Vancouver Art Gallery Presents Lifetime Achievement Award to Jeff Wall, Alleged Operator of SFU Sexual Harassment Ring

The Vancouver Art Gallery knew of allegations that he had operated a sexual harassment ring at SFU. Condo developer Michael Audain knew of allegations that he had operated a sexual harassment ring at SFU. But that didn't stop them from awarding artist Jeff Wall the Audain prize for Lifetime Achievement at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Thursday.

Did Wall's lifetime achievements include operating a sexual harassment ring when he was head of the Visual Arts Department at Simon Fraser University? At least one serious complaint is outstanding at SFU about a sexual harassment ring which operated in the 1980's and was allegedly composed of Wall, who was head of the department at the time, and Assistant Professors Greg Snider and David McWilliam.

A woman who suffered lifetime consequences when she dropped out of SFU without finishing her degree due to alleged chronic sexual harassment, calls Wall the "crotch-watcher" due to his signature style of sexual harassment. "One thing he would do that really bothered me was he would stare at my crotch in a really obvious way and then he would look me right in the eyes."

This former student says her life was destroyed by the sexual harassment. She had to interrupt her education because she lost her ability to concentrate due to the sexual harassment. And after dropping out, she lost her student loan eligibility . . . .

Destroyed Room by Jeff Wall

Michael Audain, a condo developer who funded the award, has been aware for months of sexual harassment allegations against Wall. But Audain was apparently willing to overlook allegations that Wall's sexual harassment had resulted in a woman dropping out of SFU and entering a life of poverty on the Downtown Eastside. And Wall could hardly be seen as an ingrate: "As an artist you have to appreciate the fact that someone is appreciating you", he said when interviewed by the Vancouver Sun about the prize Audain had funded. The two men are apparently on a first name basis, with Wall referring to Audain as "Michael" in the Sun interview.

The Vancouver Art Gallery was aware when they hosted the Audain prize ceremony that Wall faced allegations of sexual harassment. Shortly after Kathleen Bartlett became Director, the VAG was asked to put a hold on accolades for Wall until SFU met its obligation to hold an investigation into sexual harassment in the SFU Visual Arts Department under Wall. A victim says she "spoke at length" to Bartlett's assistant about the allegations against Wall and still has her notes from that conversation. The VAG and Bartlett nonetheless continue to publicly present Wall as the VAG's little darling, giving the public no hint of their awareness that he evaded investigation for a serious matter.

The sexual harassment in the then tiny SFU Visual Arts Department -- just 15 students were accepted each year -- while it was headed by Wall also involved an element of fraud, alleges the woman who eventually dropped out due to sexual harassment. Each applicant to the School for the Contemporary Arts was expected to attend an interview, ostensibly so that their potential as an artist could be assessed, but there were indications that potential as a sex partner for professors was being assessed. The woman recalls being interviewed by Greg Snider and an administrator on the Burnaby campus. The two men were sitting side by side, both facing her, and when the adminstrator was jotting down notes, Snider sexually harassed her. “He gazed at my body, up and down. He was leering at me and then he tried to lock eyes with me.” She didn’t confront him, partly because she was shy, partly because she “couldn’t believe what was happening”, and partly because she desperately wanted to get accepted into the program. “I figured I could just avoid this letch if I got accepted,” she says. “But when I got in, I found out they were all like that!”

In fact, when the eventual drop-out arrived at her first Drawing class, the professor, Jeff Wall -- she didn't have a clue who he was at that time -- engaged in similar behavior. “It happened the instant I walked in the door,” she says. “I was just six feet in the door; it was as though he knew I was coming.” She had the impression that Snider had discussed her with Wall in advance. She believes that these professors were sharing information about potential conquests and being competitive in getting students into bed.

The woman who dropped out of SFU recalls finding Wall's brazen style of staring at her crotch odd considering he often came across as a shy man. She wasn't the only student who perceived him as shy. She recalls that after she disclosed the Visual Arts sexual harassment during a Women's (History) Studies class, a beautiful woman with long auburn hair and green eyes approached her outside the office of the School for the Contemporary Arts. The woman, whose name she recalls, was in both her Women Studies and Visual Arts studio classes but they didn't know one another well. The woman disclosed that Greg Snider had been putting the moves on her. Snider, she said, would stroke her back and say, "How's your back, [name]?" She imitated the soft voice he used as he asked her that question. (Snider had a spouse and at least once child.) The auburn-haired woman said she had not experienced sexual harassment from Wall but during the brief conversation that ensued, she did offer an observation, "He's a very shy man."

The woman who dropped out believes that Wall's gruff, even authoritarian communication style, was an effort to cover up his shyness. But he wasn't always gruff. Like when she was working in the SFU third year studio on Quebec St. and he commented, "You got your hair cut". She had gotten several inches trimmed off the ends of her hair and he told her, "It looks nice." Even that comment though made her uncomfortable because it was part of a pattern of inappropriately "intimate " conduct for a professor who was, to quote a phrase he once used with his class, "hanging a mark over your head".

