IT analyst filed harassment complaints against former mentor at government department
A Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) harassment investigation has been thrown out by the Federal Court after investigators denied the complainant the right to respond to witness statements and preliminary reports.
These were procedural failures that Justice Love Saint-Fleur ruled fundamentally violated the employee's rights to fairness.
The Nov. 6, 2025 decision orders a complete investigation do-over for Xiujuan Qi, a CS-02 IT analyst/developer who filed harassment complaints against her former team leader and mentor in November 2021, alleging incidents between March and July 2021 at the Strategic Engineering and Technology Integration department.
Investigation denied basic fairness rights
Qi's complaints centered on four allegations:
- inconsistent evaluations and degrading comments leading to a negative performance review
- improper and offensive comments in workplace settings including team meetings
- a poisonous work environment where she was set up for failure
- improper use of a performance improvement plan (PIP) to threaten and intimidate her.
The investigator appointed in March 2022 interviewed Qi on April 26, along with the two responding parties and one witness. During her interview, Qi provided a detailed Excel spreadsheet canvassing specific occurrences and emphasized their importance. After the interview, she sent an email reiterating her comments.
However, Qi was never given an opportunity to review or reply to the statements the other parties made to the investigator. She also was never provided with copies of preliminary reports that were shown to the other parties before the final investigation report was drafted.
Repeated requests met with complete silence
On June 20, 2022, after being told the investigation was complete, Qi asked if there were any facts in dispute and offered to provide additional written materials to the investigator if needed. No one responded.
On July 12 and 13, Qi emailed asking if she would receive a preliminary report and expressed concern that there were facts in dispute needing clarification before the final report could be completed. She reiterated these comments on July 22, directly indicating she wanted to be interviewed again if there were facts in dispute. Again, no one responded.
The final report issued August 23, 2022 found only the allegation of a poisoned work environment was substantiated. The report "only included an analysis on why the allegation of the poisoned work environment was substantiated. None of the analysis explains why the other three allegations are not substantiated."
Court scraps report, orders complete do-over
The CRA rejected Qi's grievance in September 2024, arguing that because preventative measures from the investigation had been implemented, the resolution process was complete and her only recourse was judicial review.
Justice Saint-Fleur disagreed. The court found the investigation breached procedural fairness and ordered the matter "remanded back to the CRA for redetermination after a new investigation is conducted by the same or a different investigator."
The decision emphasized: "The Applicant must have the opportunity to see and make submissions on evidence gathered in her absence and comment on the investigator's preliminary report before it is sent to her employer."
