Professional permanently banned from practice after sexual harassment of colleague
A former British Columbia professional engineer has been permanently banned from practising and ordered to pay $27,000 in penalties after admitting to sexually harassing a junior colleague over an eight-month period.
Peter Charles Gaffran consented to the sanctions through Engineers and Geoscientists BC following allegations of inappropriate conduct that occurred between June 2020 and February 2021.
According to the consent order published by the regulatory body, Gaffran engaged in a sustained pattern of sexual harassment toward a junior colleague that included both physical and verbal misconduct.
Pattern of inappropriate behaviour
The behaviour included confessing romantic feelings to the colleague at their workplace and asking to kiss her, actually kissing her, making sexual advances during a work trip that involved kissing and removing clothes, and discussing his past sexual relationships with her inappropriately.
Gaffran’s conduct extended beyond the workplace through various forms of unwanted contact. He texted the colleague inviting her to share a hotel room overnight, sent messages saying he missed her, and texted her a romantic excerpt from a Shakespeare sonnet.
The harassment escalated to stalking-like behaviour when Gaffran emailed the colleague’s personal account to tell her he had driven by her home and to share his feelings about her relationship with her boyfriend.
Most seriously, he continued calling her even after their employer explicitly directed him not to contact her.
Professional standards violated
Engineers and Geoscientists BC determined that Gaffran’s conduct violated multiple principles of the organisation’s Code of Ethics. Specifically, his actions contravened requirements that professional engineers “hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public… and promote health and safety within the workplace,” and that they conduct themselves “with fairness, courtesy and good faith towards clients, colleagues and others.”
Under the consent order, Gaffran faces substantial financial consequences. He must pay a $15,000 penalty to Engineers and Geoscientists BC, plus an additional $12,000 toward the legal costs incurred during the disciplinary process.
Gaffran had already resigned his registration with Engineers and Geoscientists BC on June 22, 2022, but the consent order now formally cancels his registration and prohibits him from ever reapplying for professional status.