It was during the same year, third year, that she was bent over on the floor working on her drawing when she looked up and saw Wall looking down her v-neck black sweat. A woman, Barbara, was speaking to him and he wasn't paying attention. "He was looking down my sweater."

She wishes now that she had spoken to the auburn-haired woman longer when she approached her outside the Center for the Contemporary Arts office in second year, but she remembers feeling "so burned out by the sexual harassment thing."

The auburn-haired woman, after confirming that she had not been sexually harassed by Wall, just Snider, said that Walll had actually recently come to her aid. It had been in response to David McWilliam (who was in a sexual relationship with another student from our class that year, the same year his spouse had a baby) telling her that he didn't think she should remain in the Visual Arts program due to her arthritis. She was in her early twenties but had arthritis in her back that occasionally required her to lie on the couch during studio classes, which were informal classes. She submitted a written complaint to the department that she was being discriminated against based on her disability. Wall then notified her that she was accepted her into third year.

That was part of the problem, says the woman who dropped out. "The sexual harassers got to pick who would get into third year." Students didn't automatically move from second to third year in Visual Arts; Wall, Snider, and McWilliam decided who they would allow to enter third year.

Keep in mind that the Visual Arts department, started by Wall, was small. There were only three studio instructors. Wall never hired a female studio instructor even though over 90% of the students accepted into the program were female. "All the studio professors were male and they were all trying to get laid", says the woman who would eventually drop out. After Wall left, women instructors began to be hired.

One of Wall's lifetime achievements not mentioned when he received the award at a ceremony at the Vancouver Art Gallery was allegedly hypocrisy. Wall, Snider, and McWilliam pretended to be sympathetic to feminism but it was an act. An act. The woman who dropped out recalls Wall showing up for a conference at a feminist video place on Broadway near Oak in Vancouver. She can't recall the exact name of the place but she does recall censorship being a theme of the conference. Lisa Steele, an artist from the Ontario College of Art presented a large-screen video of herself having sexual intercourse with her partner.

"Anyway, Wall shows up late and he sits at the head table and gives a keynote speech on something or other. I could barely listen, I was dumb founded. The crotch-watcher was at the head table! And feminists had invited him; he had them conned." This was just a few months before she would drop out of SFU due to the sexual harassment ring operating in the Visual Arts Department under Wall's stewardship, and it was roughly in this time period that a female Dance student left for Toronto to recover from her relationship with Wall whom she realized had no intention of divorcing his wife.

But you did not have to be a target of Wall's alleged sexual harassment to notice his hypocrisy. A former Theatre instructor in the SFU Center for the Contemporary Arts who acknowledged having had sex with a large number of women -- he was tight-lipped about whether any of them had been students and he avoided uttering even a peep about SFU's sexual harassment history -- recalled that Wall had crossed a picket line despite claiming to be a Marxist. (See Lifetime Achievement Award Given to Marxist who Crossed a Picket Line.)

After the woman who could no longer concentrate dropped out, she learned that Wall had left SFU and taken a job teaching photography at the University of British Columbia. He was later fired from UBC by Serge Gilbault, who was Department Head and a well known writer on art. The reason given by Gilbault in a front page article in the Vancouver Sun was that Wall was too often absent from work. That was a problem at SFU too says the woman who dropped out. Wall went to Holland for three weeks when she was in two of his third year classes, both a theory and a studio class, and he arranged no substitute instructor.

"It was hurtful", said the Downtown Eastside woman when asked how she felt after seeing Wall receive yet another award and more public accolades at the VAG. She would like to see a moratorium on awards for Wall until there is an investigation into the alleged sexual harassment ring that operated at SFU while he headed the Visual Arts Department.

Colin Hansen "Rewarding" History of Sexual Harassment at SFU

Colin Hansen is rewarding sexual harassment. That’s how a former SFU student views a visit by BC’s Minister of Economic Development two weeks ago to the Downtown Eastside, to deliver $13.3 million in cheques to the Simon Fraser University Center for the Contemporary Arts. The cheques delivered on March 28th are part of a promise by Premier Gordon Campbell last year to give $49.5-million in special funding to the School for Contemporary Arts on the Downtown Eastside.

When delivering this special funding -- over and above regular funding -- Hansen made no mention of the Center’s special history, twenty years of evading investigation into the alleged operation of a sexual harassment ring of male professors. It is a history that has been festering much like that of native residential schools abuse or pedophile priests festered for decades.

