaw.
In early August, a decision in the case by Justice R. Ryan Bell reinstated Carr as president with “all of its duties, powers and rights.” The judge wrote the board was “prohibited” from excluding Carr from her position and essentially suspending her without seeking authorization from PIPSC’s members as a special general meeting.
“The court itself found that the board acted oppressively and in the legal sense, their conduct was coercive and abusive and a visible departure from the standards of fair dealing,” Carr said, noting that she has used thousands of dollars of her own money throughout the legal process, while PIPSC has been using union resources.
The union has hired high-profile PR firm Navigator, which specializes in crisis management, to work with them on the issue.
Police called to the union office
Through the legal process, Carr found out that police were called by the union’s executive committee while she was briefing her staff in the office on April 10.
Henshaw confirmed that she called the police to report “an escalating situation” mere moments after being named acting president, according to court documents, because Carr was not leaving the PIPSC offices. However, she added that neither she nor any of the other vice presidents went to see Carr to ask her to leave, nor did Henshaw speak with Carr about putting her on leave.
Tania Lafreniere, who was with Carr at the time, said in her cross-examination that Carr wasn’t “endangering the health or safety of anyone in the building,” and denied that there was any reason for the police to have been called.
Upon learning about the incident, Carr said she felt “weaponized” and “dehumanized.”
“I have no clue that they are plotting or having these conversations about my behavior without actually having a discussion with me,” Carr said. “This narrative that I’m a hysterical woman and I’m refusing to leave because I’m irate at their decision it’s just, it’s false.”
What’s next?
Despite her reinstatement, Carr said the board continues to “suppress” her role as president, holding meetings and info sessions that she isn’t invited to and controlling public statements about her presence on the board. Carr said she questions whether her decisions will get overridden by the board.
“They continue to oppress,” Carr said, noting that her priority is focusing on the union’s members. “I’ve been reinstated but I haven’t been fully reinstated.”
In early November, PIPSC will hold its annual general meeting where members will elect their executive. According to the union’s website, most members of the current board of directors are seeking re-election.
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