Who's telling the truth? Conflicting stories on Sudbury fire chief harassment investigation

It was back in March, that the Sudbury Professional Firefighters Association filed a complaint, alleging that several people at the city were harassing former fire chief Trevor Bain.

But those allegations first became public in the last week, when the union threatened to go to the Ministry of Labour if the city didn't take action.

That week ended with the city announcing on Friday afternoon that Bain was "no longer with the organization," an exit sources close to the decision describe to CBC as a "firing."

In one of several letters made public and posted on social media, the firefighters union says it was told in the spring by a city manager that a third party was being brought in to investigate the two city councillors named in the complaint.

Ward 3 Sudbury city councillor Gerry Montpellier says he is one of them.

And in an extremely tense moment during question period at last week's city council meeting, he asked staff is that was true.

"Now what I need to know is: is this allegation correct?" Montpellier asked.

Kevin Fowke, who is now the general manager of corporate services but was the head of the human resources department back in the spring, confirmed he is the manager the union is referring to.

But, while acknowledging it was awkward to talk about this in an open session of council, he said that the union was not correct.

"I can absolutely confirm for everyone that there was no third party investigating any member of council," Fowke told city council Oct. 17.

That prompted city councillor Robert Kirwan to ask staff to take action against the firefighters association for making false statements.

"That response indications there was some false and misleading information in those public letters," Kirwan said.

However, in emails from this past spring obtained by the CBC, Fowke writes that "we are in the midst of several investigative steps. Some steps are relying on external help and others are being handled internally."

"The Mayor's involvement is essential as head of council with two respondents identified as members of council."

Contacted by the CBC for clarification, Fowke stands by what he said in council, saying in those emails he is referring to the other people named in the complaint when talking about third party investigation.

The firefighters association says despite Fowke's explanation, it stands by its statement.

The city provided a copy of the original complaint to the CBC.

The names of the people accused of harassment are redacted, but the letter does mention that the list includes several volunteer firefighters as well as an individual's "staff members" that CBC has learned refers to the unpaid advisors who work for Ward 2 city councillor Michael Vagnini.

The complaint letter also gets into some of the specific allegations of harassment, including referring to Bain as an "empire builder" and "dumb" and accusations that he was "in collusion" with the full-time firefighter union.