The sexual harassment ring that operated in the Center for the Contemporary Arts involved an element of fraud according to previous reports by the woman who dropped out of the Center for the Contempoary Arts when she lost her ability to concentrate after years of sexual harassment. She has also spoken previously about the persistent lesson taught by Visual Arts professors in the sexual harassment ring -- Jeff Wall, Greg Snider, and David McWilliam -- all of whom had spouses and children, about how to handle a female spouse: deception.

SFU President Michael Stevenson did not show up to accept the $13.3 million cheque from Hansen. Stevenson is well aware of the controversy surrounding his hustling of public dollars for the Center for the Contemporary Arts while concealing it’s alleged history of operating as a site for professors to “harvest” female sex partners. “It’s affecting his reputation, and well it should”, the woman says. “He should resign over the way he’s ducked this issue like it’s a game.” Stevenson sent Warren Gill, Vice President for University Relations, to pick up the cheque from Hansen. “A spin doctor”, the woman calls him.



Hansen presented the cheques from an outdoor podium at a construction site for new Center for the Contemporary Arts studios on Hastings St., directly across the street from the Center’s old visual arts studios (middle building in photo above) where sexual harassment had been rampant for years. But Hansen’s ‘out with the old, in with the new’ hoopla has not caught on with the woman who dropped out due to sexual harassment. “I have trouble even walking by there”, says the woman who lives in the low income Downtown Eastside neighborhood. “As the years go by, it doesn’t get any better. I make a point of not looking at the building.”

At the time he turned over the $13.3 milllion cheque, Hansen encouraged donors to support the Center for the Contemporary Arts' private fund raising campaign. A press release from Hansen’s office praised SFU Chancellor emeritus Milton Wong and businessman Michael Audain for making “leadership” donations. Leadership is not a word the woman would use.

SFU Asked to Disclose "Sexual Harassment Ring" to Donors

The Simon Fraser University Board of Governors has been asked to meet its obligation to disclose to potential donors SFU’s unresolved history of allegedly “operating a sexual harassment ring” in the Center for the Contemporary Arts. The DTES Enquirer has obtained a copy of the request to the Board dated February 12, 2008.

The sexual harassment ring consisted of professors in the 1970's, 1980's, and possibly 1990's targeting female students, resulting in at least one student dropping out.

The sexual harassment ring operated out of the Visual Arts Department at the Center for the Contemporary Arts and consisted of the entire studio faculty: Jeff Wall, founder and head of the department, Greg Snider, Assistant Professor, and David McWilliam, Assistant Professor. Sexual harassment was not restricted to Visual Arts professors or students though.

The Center for the Contemporary Arts was billed as "interdisciplinary" and certainly this approach extended to the sex lives of professors, with Jeff Wall having sexual relations with Lisa, a student in Dance -- at the same time as he and Greg Snider were competing to get a particular Visual Arts student into bed.

After one student revealed on a Course Drop form that she had been sexually harassed, Jeff Wall left to take a job teaching photography at the University of British Columbia from which he was later fired. David McWilliam took a job teaching painting at Emily Carr College of Art & Design. It is not known whether the sexual harassment allegations had any bearing on these men leaving SFU. Greg Snider, the sexual harasser referred to on the Course Drop form, was promoted at SFU to head of the Visual Arts Department.

SFU's Downtown Visual Arts Studio (the top three floors of the white building in center of photo above) on Hastings St. in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside was a major site of sexual harassment. Studio space on the Burnaby Campus was another site.

This month's request for full disclosure to prospective funders comes almost two months after Premier Gordon Campbell was criticized on the internet for giving the SFU Center for the Contemporary Arts almost $50 million, despite it's unresolved history of operating sexual harassment sites. President Stevenson has launched a campaign to raise an additional $30 million privately.

Michael Audain, President of Polygon Homes, who boasts having participated in the Black civil rights movement in the U.S., responded to the campaign for private funds by donating $2 million to the new Center for the Contemporary Arts. Audain was asked via an e-mail -- SFU published his e-mail address bbinns@polyhomes.com -- if he was aware of SFU's unresolved history of operating a sexual harassment ring when he made his donation and agreed to have the teaching gallery named after him. He did not respond.

Past communication addressed to SFU President Michael Stevenson about the sexual harassment ring has been ignored.

The Feb. 12th request for full disclosure to donors was addressed to Nancy McKinstry, Chair of the Board of Governors, along with other Board members. SFU promotes Nancy McKinstry on their website as a current mentor and "founding member and past-chair of the Minerva Foundation for BC Women, an organization dedicated to supporting women throughout British Columbia to attain their educational and leadership goals."

SFU Prof Allegedly "Fixated" on Student's Breasts

What man would put his name on a Simon Fraser University Department which for years allegedly operated a sexual harassment ring?

Michael Audain, that’s who.

Audain, Chair of Polygon Homes Ltd., slapped down $2 million dollars for the SFU Center for the Contemporary Arts where the main exhibition hall will be named the Audain Visual Arts Teaching Gallery. His donation will also establish an Audain Visiting Chair in Visual Arts.

