Departing officials complain Commons clerk was partial to Liberals, fell asleep during question period
CBC
The House of Commons Clerk Charles Robert is being accused of acting in a partisan fashion that favours the Liberals along with other allegations that include sleeping in the chamber during question period and presiding over a disrespectful workplace, CBC News has learned.
A series of written complaints and letters to the Speaker viewed by CBC show that five senior managers who worked closely with Robert started raising concerns on behalf of their staff in 2018.
CBC News also spoke to 10 sources with knowledge of the inner workings of Robert's office who corroborated the complaints and provided additional examples.
Three of the senior managers who complained have taken sick leave and early retirement since last year including André Gagnon, the deputy clerk, who departed just this past summer. A fourth executive is now on sick leave.
According to the House of Commons website, Robert's job is to advise the Speaker and members of Parliament on parliamentary rules, precedents and practices "regardless of party affiliation" and "with impartiality and discretion."
But Colette Labrecque-Riel, the former clerk assistant and director general of international and inter-parliamentary affairs, wrote a letter to the Speaker about her departure in which she said she saw the clerk "speak and act in a clearly, or at the very least what could be reasonably perceived to be, partisan fashion."
"The Clerk of the House of Commons must be held to the highest standard in this regard," Labrecque-Riel wrote in her letter to Speaker Anthony Rota, a Liberal MP, on May 4, 2020.
"Real or perceived, breaching the principle of impartiality is not only egregious, but a grave betrayal of you, as Speaker, of parliamentarians and of all clerks."
Robert responded to a list of the allegations provided by CBC News saying that he has spent his career serving MPs and Senators from all parties.
"For more than 40 years, I have served Parliament and parliamentarians of both Houses with integrity and to the best of my ability," wrote Robert in a statement to CBC News.
"Prior to my appointment as Clerk of the House of Commons, I was for several years the interim Clerk of the Senate providing advice and counsel to three Speakers, Conservative and Liberal."
Labrecque-Riel wrote that she was taking early retirement after more than 30 years working at the House because she could not reconcile the "new values" with her own. She wrote the work environment in recent years had made her feel "devalued, disrespected and unwelcomed."
In Labreque-Riel's letter — which she did not share with CBC News — she wrote that Rota was aware of the issues already but urged him to do something for the sake of her colleagues and the institution.
CBC News obtained copies of multiple letters detailing complaints against Robert. The documents were sent to two Speakers of the House over the last three years — Rota and his predecessor, Liberal Geoff Regan.
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