A young black woman working in the medical imaging department at Toronto Western Hospital was sexually harassed and the object of racial taunts in what a hospital investigation concluded was a “poisoned work environment.”
Stacey Walker maintains her complaints were ignored for 16 months until a senior hospital official stepped in. Now, Walker says she has been told by another official that she can either have three months pay and leave, or return to the same job.
Walker, 28, a medical imaging technologist, is breaching a wall of secrecy by speaking about her case in hope that the hospital, part of the University Health Network, will make changes to the way it handles sensitive complaints.
“Get up, give me your seat and go make me some stew,” one white technologist shouted, while standing threateningly “over” her, Walker recalled in an interview with the Star. In another instance, a different technologist showed Walker racially tinged cartoons while she was performing a CT scan on a patient, a procedure that carries a high margin of error.
Those two events were confirmed by the report.
Next, when she kept her composure, the technologist sang in her ear, Walker says, and followed her into another room to try again to rattle her.
Another imaging employee, Walker’s mentor, had earlier massaged her shoulders without consent and said he wished she wasn’t wearing a bra, the report confirmed.
That same employee who demanded she make stew, threw Walker’s credentials badge on the floor and as she bent down to pick it up, whipped a bottle cap at her legs.
“We just want to confirm that a poisoned work environment exists for the complainant and for others,” the UHN’s manager of workplace diversity Jacqueline Silvera said when briefing Walker recently.
Silvera told Walker if the issues in the department are “not addressed … it will continue to perpetuate the very poisoned work environment that we are now dealing with.”
Bantering within the department crossed the line into racist territory, the investigation confirmed. “Don’t beat me massa,” an employee was heard to say to another, the report noted, referencing a comment that a black American slave might have said to his master in the past.
When the report was completed recently, Walker was told she could hear the findings but not obtain a copy. Walker invited a Star reporter, posing as a friend, to attend a briefing on the report. The Star told the hospital last week that a reporter had attended the briefing, an action the hospital took issue with.
“It’s surreal,” Walker says, recalling the trauma she said she suffered. “I couldn’t believe all of this was happening to me then or now. It just doesn’t seem real.”
University Health Network President Robert Bell said in an interview Friday he could not comment on the results of the confidential investigation. He said he “strongly respects” the findings of Silvera, the hospital’s lead investigator, and stands by “whatever recommendations she makes.” Bell said the matter will be concluded in the next few weeks and while there may be disciplinary action, there will also be “healing and counselling” needed in the busy department.
“We think our policies (around harassment and discrimination) are effective,” Bell said. “The question is, do staff understand the code of conduct?” He also said the Joint Medical Imaging department at the UHN (it does CT, X-ray and MRI scans) is “extraordinarily effective.”
The trouble began for Walker in September 2008, just nine days after she started working for UHN. A technologist, about 15 years her senior, was assigned to train her. Unexpectedly, he began rubbing her shoulders suggestively in a darkened lab. Walker recalls the technologist saying: “I wish you weren’t wearing a shirt or bra, that way I could give you a better massage.” Silvera confirmed to Walker in her briefing that the incident occurred.
Walker, who was 25 at the time, told him he “should stop … someone might come in and see what you’re doing.” The senior technologist, a paternal figure to Walker in a position of authority, took his hands away only when she tensed up further. Shaken, Walker told other imaging employees what had happened and asked for their advice. Word travelled to managers and crept through the department.
An immediate boss tried to convince Walker that the senior technologist was harmless.
A senior human resources manager suggested she take an assertiveness training workshop offered online on the hospital’s intranet. That same manager told Walker she would probe the situation, first by getting in touch with the senior technologist, but never did.
When contacted by the Star, the senior technologist said he “would love to talk … there’s so much I want to say” but “I signed a gag order.” According to the report, the senior technologist admitted to conduct the investigators deemed was sexual harassment.
The technologist is quoted in the report describing Walker as a “very troubled, insecure individual” who has “mental issues.”
The Star is withholding the names of the three men the report found harassed Walker, because the alleged harassers provided their information to the hospital with a guaranty of confidentiality and, according to the hospital, identifying them would harm the “healing process” that is underway.
Walker asked workplace diversity manager Jacqueline Silvera why a human resources manager never followed up her original complaint.
Silvera’s answer: “I don’t know.”
Hospital president Bell said there was “ambiguity” over who was told what about Walker’s complaints and when they were told.
Silvera got involved with Walker’s case in January when she began what became an extensive, lengthy and “hard” investigation. She spent 61 hours interviewing 19 people, and produced a 38-page report. When she went over the findings with Walker, Silvera confirmed “there was no outreach to any of the departments that could have helped in dealing with” the complaints.
During the debriefing, Silvera referred repeatedly to the “poisoned work environment” that Walker had “landed in.”
Taunts, lies and abuse reached a fever pitch several times over almost two years, Walker says. Some coworkers were kind to her, but many would turn their heads when she entered a room. A fellow female X-ray tech would remark if there was another man present: “Oh Stacey, don’t worry. He’s safe.”
Rumours spread, some nasty. One of Walker’s coworkers told others that she killed a patient, she says.
Coworkers called Walker names, such as Shaniqua, Chaka Khan, La Toya and “dark walker.” In the report, employees are quoted saying the latter referred to her “evil . . . persona,” not the colour of her skin.
In 2009, Walker spent six months on an evening shift after telling managers she was depressed.
Last January, details of other aggravating incidents finally found their way to Silvera and Walker was helped to lodge a formal complaint. She was granted an indefinite paid leave once coworkers learned an official investigation was underway and the abuse ramped up once again, Walker said.
The native Montrealer wanted to return to work at one of the three other UHN imaging sites in downtown Toronto — there are five — but she says officials told her she lacks the skills. Job descriptions for all of the sites are nearly identical to Walker’s current position.
“If I had known it would be this bad I would have suffered in silence,” she said recently. “I was the victim and now they’re treating me like I’m the problem and they want to get rid of me. If they handled the sex assault properly the other incidents would never have happened.” Walker will not be returning to her job, she said.
Silvera said things will change.
“I’m sorry this has been the experience for the department,” she said during the investigation debriefing the Star attended. “Our responsibility now is to take all of this information for you and for everyone and to work to restore, rebalance and recalibrate.”
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