The Visual Arts Department appears to have been the worst offender when it comes to sexual harassment in the Center for the Contemporary Arts. That’s according to a woman who dropped out of Visual Arts due to being chronically sexually harassed by two professors in the 1980’s. She claimed in a written statement to SFU that her life was ruined by being unable to graduate.

“All studio courses were taught by male professors,” says the woman who dropped out, “and all of them were trying to get laid.” She adds, “This was going on for years.” It started long before she arrived, she says, and she doesn’t believe it suddenly stopped when she dropped out.

She believes though that the sexual harassment would have diminished in the years after she dropped out, as two of the offenders eventually left to teach at other institutions. But one offender remained and was promoted to Head of the Visual Arts Department. “They promoted him after I exposed him,” she says. She suspects this professor became more discreet after she exposed him but she doubts he stopped treating his classes as “harvesting sites” for sex partners. “He was so compulsive about it, I just can’t see him quitting completely.”

She provides one graphic example of his compulsive sexual harassment, an incident which occurred during a first year studio class. As was typical in studio classes, the professor would rotate around the room, visiting each student at their small work space to discuss the project they were working on. These visits would last at least 15 minutes. When this professor arrived at the work space of the woman who would eventually drop-out, she was talking to him about her project when he locked his eyes on her nipples. “He stared and stared at my nipples,” she says. “He wasn’t hearing a word I was saying.” He never once looked up from her nipples to her face while she was talking. She still remembers what she was wearing that day, a navy blue ski turtleneck; the studio could be cold at times. “I was talking to him about my project and he wasn’t hearing, he was fixated on my nipples [she makes googly eyes to illustrate]; he was in his own little world; it was like he was in a trance. He was getting aroused right there in the studio! I just kept talking, trying to act normal; I thought he would snap out of it.” Then he abruptly walked out of the studio, without saying a word. "It was rare for him to walk out of the studio while class was in session,” she says. “I remember it happening one other time; it was when an older student named Daniel told him he thought his wife was on campus looking for him.”

This professor as well as all other Visual Arts professors trying to get laid had spouses and children. One was reportedly separated — but as one Dance student who entered a sexual relationship with him found out, he had no intention of divorcing his wife. He later re-united with his wife.

The woman who dropped out says sexual harassment was a problem not only in the Visual Arts Department but throughout the Center for the Arts – which housed departments of Film, Dance, etc. — as early as the 1970’s. She refers to it as the ‘Center for Tits and Ass’.

But it could now be called the ‘Center Flush with Cash’.

Fifty million dollars is being given to the Center for the Contemporary Arts by the Liberal government, B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell announced last year. The Center has set a goal of raising another $30 million from the private sector. So far $17 million has been raised. This is upsetting to the woman who dropped out and now lives a few blocks away in the impoverished Downtown Eastside.

The woman who dropped out says there is a possibility that SFU President, Michael Stevenson, concealed from Audain the festering issue of the sexual harassment ring that harmed her ability to graduate. “There is no doubt that Stevenson is aware of this issue and he should be disclosing it to donors,” she says. She was in email contact with Stevenson as recently as last year; his receptionist acknowledged that he had received the email. Stevenson was also copied a letter addressed to Dr. Ernie Love last year. Love, Head of the SFU’s new Segal Graduate School of Business, was told in the lengthy letter that it was inappropriate for SFU to be building a global reputation with ‘expansionist projects’ while continuing to bury it’s history of operating a sexual harassment ring.

But Stevenson would not have been entirely able to conceal SFU’s alleged sexual harassment record from donors now that the story has broken on the internet. “If Audain had done a Google search, he would have come across it,” says the woman who dropped out. Articles criticizing Premier Campbell for handing $50 million to a Center which has persisted in evading its sexual harassment history, have appeared on internet news sites, Blogger News Network and NowPublic, as well as on the Downtown Eastside Enquirer blog.

Despite the internet raising public awareness about the Visual Arts Department’s reputation as a haven for professors who “preferred to teach female students flat on their backs”, the woman who dropped out doesn’t expect to see him take a stand on the issue any time soon. She points out that he’s established a business relationship with SFU that he would no doubt want to preserve: he was the developer of a housing project at SFU. “He may owe them a favor; maybe he expects there to be another housing project up there in the future and he’d like to get in on it. I don’t know but it looks to me like he has an ‘I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine’ relationship with SFU.”

When SFU granted Audain an honorary doctorate, he was described in their literature as a lifelong civil rights activist, starting as a young man by “joining the Mississippi civil rights marches against racial segregation.” He was once even thrown into prison in Mississippi for standing his ground in the Black section of a restaurant in a bus depot, refusing to leave. Audain went on to hold the first meeting of the BC Civil Liberties Association in his living room. According to SFU literature, “Michael Audain puts his beliefs into practice.”

