Revelations about toxic workplace at Champlain College hit Lennoxville, Que. like 'bomb blast,' foundation president says

A teacher who works at Champlain College Lennoxville says they're relieved that allegations of nepotism, conflict of interest and a toxic work environment at the CEGEP were made public last month.

They say now, "everybody knows."

"This isn't a surprise to anyone internally. It's just disturbing how long it has remained a facet of work life," they said.

"More than anything else, it's a relief."

CBC News is keeping the employee's identity confidential because they fear workplace repercussions for speaking out. They said following CBC's investigative report into the allegations at the campus, employees received an emailed memo from the board of governors asking them not to speak to the media.

Champlain College Lennoxville is one of three campuses under Champlain Regional College.

Its campus director, Nancy Beattie, is the subject of the ongoing hearings at the Tribunal administratif du travail, Quebec's labour tribunal. No judgment has been rendered.

Through the tribunal, CBC News was able to obtain recordings of nine days of testimony from January, February and October.

Four people who reported to Beattie testified under oath against her, including one person who is the plaintiff in the case — saying their work environment makes it difficult to perform their jobs and has affected their physical and mental health.

"There's a mix of hope, disbelief and resignation," the CEGEP teacher told CBC. "Resignation [in that] nobody thinks it's going to make a difference."

While the employee says they personally haven't had issues dealing with Beattie, it was clear after they started working at the college that people's complaints around campus were not exaggerated.

They said they're concerned news of these detailed allegations might hurt the college's effort to recruit staff.

"There are lots of people that will not work here. So you know we've already lost some very talented individuals," they said.

They said the CEGEP has all the necessary skills to "survive and thrive." The issue, they say, is who is running the place and whether or not they are fit for the role.

Beattie did not respond to CBC's request for an interview. The public relations firm Champlain Lennoxville hired declined to comment — citing the ongoing tribunal hearings addressing the allegations.

Allegations hit like a 'bomb blast'

Gerald Cutting, the retired director general of Champlain Regional College and former campus director at Champlain Lennoxville, says news of the allegations hit the community like a "bomb blast."

"There is most certainly a state of tension that exists on campus," said Cutting, who is also the president of the foundation of Champlain College Lennoxville.

"It is not just a tempest in a teapot, it is a much larger issue that has to be dealt with."

On OCt. 27, the college held a public meeting following CBC's report and the union representing teachers read a statement saying it has known about the campus's allegedly toxic work climate "for many years," and called on the school's board of governors to do something about it.

Cutting, who was present at the meeting, says the statement was significant.

"The fact that the faculty union read a position into the [first few] minutes of the board meeting [Oct. 27] would indicate that there are going to have to be serious investigations and practical solutions," said Cutting.

"The article is signalling tensions and concerns that have been bubbling for some time and people did not have an avenue or did not feel at ease speaking out and now we're seeing that happening I think much more."

'We gave up everything that we had there,' says former employee

Jennifer Fawcett was a teacher at the Lennoxville campus and says she left her job in 2021 due to the work climate.

"It was quite hard to read the descriptions of what people had said they had gone through," said Jennifer Fawcett. "It's just sad."

Her husband, Mario Corbin, who was a teacher, also resigned that year and they moved out of the province.

"We gave up everything that we had there," said Fawcett.

"We know so many people still work there, and it's really hard to think of your colleagues and your former friends [dealing with the] change, administration, never any stability."

Corbin says he similarly sympathizes with his colleagues who testified about what they have gone through

"I also feel just at a loss, for lack of a better word, knowing that there are still some of our colleagues there to this day who didn't have the opportunities that we had to leave, who, despite being successful at Champlain in their own way, have still been put through this" said Corbin.

Future of Champlain Lennoxville

The Higher Education Ministry is investigating the Lennoxville campus and the regional college.

Cutting says he's not sure what the board will do, but he said it would be "wisest" for the board to make some decisions and give a "perception of movement."

He said the board has many options but one of them is "to impose what amounts to a form of internal trusteeship."

Otherwise, trusteeship could be imposed by the province, he warns.

"That has happened to Champlain in the past and it's not a pleasant experience to live through."

Cutting said Champlain Regional College was placed under partial trusteeship in the early 1990s when he was campus director in Lennoxville at the time. He says the province stepped in due to some "financial irregularities" that had been reported at the CEGEP.

He said the college's board had around 24 to 48 hours to remove its director general.

In terms of the future at the Lennoxville campus, Cutting says he is concerned about what these allegations mean in terms of recruitment when it comes to students and fundraising.

"Parents like their children to attend an institution that does not seem to be in this state of unrest," said Cutting.

He says under the present circumstances, Champlain's foundation may find some donors reluctant to contribute because of what appears to be a potential state of instability.

It's not unusual for there to be squabbles and tensions in an academic setting, Cutting said, but "this, however, seems to go beyond that, to a question that I'm not fully aware of."

Cutting says he isn't privy to all the documents and details but says "that for the ministry to be involved, there has to be reason."

Allegations 'a shock,' says borough counsellor

Guillaume Lirette-Gélinas, a borough councillor in Lennoxville, says the preservation of Champlain is "extremely important."

"Champlain College is not one person," said Lirette-Gélinas.

"It's a pity. It's just sad that it affects Champlain's reputation in a time where the funding of English institutions, of educational English institutions is in the spotlight," he said.

Lirette-Gélinas said it's important for the investigation to run its course but that the allegations look serious. 

"But I'm happy that — if it is true — that these allegations of harassment went to the light," the councillor said.