Two Canadian Security Intelligence Service surveillance officers pose for a photograph in Vancouver on Wednesday, October 18, 2023. The officer on the right, identified as "Jane Doe" in an anonymized lawsuit, says she was repeatedly raped by a senior CSIS colleague, while the officer on the left is a friend who supports Doe's claims about what they call a toxic workplace culture in the British Columbia CSIS office. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
VANCOUVER – Canada’s spy agency says it has launched a workplace assessment of its British Columbia office over “serious allegations” raised by whistleblowers who say they were sexually assaulted and harassed by a senior officer.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service says the officer who was “implicated” in the allegations – made public in an investigation by The Canadian Press this week – was removed from the workplace.
One officer says she was raped nine times in 2019 and 2020 by a senior colleague while in surveillance vehicles, and a second officer says she was later sexually assaulted by the same man despite bosses being warned not to pair him with young women.
A statement from the director of CSIS David Vigneault says accusations of a “toxic workplace” cannot be taken lightly, and a Workplace Climate Assessment will take place in the B.C. office to resolve “potential barriers to a safe, healthy and respectful workplace.”
The statement says that when the agency first heard about the allegations, it launched a third-party investigation “without delay.”
It says that for too long, a culture existed at the agency that allowed “inappropriate behaviours” to “fester.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 1, 2023.