“I’d like to see him put his beliefs into practice”, says the woman who dropped out of SFU due to alleged chronic sexual harassment. “I was denied my right to an education.” She would specifically like to see Audain put his beliefs into practice by putting a ‘Stop Payment’ on his cheque and, “at the very least” taking his name off the Center for the Arts until the it’s history is addressed.

Last week, a Downtown Eastside Enquirer writer emailed Audain — SFU published Audain’s email bbinns@polyhomes.com on their website — and asked if he saw a contradiction between his history of taking a stand on Black civil rights issues and his current endorsement of the SFU Center for the Contemporary Arts which has a reputation for interfering with the right of females to an education. No response was received.

Audain may not acknowledge receiving the email but, being a product of 1960’s activism, he would surely acknowledge having heard the John Lennon/Yoko Ono tune, “Woman is the Nigger of the World.’

Carnegie supervisor has sex with clientele

They say that for the working class, life comes down to getting paid and getting laid. In that regard, Carnegie Centre seems to have become a spot for one stop shopping. A female worker there has been earning a pay cheque and having sex with male clientele.

This woman, in a position of authority in relation to volunteers at the City-operated Carnegie Centre, has demonstrated an ability to get male members to volunteer for more than the City intended. This has been raising eyebrows since one of her boyfriends ended up dangling by his neck from a bridge after an attempted suicide and another succeeded in committing suicide. A third boyfriend actually emerged intact from a year long relationship with her, although the relationship resulted in him no longer feeling welcome at the Carnegie Centre where he had been a regular for six years. These three guys are not the only ones that this worker has shown a sexual interest in either. There are others.

The name of the female worker will not be released here as she has not yet had an opportunity to tell her side of the story. She will simply be referred to as the "supervisor".

Dumped boyfriend of Carnegie supervisor dangles from bridge by neck

About 2 1/2 years ago, a native guy who was volunteering in the kitchen at Carnegie attempted suicide when his sexual relationship with the Carnegie supervisor ended. "When she dumped him", says a source, "he tied a rope around his neck and jumped off a bridge down Alexander Street." Now he is a quadriplegic in a wheelchair.

When the native guy was standing on the bridge preparing to commit suicide, police spotted him and “tried to talk him down” says a source. But he suddenly turned and jumped. He was dangling so police made a decision: they cut the rope and let him fall to the ground. He fell onto a stockpile of railroad tracks.

A homeless man who regularly drops into Carnegie Centre has corroborated elements of this suicide attempt. He happened to be approaching the bridge at the time and saw the native guy up ahead, but says, “I didn’t actually see him jump.” He arrived at the scene to see the guy below the bridge: "His feet were on the ground but his back and head were on the pile of tracks."
The Carnegie supervisor did help the guy after he became paralyzed. "She would attend to him everyday," says a source. "Then she got him a place in BC Housing in Burnaby, near where she lives."

Despite his paralysis, the guy has enough movement in his upper body that he "seems to get around ok in the wheelchair.” But he does a lot of drugs, the source adds.

Carnegie members who are now finding out about the supervisor's relationship with the kitchen volunteer are slow to blame her for his suicide. Dagald Walker who drops in to use the library doesn’t know the paralyzed volunteer but believes if someone is prone to suicide, it’s not fair to blame another person for triggering an attempt: "If that guy hadn't tried to commit suicide over her, it would have been over something else."

Another Carnegie volunteer has sex with the supervisor and survives intact

After her former boyfriend jumped off the bridge, the Carnegie supervisor recruited a new one, again from the Carnegie membership. The next guy was caucasian, late forties, living in seniors housing a couple of blocks from the Carnegie Centre. He's a musician who volunteered in the Carnegie Music Program for roughly six years; his involvement included running their Karaoke program.

In addition to being a musician, this man is skilled with computers: he has Microsoft technician certificates, along with assorted other certificates. He was formerly a trucker who, after his experience with the Teamsters telling him he couldn't work on any given day, is quick with a reminder that he is anti-union. Like many people who end up living on the Downtown Eastside, he has dabbled in drugs. He was once a member of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users [VANDU] but, according to sources, left because he didn't share their "gimme, gimme, gimme"' attitude toward the government.

Sources have asked that the DTES Enquirer not release the name of this ex-boyfriend. He is "not a kiss and tell kind of guy". So he will simply be referred to here as the ex-trucker.

At times when the ex-trucker was at the condo of the Carnegie supervisor, her previous boyfriend would come by. "He'd show up in his wheelchair and cry," says a source. And she'd hang up on him. Sometimes he'd just phone, but then too she'd hang up on him.

The supervisor is a devout Christian.

"She hates her job at Carnegie," a source adds.

