The International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) questions the extent of the alleged cases of sexual and moral harassment found in a survey of its employees, which exposed a toxic climate within its walls.
Through the voice of its director, Alain Pham, the office of the new administrator of the OIF, Caroline St-Hilaire, raised doubts about the reality of the results of this consultation.
“Polls are never an exact science and even when you take a sample of 1000 people, for a population of millions of people, you can see very well that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, and what is predicted does not don’t pass,” said the Duty Mr. Pham, Wednesday, in a rare public outing for a person exercising his function.
In recent weeks, the Secretary General of La Francophonie, Louise Mushikiwabo, has found herself at the center of a controversy because of the results of this survey revealing in particular that 44% of employees believe they have been victims of moral harassment at work, and 9% sexual harassment.
Mme Mushikiwabo had herself previously raised doubts about the scientific validity of the results, the Duty a source who preferred not to be identified. His comment was made in March during a meeting of the Permanent Council of the Francophonie (CPF), where all the member states and governments of the OIF, including Quebec and Canada, are represented.
In the process, Canada waived funding of $ 3 million to the OIF, crystallizing latent tensions after the decision of Mr.me Mushikiwabo not to renew the term of Canadian Geoffroi Montpetit as director, which Caroline St-Hilaire obtained with the support of the Quebec government.
half less
In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Mr. Pham questioned the results of the survey on the basis that only 165 employees, or half of the total workforce of the OIF, answered questions about moral or sexual harassment.
For this reason, he estimates that the percentages obtained should be divided by two, since only half of the 340 employees responded.
“It’s good 44%, when we have 73 yes out of 165. But when we have 73 yes out of 340 people in total we are in the 22%”, he explained about the results on harassment moral.
As for the results on sexual harassment, Mr. Pham, who directs for Mr.me St-Hilaire, the office responsible in particular for the budgetary and financial operations of the OIF, followed the same reasoning.
“The 9%, out of a pool of 165 responses, so 15 people who answered yes, out of the total pool of 340, we are about half, so 4.5%”, he estimated.
Alain Pham did not want to apply the same reasoning to a situation where 100% of the employees would have answered the questions. In his opinion, it should not be concluded that the proportions of alleged cases would be maintained and even less that they would double.
“No one can predict on the people who did not respond, he evaded. I don’t think we should speak for them. »
Mr. Pham denied wanting to reduce the extent of the alleged cases of harassment shown by the survey, which had been requested by the OIF Staff Committee, with the consent of Mr.me Mushikiwabo and Mr. Montpetit.
“We don’t want to minimise, we know that there is a situation that needs to be resolved and that exists in all international organizations,” he said. That is a first fact beyond the figures. »
The OIF would not release further details of the poll, the results of which circulated in the media after being released to staff.
Oria Vande Weghe, spokesperson for Ms.me Mushikiwabo, however, transmitted to the Duty a photo of a page of a document showing that 73 of the 165 people who answered question 18 of the survey, dealing with bullying at work, believed they had suffered it.
According to the summary results of the survey, of which The duty was able to obtain a copy like other media, 207 people took part in the consultation. Not all of them answered all the questions, especially those on harassment, says the OIF.
Neither the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, nor that of the Minister of International Relations, Martine Biron, wanted to comment on Mr. Pham’s remarks. At the end of March, the two ministers had shown themselves to be very concerned about the allegations of sexual and moral harassment at the OIF.
Authorized intervention
Alain Pham said he answers questions from the media with the agreement of Mr.me St-Hilaire, who just took office last week, after his appointment in March.
“Mme St-Hilaire was extremely comfortable, aware, she obviously encouraged me on that,” he said.
The director of the administrator’s office, however, acknowledged the unusual nature of his public interventions, which he attributes to the subject. “What is new is that we have never seen a subject, which is also administrative, being brought up in the media so far,” he said.
Mr. Pham also specified that Mr.me St-Hilaire will soon take over in this file.
“I worked a lot on the subject of harassment,” he said. The choice of the OIF is to send the people who know the files. »
On Tuesday, Mr. Pham had already given a first interview to TV5 on the subject.
The Secretary General’s decision not to renew Geoffroi Montpetit as administrator of the Francophone organization has caused renewed tension with Ottawa. pic.twitter.com/nbbNOQj3vn
— TV5MONDE Info (@TV5MONDEINFO) April 11, 2023
End of March, The duty reported that M.me Mushikiwabo took advantage of the end of Mr. Montpetit’s mandate to tighten his grip on the various services of the OIF, including its ten representations around the world, before the arrival of Mr.me St-Hilaire.
According to a new organizational chart, communications are both an institutional and operational responsibility, reporting to the Secretary General and the Administrator.
Mr. Pham said on Wednesday that Mr.me Vande Weghe is director of communication for the OIF in addition to being spokesperson for Mr.me Mushikiwabo.