After three days of federal officials publicly acknowledging that employees of Canada’s spy service deserve better, government lawyers pushed back Friday on the specific allegations of harassment made by the five intelligence officers and analysts who first brought the issue to light.
“No organization can ensure that its employees and managers will never act inappropriately. Organizations cannot be held to such a standard. Rather, organizations must be measured by whether they have procedures in place to address issues as they arise,” reads the government’s statement of defence, filed Friday in a $35-million lawsuit that alleges a toxic workplace inside the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.