"She's suicidal, alcoholic, and addicted to pills", according to one source close to the relationship between the supervisor and the ex-trucker. "She takes prescription pills to excess." On at least one occasion, she was seen "eating pills one after another while she was drunk." And she has reportedly shown up at the ex-trucker's door drunk.

But the supervisor is an attractive woman in many respects and the ex-trucker spent a lot of time at her condo, an arrangement which resulted in his e-mail account being accessible on her home computer. She took the liberty of entering his account and using it to send an e-mail to a married woman from Port Moody who had become a platonic pal of the ex-trucker. The married woman knew the ex-trucker from the Music Program which they had both been involved in for years. The supervisor, according to sources, told her in the e-mail that a married woman shouldn't be tagging after him like that, that it made him "uncomfortable". But here's the kicker: the supervisor didn't sign her own name to the e-mail, presenting it instead as having been sent by the ex-trucker himself. And of course, it had his e-mail address on it. The supervisor did not suffer any consequences for this mischief. The ex-trucker essentially covered for her; he never mentioned the fraudulent email to the married woman and she never raised the issue.

The relationship between the Carnegie supervisor and the ex-trucker involved frequent fighting. A source recalls that he would be working on his computer and she would be on Messenger with him and he would “just click off."

The trucker broke off with the supervisor for good about a year and a half ago.

Before their final breakup, it appeared that the supervisor had gotten involved with another guy volunteering in the Music Program, Mike McCartney. McCartney, a stellar musician with a crack habit, will be discussed in detail in the next section. Suffice to say that the ex-trucker got a hint of this budding relationship in the spring of 2005 when McCartney mentioned to him that he needed to start practicing for the August dance at the Carnegie as the supervisor had hired him to perform. Volunteers are occasionally paid to put a band together to perform at a Carnegie dance. But here's the kicker: she had already assigned that gig to the ex-trucker. According to sources, the supervisor was getting involved with Mike "and suddenly he had the dance." The ex-trucker told Mike, "I'm doing the August dance." When the ex-trucker raised the issue with the supervisor, she assigned him a different dance. "So Mike took the August dance and [the ex-trucker] was given the September dance."

But later, sources say, the ex-trucker "got screwed out of the dance in December" that the supervisor had also assigned him. She did this by cutting his practice time. "All of [the ex-trucker's] practice dates were gone", says a source. When the ex-trucker couldn't get the practice time he needed, he "threw up his hands and left." He stopped going to Carnegie after that, even though he had been a familiar face there for years. He tried going back once but a source says he "got the cold shoulder" from staff, including Security guards with whom he had previously been on good terms.

The supervisor arranged for others to do the dance that the ex-trucker had given up. But she showed up drunk at his Downtown Eastside apartment, asking him to return his advance. Musicians assigned to a dance are given money in advance to enable them to hire musicians - roughly $30 for each musician - to put a band together. The ex-trucker gave the money back to her.

The ex-trucker never complained to the Carnegie or City administration about the supervisor's conduct toward him. He has put his relationship with her behind him, although he remains a bit peeved, sources say, about what she put his mother through when she was dying of cancer last summer. The supervisor would call his mother and tell her that her son was taking too many drugs and could be kicked out of his apartment. It bothers him to think that his mother died with that on her mind.

An “on again off again” boyfriend of the supervisor succeeds in committing suicide: Mike McCartney

In August 2005, Mike McCartney, the volunteer in the Music Program with whom the supervisor had been involved in an "on again off again" relationship, committed suicide.

McCartney was a 40ish, dark haired, caucasian -- some say Metis -- who had managed to lose about 200 pounds. He was an excellent guitar player. A friend says of Mike: "He persevered over the years and had actually managed to make a living with his music. Then he came to the DTES and got into drugs. When you come to the Downtown Eastside, you can lose sight of your goals."

Mike's death was upsetting to members of the Carnegie Music Program. He had been well-liked and respected as a musician. "I would have looked up to him," says a long term Music Program volunteer, "if he hadn't been into drugs." The volunteer recalls, "He did crack and everything he could get, any cheap welfare high."

This Music Program volunteer who has only recently learned of McCartney's relationship with the Carnegie supervisor, doesn't blame his suicide on that relationship. "Mike told me he wanted to commit suicide" the volunteer recalls. "It was because of his drug problem. He didn't mention anything about a romantic relationship." The Music Program member counseled Mike to "get into a [addiction] program and get around solid people."

The supervisor was not unaffected by McCartney’s suicide. She wrote a eulogy for him in a local publication in which she said his death had not yet fully hit her. [The name of the publication will not be provided as her identity is not being disclosed at this time.] She revealed an awareness of his personal history from childhood, as well as knowledge of his addiction to crack and other drugs. She told him in the eulogy that she missed him and, 'I love you.'

Some male Carnegie members have resisted temptation

There are a few men at Carnegie who have resisted the supervisor's flirtations.

