“We have taken back our voices. We’re hopeful that we can use them to keep this conversation going
Two women who signed non-disclosure agreements with the University of Prince Edward Island ten years ago are no longer at risk of being sued if they talk about what happened to them. The university’s board of governors has said that they are truly sorry for what happened.
Alaa Abd-El-Aziz was the former president of the university. In 2012, Wendy Carroll and Erin Casey filed complaints against him for sexual harassment. They now want their names to be made public. In the end, they took their complaints to the P.E.I. Human Rights Commission. In 2013, the university offered them settlements and asked them to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).
“After 11 years of silence, we feel heard,” Carroll and Casey wrote in a statement released Thursday after UPEI told them that their NDAs were no longer binding.
“We accept UPEI’s apology for the damage to our personal, professional, and reputational lives over the past ten years.”
Early in 2022, UPEI hired Rubin Thomlinson LLP, a Toronto-based law firm that did an investigation at CBC News after radio host Jian Ghomeshi was fired. This was the same firm that looked into harassment, discrimination, and fair treatment at CBC News.
In late 2021, a new accusation of wrongdoing was made against the former president, and this happened soon after.Abd-El-Aziz announced his retirement in December of that year, and the university now says it has nothing to do with him.
For the Rubin Thomlinson review, the two women were given temporary releases from their NDAs, but Abd-El-Aziz had also signed those agreements.In June, UPEI told CBC News that Abd-El-Aziz had not agreed to free the women from the need to keep their information secret.
Casey and Carroll asked the university to offer them legal protection if Abd-El-Aziz decided to sue them. This is called indemnification. But UPEI wouldn’t offer to cover the women’s costs permanently. Instead, they would only do so long enough for them to take part in the Rubin Thomlinson review.
So, neither Casey nor Carroll were able to take part in the review.
CBC News has tried many times to talk to Abd-El-Aziz about the report and what happened after, but has been unable to do so.
Later Thursday morning, the UPEI Faculty Association asked again for a copy of the report without any changes made to it. They also asked for a third-party review of the changes that were made before the report came out in June. The association suggested that the cost be split between the campus unions and the board of governors.
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‘We’ve reclaimed our voices
In their statement from Thursday, the women say that the permanent release has given them back their voices.
The statement says, “Our goal has always been and still is to make sure that what happened to us will never happen to anyone else.”
“We also want to reaffirm our leadership roles on the issue of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and the harms they can cause in cases of harassment and discrimination.
“We’ve got our voices back. We’re hopeful that we can use them to keep this conversation going.”
Casey was a graduate student in the Faculty of Education at UPEI and worked full-time in the office of UPEI’s president when she and Carroll brought their complaints to the school’s attention. Carroll was a teacher at the School of Business at UPEI. After putting in their complaints, both women left P.E.I.
‘A process of reconciliation
After Pat Sinnott quit as chair of the UPEI Board of Governors earlier this summer, Shannon MacDonald was put in charge. In a statement released on Thursday, she said that the board will follow “every single recommendation” in the Rubin Thomlinson report.
“One way the university has taken responsibility since the Rubin Thomlinson report came out is by making things right with those who were hurt,” the statement says.
“The university won’t stop them [Casey and Carroll], if they want to, from having their voices heard and telling their stories.”
MacDonald thanked the women for agreeing to meet with her and talk about what they had been through in the last ten years.
“Together, we have started the process of making peace. As we work to heal, we hope that this will be a way to make things right for them and for the university as a whole.”
Earning back trus
MacDonald also apologized for how the complaints were dealt with by the university.
The statement says, “We are very sorry that the university and the board did not live up to our values about harassment and equality.”
“We’re sorry that we haven’t met the expectations of the UPEI community in the past. We must and will do better. We will keep working hard to make sure that everyone in the UPEI community has a safe, respectful, and positive place to live.
MacDonald said that changes in the board’s leadership and the hiring of a new vice-president who will be in charge of the university’s people and culture are the first steps.
We have a lot of trust to earn, and we are just getting started. We want to take the time to make sure this is done right.—Shannon MacDonald, head of the board of directors at UPEI
She also said that a plan of action is being made based on what was said in the report.
“We have a lot of trust to earn, and we’re just getting started. MacDonald said in the statement, “We want to take the time to do this right.”
“We know that we can learn and get better through this restorative process, and we think that they [Casey and Carroll] and others can help guide us so that this doesn’t happen to anyone at UPEI again easily, if at all.”