M’CHIGEENG—The executive committee of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) has outlined why it has called for AFN National Chief RoseAnne Archibald to be expelled from her position. A workplace investigation carried out by third-party and neutral investigators revealed that employees faced harassment and reprisals from the national leader.
The investigation found two AFN employees were harassed by the national chief and that the investigation, which commenced June 14, 2022, found that five employees experienced reprisals and had their confidentiality breached by the national chief, according to a summary report obtained by The Expositor. The report described the AFN’s workplace environment as ‘highly politicized, divided and even fractured.’ The summary report was distributed to First Nations chiefs across Canada on May 18. A June 28 virtual AFN meeting is where the national chief’s future will be decided.
The summary report distributed to chiefs-in-assembly included details of National Chief Archibald’s alleged harassment of two employees. “Even if this incident is not viewed as part of a pattern of conduct, it is our conclusion that it is sufficiently serious or severe,” the report said.
The report does provide details on how the national chief broke AFN policies by breaching the confidentiality of the complainants.
The investigators (an outside legal firm with employment lawyer Raquel Chisholm, a partner with Ottawa law firm Emond Harnden, oversaw the investigation) found that several public statements issued by National Chief Archibald shortly after the launch of the external investigation breached the confidentiality of four employees and constituted actions of reprisal against them.
“We recognize the investigation has been a long process, and we thank the chiefs for their patience. We are asking chiefs to treat this summary report with sensitivity and confidentiality but to review it carefully in order to be able to make the best decision to move forward,” AFN’s executive committee said in the report.
The AFN executive committee “is confident that all of the procedures in our policies were followed and the national chief was provided with procedural fairness throughout the process. We had no choice but to engage third-party and neutral investigators. It was important to retain someone right away and the investigators were retained in mid-June 2022. The investigators were at arms length from the regional chiefs. We never spoke to them. Only legal counsel spoke to the investigators.”
It was explained three policies were engaged by three complaints: HR-30 the whistleblower policy, H6-39 workplace violence, discrimination and harassment policy, and AFN code of conduct and ethics for the AFN executive committee.
“The national chief was found to have harassed two employees, including one in the national chief’s own office,” the report says. “The national chief was found to have breached the confidentiality of all five complainants by disclosing their complaints to the public before the AFN annual general assembly in July 2022 and even later for one complainant.”
“The national chief was found to have retaliated and reprised against all five complainants by smearing them in public, questioning their motives, intentions and integrity. She accused them of wrongdoing prior to any actual finding of that,” the report says.
“Some of these disclosures were through her social media and on June 16-17, 2022. On June 16, 2022, she gives a speech to the Ontario Chiefs-in-Assembly, in which she makes unfounded allegations regarding the complainants and makes broad, unsubstantiated allegations that the AFN secretariat is corrupt.”
The report notes that late in June, National Chief Archibald made a number of unfounded allegations against the fifth complainant.
In a resolution passed at the annual general assembly in July the Chiefs-in-Assembly directed, “that the national chief and the executive committee to actively participate in the ongoing human resources investigation, being led by the independent investigator, to respond to and resolve staff complaints in good faith, and to refrain from making any public comments to the media.”
However, after the resolution was passed in August 2022, “the national chief circulated memos to voting members of the organization in which she alleged the complainants were participating in ongoing targeting and attacks against her that the “conduct of the (complainant)” was hindering her from fully performing her duties. These were unfounded allegations that again smeared the complainants,” the report reads.
“One complainant (identified previously by CBC News as Janice Ciavaglia, the AFN’s CEO when the complaint was made and who left the AFN earlier this year) has had to shut down her social media accounts because she has received death threats following the reprisal and breach of confidentiality by the national chief,” the report continues.
“The national chief was found to have committed wrongdoing under the whistleblower policy. She also breached the executive committee’s code of conduct. We agree with the investigators when they said that, as the head of the organization, she has an added responsibility and duty to follow our polices, and we would argue a higher duty to ensure a safe and respectful working environment for our employees, and she failed in these duties and responsibilities,” the summary report continues.
“She has harmed our employees,” the summary reads. “The AFN could be liable for that conduct.”
“Harassment in the workplace is unacceptable under any circumstances. The executive committee is committed to ensuring a harassment free environment for its employees. This is a legal obligation we have to protect our employees but also an ethical obligation to do so. Four of the five employees are Indigenous and women—our own people. Our traditional values and customs have been damaged and broken by the actions of the national chief,” the summary says.
“The National Chief was given 20 days to respond to our motion and recommendation as required by our by-laws. She has not done so. Instead, she wrote to the executive committee on May 17, 2023 and said she would only provide a response on June 28, 2023.”
The National Chief, “has continued to breach confidentiality and the July 2022 resolution which directed her “to refrain from making any public comment to the media, in the interim, until the investigation has been completed and reported on to the Chiefs-in-Assembly. On April 21, she posted on her social media that she was ‘vindicated by the contents of the reports.’ This was both a misrepresentation of the contents of the reports but also contrary to resolution 03/2022.”
“AFN National Chief Archibald told CBC News “the latest action yet again demonstrates that the human resources investigation is being conducted in a colonial and confrontational manner and has been from the beginning.” She said she received individual reports on the allegations made by each of the five complainants last April. Her office told CBC News that she has not received a copy of the summary report.
“Once the full HR reports are rightfully shared with the First Nations-in-Assembly, they will agree that I have been substantively exonerated as national chief,” said National Chief Archibald.
In April the AFN executive, made up of regional chiefs, unanimously passed a resolution recommending chiefs-in-assembly remove AFN National Chief Archibald as national chief at their next meeting after reviewing detailed findings from the internal investigation on each of the complainants filed by the five employees. The motion was seconded by Ontario Regional Chief Glen Hare.
This is the second workplace investigation carried out on AFN National Chief Archibald. While she was Ontario Regional Chief, she faced a separate bullying and harassment probe launched by 10 complainants. The investigation, carried out in 2021, did not go ahead because none of the complainants would come forward publicly to file formal complaints, fearing workplace retribution.
