Halifax housing agency manager sexually harassed job applicant, report finds
CBC
A longtime senior manager with a Nova Scotia housing agency is no longer employed by the province after an independent investigation found he sexually harassed a woman who applied for a job with an Indigenous housing group.
Frank Carroll had been the director of the Cobequid Housing Authority since 1999 and was on a six-month secondment at Tawaak Housing Association in Halifax earlier this year when the incidents leading to the allegations occurred.
Tina Kane sent in her resumé in March for the job of property manager at Tawaak Housing, a non-profit organization that owns and operates rental housing for Indigenous people living in urban areas of Nova Scotia.
Kane, who is Black, said during the interview process, Carroll tried to kiss her, touched her leg, hugged her, held her hand and made inappropriate comments. Kane captured some of their interactions using a recording device hidden in her bra and surveillance set up in advance of one of their meetings.
"It has shaken my foundation," Kane said in an interview with CBC News. "The person who I thought I always knew, who was strong and assertive and stoic, I'm broken. I don't feel like that person anymore. I feel dirty. I feel ashamed. I know I shouldn't, but I can't help it."
When Kane came forward with the allegations, Tawaak Housing and the provincial Department of Infrastructure and Housing hired a lawyer with Halifax firm Nijhawan McMillan Petrunia to investigate. That lawyer, Kelly McMillan, found Carroll did sexually harass Kane.
During the investigation, Carroll denied the sexual harassment allegations, saying Kane gave no indication his interactions with her were inappropriate, and that she was an enthusiastic participant in the incidents and "actively encouraged" conversations of a personal nature.
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