A former municipal employee who worked at the Prince George RCMP detachment and took the stand during the trial into whether Coun. Brian Skakun breached provincial privacy legislation has dropped her wrongful dismissal suit against the city.
Sheri McLean-Smith confirmed Tuesday that she has agreed to end the action after reaching a settlement. She declined to provide details of the terms but said she remains allowed to continue to talk about her situation.
"That was the really big thing," McLean-Smith said. "Right from the beginning I always said that I should be able to talk about it with anybody I wanted to... that was the reason why I decided to settle with them."
McLean-Smith said she has since been interviewed by the Justice Institute of British Columbia for an online course on harassment and bullying in the workplace and has joined Bully-Free B.C., an advocacy group.
In her notice of claim, filed in April 2012, McLean-Smith alleged city administrators conspired in June 2008 to retaliate against her for reporting the misconduct of then-Prince George RCMP Supt. Dahl Chambers and Ann Bailey, the manager of civilian employees at the detachment.
Over the course of a year, McLean-Smith said in the notice, she witnessed harassment and mistreatment of city employees by Chambers and Bailey and negligence by city administrative services director Rob Whitwham in respect to their conduct.
In November 2006, McLean-Smith filed a complaint with the city regarding the three and in September 2007 also filed one with the RCMP regarding Chambers. McLean-Smith alleged she became ill as a result of their ongoing conduct and by the end of October 2007 was no longer able to work.
McLean-Smith also alleged a report from an independent investigator indicated problems did exist in the workplace but the city ignored the recommendations and made a deliberate decision to ignore the actions of Chambers, Bailey and Whitwham and to end her employment.
In negotiating her return to work in summer 2008, McLean-Smith alleged administration gave her three options knowing only one was feasible given the circumstances and, in fact, had no intention of allowing her to return to work. Details of the three options were not provided in the notice.
In June 2008, McLean-Smith left her job, concluding administration's conduct amounted to a wrongful dismissal without notice. McLean-Smith alleged she continued to suffer loss of income and reputation as a result of the city's actions.
In a response, the city denied McLean-Smith's allegations and noted she was assured she would not have any contact with Chambers if she returned to work. However, McLean-Smith never did return and there was no other suitable vacant position within the city at the time, the city alleged.
The city further contended her refusal to return was unreasonable given the assurance she would not have to work directly with Chambers and that all her complaints of harassment had been rejected by the independent investigator.
The city also emphasized it had no authority to investigate the conduct of an RCMP officer because the force works in the city under a contract. The RCMP eventually ordered Chambers to apologize for his conduct.
Chambers and Bailey, who entered into a romantic relationship, have since moved away from Prince George, as has McLean-Smith.
The B.C. Court of Appeal, meanwhile, has granted Skakun leave to appeal his conviction of violating the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act by leaking a report on the work environment at the Prince George RCMP detachment to a local media outlet.
Skakun's lawyer, Jon Duncan, had maintained his client should have been afforded protection from conviction as a so-called ?whistleblower? under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms or common law.
A consent dismissal order ending McLean-Smith's action against the city was filed at the Prince George courthouse last week.
