City woman awarded $110K in sexual harassment case

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This article was published 09/12/2024 (649 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg woman has been awarded more than $110,000 in lost wages and damages after a Manitoba Human Rights Commission adjudicator found her former boss subjected her to months of almost daily sexual harassment.

The incidents occurred in 2015 and 2016 while the woman was working for New Age Automation Group and its sole director and president Robert Levesque, both of whom have since declared bankruptcy.

“The conduct of Levesque and therefore New Age was egregious, invasive and in some instances constituted assault,” commission adjudicator Tracey Epp wrote in a recently released decision.

“The conduct frightened the complainant and left her feeling worthless,” Epp said. “I agree that sexual harassment cases garner the highest damages awards, and this case is no exception. A message must be sent to other predatory employers and remind them of their obligation to provide a safe and harassment-free workplace.”

The harassment included sexualized comments about the woman’s appearance, unwanted touching and repeated romantic overtures.

The woman testified at a December 2022 hearing that she told Levesque early in her employment she was under financial pressure and caring for an ailing family member.

“She said in hindsight, this confession made her vulnerable to Levesque,” Epp said. “New Age and Levesque preyed upon that vulnerability.”

The woman testified she had been working only a short time when Levesque started making lewd comments about her body. She said he would look down her shirt and ask if he could touch her breasts.

On other occasions, the woman testified, Levesque texted her after work hours claiming he was naked and drunk and that she needed to pick him up.

Levesque made “humping” motions while standing next to the woman at her desk. On one occasion he put his hand on the woman’s back and undid her bra. On another, he asked the woman to get under his desk, implying she provide him with oral sex.

“She said these comments made her feel gross, disgusting, violated, anxious, depressed and physically ill,” Epp said.

In February 2016, while driving with Levesque to a store to purchase office supplies, Levesque touched the woman’s face and thigh and said he loved her. When the woman objected to his advances and tried to leave the car, Levesque pulled her back inside and “continued to profess his love,” Epp said.

“He repeatedly stated that he had money and could take care of her,” she said.

When the woman emailed Levesque her resignation in April 2016, he threatened her with legal action if she violated a non-disclosure agreement she had allegedly signed.

Levesque represented himself at the hearing and, during cross-examination of the woman, suggested she had pursued a sexual relationship with him and had “doctored” the time stamps on screenshots of text messages between them.

Levesque did not testify or call any witnesses. An initial witness list early in the proceeding included a former partner of the woman who had been convicted of assaulting her and who she alleged Levesque was calling in an effort to intimidate her.

Epp awarded the woman $85,000 for lost wages equal to what she would have earned had she remained with New Age until it had ceased operations in 2019. The woman was awarded an additional $25,000 in damages, the maximum allowable under Manitoba’s Human Rights Code, for injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect.

The woman “was subjected to unwelcome sexual solicitations and advances by Levesque almost every day of her employment, and the only reason that the conduct stopped was because she left her position,” Epp said.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca