Noffke v. McClaskin Hot House
1989-12-20
Ontario Board of Inquiry
Darlene Noffke Complainant
v.
McClaskin Hot House and Donald Carl McClaskin Respondents
Date of Decision: August 1, 1986 Date of Decision: December 20, 1989
Before: Ontario Board of Inquiry, Frederick H. Zemans
Comm. Decision No.: 377
Appearances by: Sharon Ffolkes Abrahams and Anthony Griffen, Counsel for the Commission Byron Loney, Counsel for the Respondents
SEXUAL HARASSMENT — sexual advances by employer — verbal abuse and malignment
Summary: The Board of Inquiry finds that Darlene Noffke was sexually harassed by her employer Donald Carl McClaskin while she was working at McClaskin Hot House in Combermere, Ontario.
Ms. Noffke went to work for the respondent in April 1986 under the auspices of the Futures Program, a provincial government program funded by the Ministry of Skills Development. The Board of Inquiry accepts her evidence that she was harassed by Mr. McClaskin beginning in the early days of her employment. He persistently propositioned her, touched her, questioned her about her sex life, and embarrassed and intimidated her.
On June 10 Mr. McClaskin invited Ms. Noffke to his apartment, grabbed her breast, suggested that he would force her to have sex with him and that she was afraid she would like it. He instructed her to wear a dress to work the next day. When she appeared on June 11 in her work clothes, Mr. McClaskin was angry and sent her home.
Darlene Noffke's evidence is corroborated by that of Constable Eric Johnson of the Ontario Provincial Police whom Ms. Noffke contacted on June 11 after she left McClaskin Hot House, as well as by the evidence of her boyfriend and her counsellor at the Futures Program.
Having accepted the evidence of Ms. Noffke and her witnesses, the Board finds that Donald McClaskin sexually harassed Darlene Noffke contrary to Section 6 of the Ontario Human Rights Code, by engaging in a course of vexatious comment and conduct which he knew or ought to have known was unwelcome.
The Board orders the respondents to pay Ms. Noffke $240 in lost wages and $2,750 in general damages to compensate