A sexual-harassment complaint against COC president Marcel Aubut was dropped when he resigned last week.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
The Canadian Olympic Committee's board says it knew nothing of alleged sexual harassment involving former president Marcel Aubut despite revelations from The Globe and Mail that senior management was made aware of complaints as long ago as 2009.
"The board was not aware of any specific interactions that could be construed as harassment," said interim COC president Tricia Smith, a former Olympic rower and COC vice-president who works as a lawyer in Vancouver.
Ms. Smith also said the board was never made aware of a 2011 letter to Mr. Aubut signed by former CEO Jean Dupré. It alluded to a meeting of COC officials, including current chief executive officer Chris Overholt, to confront Mr. Aubut over an informal complaint of verbal harassment and inappropriate touching that was "not an isolated incident."
Nor were they informed, she said, of reports from top officials at VANOC, the 2010 Winter Games organizing committee, which conducted an internal investigation of a series of incidents involving Mr. Aubut and passed the results on to the COC in the early fall of 2009.
Ms. Smith was asked to clarify the lines of authority between the directors, the president and senior management – given presidents, chief executives and other senior corporate officers typically report to the board.
"That's an excellent question. It's exactly what we're submitting to the internal review," she told a conference call with reporters on Tuesday.
The review, which will have to tackle thorny questions about what was known by whom and when, comes about as a direct result of a formal sexual-harassment complaint filed Sept. 25 by a COC employee, the existence of which was first revealed by The Globe.
Mr. Aubut resigned his post last weekend and it's left to the COC board to clean up the fallout.
The body has appointed Toronto labour lawyer Christine Thomlinson to lead a wide-ranging investigation of what went wrong and how Mr. Aubut's behaviour was tolerated and allowed to continue. Ms. Thomlinson's firm was retained by the CBC last year to probe the Jian Ghomeshi sexual-harassment imbroglio.
According to Ms. Smith and fellow board member Dick Pound, a lawyer, long-time COC director and a member of the International Olympic Committee, Ms. Thomlinson will be given full latitude to look at complaints not just from COC employees but from anyone both within the "Olympic family" and without.
Ms. Smith pledged to "deal with these issues head on, in an open, fair and transparent way."
Thus, the third-party report's findings, conclusions and recommendations will be made public.
Ms. Smith also made a point of thanking the complainant – a Toronto-based employee of the COC's charitable foundation – for coming forward.
"It took extraordinary courage to speak up … it has been a difficult time for the employee and for everyone in the Canadian Olympic family," said Ms. Smith, who added she also thanked the unnamed employee privately.
She also highlighted the "professionalism and integrity" of Mr. Overholt, who took over as CEO after Mr. Dupré resigned, 18 months into Mr. Aubut's tenure.
"I want to apologize to anyone who may have been affected. These things should never have happened," Ms. Smith continued. "When events like this occur, it becomes obvious we can do better."