A couple of years ago, there was a flirtation – which a witness says was mutual – going on between the supervisor and a forty-something worker from a local fish plant " He has a classic tall, dark, and handsome look and regularly drops by Carnegie to participate in the Music program or to eat dinner at the cafeteria. Did I mention he has pale blue eyes? A couple of years ago, one of his friends, a fifty-something man who eats at Carnegie almost everyday, made a point of drawing attention to the supervisor’s interest in him: "She likes him," he'd say, giggling. The fish plant worker, who is single, has never mentioned this woman to the Enquirer though. And nothing appears to have come of this flirtation.

Members say the supervisor also fancied a Carnegie Security guard, a grey-haired guy in his fifties. He has not confirmed this though.

Currently, the supervisor reportedly fancies a computer room volunteer. He is a 46 year old caucasian guy, witty and articulate, another one with a classic tall, dark and handsome look, and a reviled ex-wife. He uses crack, although not everyday. He manages to support himself by picking up odd jobs, some of which pay a decent wage according to a friend. This volunteer has never said a word to the Enquirer, but according to a Carnegie regular who associates with him, the supervisor has been exhibiting signs of an attraction. The associate is tight-lipped about details -- "You'll have to talk to him" -- but did mention that he saw an e-mail this guy had received from the supervisor which opened, "Hello love."

This volunteer computer monitor has now been barred for a month from Carnegie with the same lack of due process – i.e. being denied a reason in writing so that he could appeal -- that Carnegie members have been complaining about for years.

Rumours are beginning to swirl as well around a "big Metis guy" who is constantly in the supervisor's office. "She always has one or two [guys] in the wings," says a source familiar with her previous relationships.

The tipping point

Even when this supervisor is not hitting on men, she can demonstrate a reckless disregard for the well being of Downtown Eastsiders whose quality of life she is being paid by the City to enhance. Take the case of a native man who used to sit and carve in front of the drug store across from Carnegie. He now reportedly does some work around the neighbourhood for the City. This supervisor labeled him a “stalker”. Downtown Eastside residents see no evidence that he is a stalker.

Recently, another male member of Carnegie became a casualty of such false accusations. The false accusations emerged after this supervisor and her co-workers suspected him of writing on the internet about their practice of closing doors to services at Carnegie, always with the excuse, "There is no volunteer". He found himself the target of unsubstantiated accusations of sexual harassment, and later of stalking. Members speculated that these accusations had originated with this supervisor who had also falsely labeled him an “abuser” to his face, but could not prove it.

But this was the tipping point.

Several Carnegie members became convinced that this supervisor's credibility had to be more closely scrutinized. That meant bringing her history out into the open. For the first time, sources became willing to talk.

Can anything good be said about this supervisor?

Anyone dealing with this supervisor at the Carnegie would be likely to find her pleasant, one of those perma-perky type personalities.

The supervisor is not a snob. The fact that she is attracted to Carnegie clientele, that she will have a relationship with a Downtown Eastside guy with little in the way of money or social status, is an indication of this.

It is not surprising that this supervisor feels rapport with Downtown Eastsiders. She has some of the problems that are so prevalent amongst Downtown Eastsiders. When running for the Board of the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre a year and a half ago, she gave a brief speech in which she announced that she was a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. She obviously doesn't consider this history to be a secret: there were well over a hundred people present, along with media.

And the supervisor, like so many Downtown Eastsiders, is the product of less than stellar parenting. Her mother disliked her, a source explains. “She has very little good to say about her mother". When her mother was dying, though, she did take a leave of absence from Carnegie.

With abuse and rejection in her background, masked by drinking and pill popping, this woman would not be out of place socializing with Downtown Eastsiders.

And like many Downtown Eastsiders, she has struggled with her alcohol abuse. She quit drinking for five years but has started again.

Despite her problems, though, the supervisor has what therapists would call, “good self care.” She is always well groomed.

Who knew about the supervisor's sexual relationships?

The relationships that the supervisor was having with Carnegie clientele were a surprisingly well kept secret. Most members had no inkling that this was going on.

One person who sources say may have gotten wind of the supervisor's conduct was Carnegie Assistant Director Dan Tetrault. His common law spouse who is also a supervisor at Carnegie, Rika Uto, and this supervisor were confidantes.

Sex in the City may be affecting delivery of services

On one hand, the male Carnegie members with whom the supervisor has been having sex are consenting adults and their relationships are nobody's business.

On the other hand, how the supervisor is spending her time at work is the business of tax payers who are paying her five figure salary -- especially when services for which she is partially responsible are too often left undelivered. Downtown Eastside residents too often arrive at Carnegie for computer and other services only to find doors locked. So what is this woman doing when not doing what she was hired to do? By her own written admission, she had a daily ritual of spending time in her office with Mike McCartney, joking and laughing and listening to the latest news he brought. And members have noticed that this chronic socializing has now extended to a "big Metis guy" constantly in her office.

