Former Monarch Theatre manager Collin MacDonald says that public investigations have cleared his name regarding accusations of workplace harassment five years ago.--News photo Collin Gallant
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
A man at the centre of allegations of workplace bullying at the Monarch Theatre five years ago says he is afraid of new public backlash as the theatre, its owner and a former colleague are back in the news.
Collin MacDonald said he is unemployable and clinically depressed after he left the theatre in 2016 when accusations were levelled by a group of young employees that he was lewd and intimidating.
The high-profile issue also keyed on the response of the City Centre Development Agency – which owns the theatre – and, specifically, then-executive director Wayne Smith.
This week, Smith pleaded guilty to a single charge of accessing child pornography.
MacDonald says he knows nothing about those charges, and hasn’t been in contact with Smith for almost four years. But, he says, the public continues to connect him and Smith, and feels he’ll again be judged based on vague details of his own five-year-old case.
“I’m hoping for four simple words; the case (against me) has been dismissed,” MacDonald told the News on Friday. “I’m not going to point fingers or scream or anything like that.”
In October 2015, a group of teenaged staffers at the Monarch and a CCDA board member were quoted in a CBC Calgary report alleging inappropriate behaviour, and the controversy quickly grew to include the organizational response and escalating discussion of victims rights.
MacDonald says he hasn’t made public statements, but several investigations and now a human rights commission complaint – recently obtained by a freedom of information complaint – found no substantial wrong-doing on his part.
However, one mother of a former theatre employee, then in her teens, told the News this week that public perception of the issue has been created by how the theatre and CCDA responded.
“The whole thing was very uncomfortable for the girls who were working there,” said the woman whose daughter worked there through a school program, earning credits along with a salary.
“(My daughter and I) only ever wanted the job posting taken down at the high school … but if he (MacDonald) has been ruined, he’s done that to himself.”
She said others involved in the complaint are likely not satisfied either, but after five years, likely little could be done.
An investigation by the Medicine Hat Public School board made no determination about the claims, but administrators said they had no major concerns at the same time they closed the placement program.
MacDonald says he’s been yelled at from cars and is harassed online, despite several findings in his favour.
He said the release of an internal report done for the CCDA by an outside private security firm, would be “good.”
“Aside from nailing a copy on every door in Medicine Hat, I’m not sure what I can do (to change public opinion),” he said.
That CCDA report is not public, but an overview provided by senior officials stated Macdonald’s management was questionable at times, though not a “firing offence.”
Within months the position of theatre manager was collapsed into the job description of the executive director, and a new person was hired.
MacDonald says he’s be come a pariah in the community. Without work or any support system, he lives on social assistance and spends much of his time walking the downtown area.
“If I could do it all again, I’d have never taken the job,” he said.
The News has also viewed copies of a Human Rights Commission decision obtained by MacDonald in 2019, that were previously held by freedom of information rules.
That matter dealt largely with how the board interacted with board member Natasha Shannon, who claimed sexism was pervasive at the CCDA.
The investigation was closed without further action in early 2016, and an appeal dismissed that summer.
When allegations first arose the Medicine Hat Police Service confirmed it had received a third-party complaint about Monarch management, but determined no criminal activity had taken place. Police suggested the matter would be better dealt with through a workplace standards complaint.
(EDITOR’S NOTE — This updated article includes two updates to correct incorrect or unclear information. First, the decision of the Human Rights Commission referred to in the second last paragraph was obtained by MacDonald, not Smith as previously stated, and the decision was rendered in 2016, not 2017.)
