Trent security officer Brenda Whetung has been found guilty of public mischief. Whetung was charged after issuing a false complaint to the police claiming a co-worker had assaulted her. Whetung lodged the false complaint after the co-worker had filed a complaint with the Trent Human Rights Office. Harassment of Trent employees has, unfortunately, a long history. Under the direction of David Mahy, Human Resources management has been particularly ineffective both in the prevention of such harassment and in addressing it when it arises.

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Whetung was found guilty and will be on probation for 18 months and will serve 50 hours of community service. She had entered a plea of not guilty.

What should be of interest to those concerned with productive and positive human resources management at Trent is the context within which this sorry incident arose. It appears that Whetung was implicated in the general malaise of excessive dysfunctionality in the Security Office and inappropriate management strategies.

Issuing false statement(s) to police against the very co-worker Whetung is alleged to have harassed should raise a very large red flag in the eyes of any competent human resources professional. In stark contrast Trent's human resources department turned a blind eye to the actions of its managers, and employee complaints fell on deaf ears, as revealed in these articles:

• Report Kept Secret: H.R. Allows Harassment to Persist?
• HR Managers Back Thief?
• Bullies in Security, Senior management failed to intervene: report
• Mahy's Tasteless Joke - We are Not Amused
• Trent security officer guilty of stealing from employer

Trent's board of governors should be ashamed of itself as the need to effectively manage and improve employee relations at Trent is not a recent discovery. The Arthurs-Lorimer Report of March 1997 clearly identified these needs (and we are of the understanding that these needs have yet to be addressed some eight years later):

Trent's board must also be ashamed of itself that, given the obvious importance of effective and positive human resource management, it allowed President Bonnie Patterson to hire David Mahy as Associate Vice President of Human Resources in September of 2000. Mahy was intimately involved in Prinzo v. Baycrest just months prior to being hired by Trent.

The Prinzo case has gained notoriety in Canadian employment law as an extreme example of the very type of behaviour employers should avoid - harassing employees or allowing employees to be harassed. Employers who so conduct themselves face the likelihood of additional penalties at law. Jeffrey Goodman, a partner in Heenan Blaikie, a law firm used by Trent, cited the importance of Prinzo v. Baycrest for Canadian employment law;

Jeffrey Goodman was quoted in an article entitled "How far will courts and legislators go to counteract workplace bullying?", in the Labour and Employment focus of the May 14, 2004 issue of The Lawyers Weekly. Mr. Goodman commented on Prinzo v. Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, saying that the behaviour was "aggressive enough to fit into the tort of intentional inflection of mental suffering."

The trial judge in the Prinzo case did not look favourably upon Mahy's testimony or his actions and said of the employer's treatment of the employee that they "persisted such harassment with almost sadistic resolve".

The state of employee relations at Trent university might better be understood in light of a review of Mahy's history as revealed in the Prinzo v. Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care trial and appeal.