UPEI shared complainants' personal information with those they'd accused of harassment

The University of Prince Edward Island shared personal information, including home addresses and cell phone numbers, of multiple people who came forward to file harassment complaints with the people they accused of harassing them.

The details are included in a recent arbitration ruling after the UPEI Faculty Association filed a grievance to try to force the university to conduct an investigation.

Initially, the union said it became aware of a single privacy breach in early 2021 after a member's personal information was shared by the university's fair treatment advocate with the person against whom the member had lodged a harassment complaint.

As a matter of policy, the university shares the identity of those who file such complaints with the person who is the subject of the complaint, along with details of the allegations.

But that disclosure of information isn't supposed to include the complainant's home address and cell phone number.

Those details were being collected on a form students, faculty and staff are required to fill out to file a complaint, then repeatedly passed along to the subjects of those complaints without being redacted.

"I think it's pretty obvious that that's a pretty glaring lapse in professional conduct," said psychology professor Colleen MacQuarrie.

I think it's pretty obvious that that's a pretty glaring lapse in professional conduct— Colleen MacQuarrie

MacQuarrie has in the past criticized the university's fair treatment policy as protecting the university itself and those accused of harassment, rather than victims. The policy requires complainants sign non-disclosure agreements preventing them from speaking publicly about their experiences.

"People who are trying to come forward to get fair treatment, so they've already been through a lot — we're asked to sign confidentiality agreements and the institution releases information as to our personal location?" said MacQuarrie. 

"That seems to be a breach of our confidentiality, as well as it would seem as institutional misconduct."

In a letter from the union to members from June, the faculty association said the disclosures could "potentially be compromising [to] our members' safety."

"The word 'harassment' is very broad and can encompass a lot of different behaviours," union vice-president Margot Rejskind said in an interview with CBC.

"Certainly you can imagine that as someone who is coming forward as a vulnerable person … the idea that your personal information such as a home address, perhaps a cell phone number would be shared, would be very disconcerting.

"I would imagine that it would definitely change the way that you would view both your employer and the process itself."

Measures put in place

In its response to the union grievance, the university acknowledged the "inappropriate disclosure of the complainant's home address" regarding the initial privacy breach, and said steps had been taken "to ensure that a similar circumstance will not occur in future."

In addition, the university appointed a different third-party investigator to work on that particular harassment file.

But the university rebuffed the union's request for a full investigation to determine whether other breaches had occurred, saying its own internal investigation found there were none.

However the union prevailed, with the Nova Scotia Labour Arbitration Board ordering the university to provide documentation of case files going back to 2018.

Those documents showed three union members had their privacy breached during that time frame, and the union believes there were more beyond that.

According to the university, a total of five individuals had their personal information disclosed unnecessarily, including one student.

As part of a settlement with the union, the university wrote to the three faculty association members in June to advise them their privacy had been breached, and to apologize.

It's not clear if similar notification was provided to affected students. The university did not answer questions on that topic from CBC.

"The University of Prince Edward Island takes the protection of personal information very seriously," university spokesperson Nicole Phillips told CBC via email, in response to a request for comment.

"While the University strives to be transparent, the grievance process between UPEI and the Faculty Association is one that is strictly confidential, and we are unable to discuss any aspects of a particular grievance or resolution."

UPEI's fair treatment office is administered by contract by the firm HR Atlantic. No one from the firm responded to a CBC email requesting comment on this story.

There have been public complaints in the past year from former staff and faculty calling UPEI a "toxic workplace," citing a "culture of silence and fear" on campus, in part related to the university's use of non-disclosure agreements in cases involving allegations of harassment and sexual misconduct.

Breaches not believed to be intentional

Rejskind said she doesn't believe the breaches were intentional. "I cannot believe that anyone would act with that kind of malice."

But regardless, she said the breaches could still have a chilling effect, discouraging other victims of harassment from coming forward.

"I think that certainly you can infer that that would be the effect whether it was intended or not."

The union has raised concerns about the university's fair treatment process in an ongoing review by the firm Rubin Thomlinson LLP. 

That review, launched in December 2021, is looking into how the university deals with cases of harassment and discrimination, its use of non-disclosure agreements involving alleged victims, and into specific allegations of workplace misconduct involving former university president Alaa Abd-El-Aziz.

"That investigation is still ongoing, as far as we know," said Rejskind. "We are looking forward to seeing the report and to engaging with UPEI administration on best practices going forward."