Speaker won’t take action against Saran – leaves that to NDP, voters

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This article was published 12/01/2017 (2807 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Speaker Myrna Driedger said Thursday that the findings of a human resources investigation into suspended New Democrat MLA Mohinder Saran were given to Saran, the woman accusing him of sexual harassment, interim NDP leader Flor Marcelino and NDP house leader Jim Maloway.

But the NDP responded that those “findings” told the party nothing more than is already publicly known — that Saran should take sensitivity training, and the complainant should still be employed but in a different job.

Driedger said Thursday afternoon that “the investigative report was not shared with anyone. However, the findings of the report were shared with the complainant, the member, the Interim Leader of the official Opposition, and their house leader.”

New Democrats said they still don’t know what the legislature’s HR office found in its investigation.

“HR didn’t provide them with details of the investigation. They were told that was confidential,” NDP press secretary Rachel Morgan said Thursday.

“HR showed them a piece of paper with the recommendations, but they weren’t permitted to take it with them. The paper stated that as a result of their investigation, HR was recommending the sensitivity training, and that the complainant should continue to be employed in some other capacity,” she said.

“That was verbally shared with caucus. There was no written report about the findings or the recommendations that could be shared with caucus,” Morgan said.

When the caucus and its provincial executive finally emerged from a six-and-a-half-hour meeting Tuesday that ended up extending Saran’s suspension from caucus, then-caucus chair Rob Altemeyer told reporters: “The HR report is not being made available to our caucus, or to anyone in our caucus, so we do not have any information from that report to work from.”

Driedger said Thursday that she won’t be taking action against Saran — that’s up to the NDP caucus, and ultimately to the voters.

“I would point out that the Speaker has significant authority to deal with conduct in the legislature, but no statutory authority to deal with most other behaviour by members. There the authority rests with the party, and ultimately the voters to whom the member is accountable,” Driedger said in a prepared statement.

“As the Speaker, I take the issue of sexual harassment very seriously. There are procedures in place that deal with such allegations, and those procedures were followed,” Driedger said by email. “An investigation was carried out and recommendations made based on the findings. Due to privacy and confidentiality concerns, I am unable to comment further on this case.”

It remains a mystery what the investigation uncovered and concluded.

Saran remained in limbo Thursday, suspended from caucus indefintely until he apologizes and a possible unspecified reconciliation process with his accuser takes place.

Sources told the Free Press Wednesday that if Saran does not apologize, he will be removed from caucus permanently.

“If he digs his heels in, if he doesn’t apologize, he’s gone,” said the NDP source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Morgan said that both Saran and the complainant have been informed about the caucus proposal for reconciliation, but would not say whether either has responded yet. Morgan would not say if caucus has set a deadline.

Altemeyer said Thursday that the NDP has not drafted an apology letter for Saran. The caucus is hoping the complainant and Saran can reconcile to the point that they can agree on an apology. “That will carry a lot of weight with caucus,” said Altemeyer, who has stepped down as caucus chair. “I have not been in touch with the complainant. Technically, she’s not a caucus employee.”

Meanwhile, it is not known what The Maples’ NDP riding association thinks about Saran’s predicament.

There is no apparent online information about the riding association. Both Morgan and provincial party communications director Matt Austman say the other is responsible for deciding whether to release names and contact information of riding association officials to the media.

Austman said he would pass on an interview request, but emphasized that having caucus deal with Saran is the appropriate way to go.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca