DGC to launch anti-harassment audit

The directors' guild has enlisted advisor Daina Green to review its workplace policies and practices, while lawyer Emma Phillips will provide legal advice.

The Directors Guild of Canada is launching an internal anti-harassment audit, tapping independent advisor Daina Green to lead a review of its workplace policies and practices.

Green is a member of the United Nations Development Programme Roster of Experts in Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Public Administration. She’s led her own consultancy since 1990, advising unions, governments and non-profits on anti-harassment, anti-discrimination and pay and employment equity policies.

In a release announcing the audit, DGC national lead on safe and respectful workplaces Kendrie Upton stated Green will embark on a listening tour across Canada in January to hear from DGC members about which of its current anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies are working and which aren’t.

The DGC has also brought on board Emma Phillips of Goldblatt Partners, LLP to provide advice on discrimination and harassment law. She previously served as counsel on external reviews into sexual misconduct by the Canadian Armed Forces and RCMP, as well as a UN-appointed independent review panel to investigate sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers.

“This audit is the Guild’s next major step in our efforts to confront sexual harassment and harassment in all its forms,” Upton said in a release. “We have a lot of work ahead of us, but now is the time for change, the time to take on the corrosive culture of ‘turning a blind-eye’ that’s allowed bullying and harassment to persist for so long.”

Green will make a full report on her findings, including recommendations, to the DGC’s national executive board, with the findings being reported to the DGC’s members. A date for the final report has yet to be set, although Green is set to deliver an interim report at the end of February.

The DGC is one of 16 organizations that recently committed to a “zero-tolerance approach” to sexual harassment in the industry. Those organizations, including ACTRA, CMPA, IATSE and the Canadian Academy, are currently working to enact an industry-wide code of conduct laying out clear definitions of appropriate and inappropriate behaviour.