A 14-year veteran of the Calgary Police Service (CPS) who claims she was bullied and sexually harassed has officially stepped down, saying she is doubtful as to whether an ongoing review of harassment and bullying in the workplace will net any meaningful results.
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Const. Jennifer Magnus attempted to quit during a Calgary Police Commission meeting on Jan. 31, but Chief Roger Chaffin refused to accept her tearful resignation. He thanked Magnus for having the “courage to speak out,” but said he wanted to talk to her about it again after “some time” had passed.
Magnus and her lawyer met with Chaffin on Feb. 16. She said they had a “positive meeting” but decided to discuss her resignation at a later date.
At a meeting of the Calgary Police Commission on Tuesday, Magnus said a second follow-up meeting never came to fruition.
“I know that the chief has always said he has an open-door policy,” Magnus said. “I wanted to meet with him to discuss the issues that are occurring within the Calgary police, and that did not happen. Instead, I was directed to speak to our HR department.”
“Because we’re in a process between legal counsels, those discussions go between counsels,” Chaffin said. “They wouldn’t necessarily go through me.”
Magnus said she’s concerned that legal counsel representing the CPS hasn’t fully bought into the notion that bullying and harassment is an issue within the force.
“In correspondence between my lawyers and Calgary police lawyers, the Calgary police lawyers stated they do not believe there is a culture of bullying and harassment in the Calgary Police Service,” alleged Magnus.
“If they believe it doesn’t exist, why the heck are we here?”
“What are the people doing,” Magnus asked. “Show us examples of it working. I want to see where it’s working, because right now, it doesn’t feel like it’s working.”
Chaffin denies that the CPS legal team feels that way, cautioning reporters who have not seen the emails referenced by Magnus.
“Remarks like that are unproductive,” Chaffin said. “Our service is exhausting every effort we can to respect the need to have a respectful workplace. Our legal counsel is fully embedded with that. They work closely with me. There’s not an ounce of truth to that statement.”
“Every one of our staff are working incredibly hard to make sure this works.”
Police commission chair Brian Thiessen echoed Chaffin’s comments, underscoring the work which has gone into the human resources review at CPS.
“The commission has seen consistently from the service that they take this issue very seriously,” Thiessen said. “They’re working incredibly hard on it and they’ve got concrete timelines going forward.”
Magnus has now retained a lawyer, along with 13 current and former employees of the Calgary Police Service. The group submitted formal complaints to Chaffin on Friday, March 3.
Her resignation takes effect at the end of May, roughly the same time when another major update on the status of the CPS workplace review is anticipated.
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With files from Melissa Gilligan and News Talk 770’s Aurelio Perri and Tony King