Gay guard faced poisonous workplace
The Ontario Grievance Settlement Board has let it be known that a complaint against the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre has been upheld. The complaint was filed by Robert Ranger and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, and alleged that the jail allowed harassment based on sexual orientation to continue without restraint against Ranger for over four years. There has been a move over the last few years to reduce racist, sexist, and homophobic attitudes in correctional facilities, but following this case, the Board has said that it will try to work harder, and with the union, towards combating these issues. The decision said that the facility took too long to respond to Rangers complaints, failed to find him alternative employment, did not investigate until a year and half following the complaint, and named then president of the Correctional Services union, Mark Grady, as the principal 'tormentor.' After his employment at the Ottawa facility Ranger was put on suicide watch and diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
See "Gay guard faced poisonous workplace", Tony Spears, The Ottawa Citizen, February 28, 2010