The fact that the sex lives of Carnegie staff may be contributing to their failure to consistently meet their obligation to deliver services for which the taxpayer has paid, extends beyond this supervisor. Take another supervisor, Rika Uto, who has some responsibility for the Learning Centre. It is not uncommon for students to simply be told to leave the Learning Centre in mid-day because staff can't get it together to keep it open. On one occasion, Uto stood outside the door socializing as students were evacuated. What other school operates like that during prime learning hours? Despite complaints, Assistant Director Dan Tetrault has never managed to correct this situation. Could the fact that he is literally in bed with Uto have anything to do with it?

And what about the suspension of services at Carnegie to Rika Uto's husband? After Uto got involved with Tetrault, her husband who had in the past occasionally dropped by Carnegie with their young son, showed up in the building. Uto presumably did not want him around because Tetrault barred him from the building at that point and he has never been seen there again. One of the husband's friends was upset about this barring: "Tetrault's screwing the guy's wife and when the guy comes around, Tetrault bars him." It's the friend's perception from conversations with the husband, that Uto was still with her husband when Tetrault took up with her. Here's the problem: the conflict of interest position occupied by Tetrault made the legitimacy of this barring suspect.

Tetrault could no doubt make a case that the barring was justified, that Uto in some way felt at risk. But compare the handling of this case to that of a similar case: A female Carnegie staffperson did not want contact with her ex-spouse and father of her young son, who she claimed had been violent on occasion (a hole he had allegedly punched in a piece of furniture in her apartment had been seen by witnesses.) She reportedly had a restraining order against her ex. But her ex was part of the political in-crowd at Carnegie and guess what? He continued to be allowed to come into the building, although he was restricted from being on the same floor as her at any given time. It's not surprising, then, that at least a perception exists that Tetrault's sexual relationship with a Carnegie supervisor influenced the denial of City services to a taxpayer.

And what about the Carnegie Security guard who was having sex with a female janitor in the basement cleaning supplies closet. Members caught on to their trysts and would snicker. Granted this is hearsay. But this guy's spouse, the mother of his child - not to be confused with the woman in the supplies closet - confirmed it to a relative who then chatted about it at the DTES Women's Centre. "She likes sex," the woman chatting at the Women's Centre said of the janitor in the supplies closet, her point being that the chances of this guy's relationship with his spouse being repaired had been nixed.

Sex in the City supplies closet could have been ignored by Carnegie members, if not for one thing: the building is filthy. In fact, if you ask any resident of the Downtown Eastside why they don't go to the Carnegie Centre, it is common for them to state that they find the place dirty.

City staff's 'Don't ask, don't tell' approach to Sex in the City hit a snag when Carnegie members began squealing about the cleaning supplies closet on a now defunct internet blog. Suddenly the janitor was no longer seen at Carnegie. Speculation was that she had received a lateral transfer.

Sex and social work don't mix

Another argument against Sex in the City is that staff at Carnegie are operating in a social work capacity. They are interacting daily with Carnegie members who have emotional and/or drug addiction issues and should resist recruiting sex partners from this population.

Don't get me wrong, the Carnegie supervisor who has been having sex with male members is not actually a social worker. Like other Carnegie staff, with the exception of Director Ethel Whitty, this supervisor has no credentials as a social worker. She was promoted to her supervisory role from a clerical position, bumped into this job partly because she was next in the union seniority cue.

Even without social work credentials, though, this supervisor will at times find herself in a social work position. She supervises volunteers who may be struggling with drug or alcohol problems. Many volunteers are unemployed and the volunteer program is intended to provide them with work experience, to re-integrate them into society. Certainly her organizing tasks for volunteers at Carnegie would fall under the rubrick of social work: she helps organize events such as Teddy Bear Picnics where participants bring their favourite teddy bear, events which seem to have at least a covert rehabilitation angle. Where is this woman going to draw the line? Will she be tempted to recruit sex partners from the Teddy Bear picnic?

Is City Manager Judy Rogers responsible for allowing sexual harassment at Carnegie to reach a dangerous level?

It is unlikely that the supervisor will suffer serious consequences for sex with male Carnegie members. One source who knows her says, "They won't fire her; she's union. They may give her a lateral transfer."

But focusing exclusively on the supervisor could result in the larger picture being overlooked. Understanding why sexual harassment has been allowed to flourish over the years at Carnegie, requires a review of City Manager Judy Rogers' handling of complaints of sexual harassment and other forms of harassment or abuse. As early as 2001, a paper trail reveals that Rogers was aware that sexual harassment was spiralling out of control at Carnegie. What did she do?

Judge Judy on her performance in Part II of this series to be published soon.