Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Government mum after former diplomatic staff disciplined at Denmark embassy

OTTAWA — The federal government has punished unnamed diplomats who worked at the Canadian embassy in Copenhagen last year following a probe into whistleblower allegations of serious misconduct at the mission.

With that, the Department of Foreign Affairs has slammed the door on the matter. It refuses to say what wrongdoings were uncovered, who was involved and what specific actions have been taken.

“The issue has been investigated thoroughly. The investigation is now complete. Appropriate administrative and disciplinary actions have been taken,” the department said in a terse email Friday.

Investigators from the department’s inspector-general’s office were ordered to the Danish capital last August after a group of then-current and former local embassy employees delivered a scathing written grievance to the office of Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird.

In a document obtained by the Citizen, the group alleged a host of improprieties and raised questions about a 2011 embassy real estate deal, unauthorized personal use of the mission’s local staff, property and alcohol.

They also alleged racial harassment of some locally engaged mission staff, the use of undocumented workers and prostitutes working in the embassy’s garage.

Overall, the grievance portrayed a demoralized locally engaged staff operating in an “institutionalized climate” of intimidation and harassment for a number of years.

In January, a government official confirmed the inspector-general’s probe had uncovered “serious” problems. The staff complaints also appeared to be at least partially supported by a 2003 departmental audit of the mission that found mistrust and flagging morale had existed for almost a decade.

Days before the accusations landed on Baird’s desk, Canada’s envoy to Denmark at the time, Ambassador Peter Lundy, vacated the post as part of a previously scheduled routine diplomatic rotation.

Lundy is now listed in a government directory as director of DFAIT’s planning, advocacy and innovation division. He has repeatedly refused to comment.

A senior government source says “ethical standards” were somehow breached by unnamed diplomatic staff.

“We expect our employees here in Canada and around the world to uphold the highest ethical standards. We think Canadians expect that too. And when someone does not live up to those expectations, there are consequences. For us, the matter is closed. We have new people in place in the mission. We’re moving forward.”

The 2003 audit cited a need to “win back the trust of the (locally engaged staff) who in the past endured a number of difficult management teams.”

At the time, the mission was headed by Alfonso Gagliano, the former Liberal public works minister abruptly removed from cabinet to assume the Danish post in 2002. He was fired by prime ministerial decree two years later when the sponsorship scandal exploded. One longtime former local embassy employee said Gagliano was well-liked by staff.

In 2001, it was revealed that former Canadian ambassador to Denmark Ernest Hebert had been quietly recalled in 1995 after a young housekeeper alleged he had sexually assaulted her at the Copenhagen embassy’s 1994 Christmas party. He was seconded to the University of Ottawa as an executive-in-residence.

Original Article
Source: ottawacitizen.com
Author: Ian MacLeod

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