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| Robert Glen Harrison |
From the April 2008 article by Jeff Davies written for CBC, Robert Glen Harrison speaks about his two year journey of horror as his reputation was destroyed by an accusation that was untrue. "I've spent many sleepless nights — the panic that you get … will grip you when you realize what they are saying about you, and it's not true," he said.
He and his wife were running a daycare in Sechelt when in 1996 a complaint was laid against him about which he knew nothing until years later. That complaint was so vague that authorities did not act upon it but the complaint remained in a government file that had now been established with Harrison's name. Someone ostensibly at or near enough to the Harrison family home had informed child welfare authorities that noises had been heard that sounded like heavy breathing, the squeaking of bed springs and a child saying "No, Daddy," at the family's home. The complainant went on to suggest that Harrison might have been abusing his five-year-old daughter.
Ten years later Harrison landed a job as a therapist at a troubled youth facility in the lower mainland. The customary background check was done and a resource worker with MCFD informed the new employer about the old complaint and made the recommendation that Harrison not be allowed to work alone with young people. Harrison was let go. He fought back with a complaint to the Information and Privacy Commissioner asserting that his privacy rights had been violated. In 2009 the commissioner dismissed his complaint. He didn't stop. He took the matter to the Supreme Court of B.C. where Justice Ian Pitfield quashed the earlier ruling and ruled instead that the Ministry's conduct had denied Harrison his right to employment in child care by disclosing unsubstantiated information. Pitfield wrote, "This is a striking example of the harm that an individual may suffer as a consequence of a provincial government ministry accumulating, retaining, using and disclosing personal information, purportedly in a manner consistent with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act." “Justice cannot allow FIPPA [the Freedom of Information and Privacy Protection Act] to be used in a manner that accords rumours and unfounded allegations made to a public body about the character, reputation or behaviour of any individual undeserved legitimacy,” said Justice Ian Pitfield in reviewing the case. Pitfield recommended that the allegations made against Robert Glen Harrison, 49, be expunged from the records. Then remarkably Pitfield stated that Harrison may be compelled to sue for defamation or negligence.
Harrison drove a limousine as he waited for exoneration. At the time, Darrell Evans, then executive director of the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association expressed that Harrison's case was not unique. "We're constantly emphasizing how dangerous false information in an individual's file can be, and the fact that false information can come from very unreliable sources," Evans says. "You know, one false report in a file can destroy a life."
The defendants in the court case were the Ministry of Children and Family Development which cannot be sued and two MCFD employees who were the named defendants, Bruce McNeill and Joan Bischoff.
Harrison immediately launched a $520 million lawsuit against the BC Government Ministry of Children and Family Development claiming his career was destroyed by a false allegation of child abuse. In June 2008, CBC ran a story that relates this aspect of the story and also provides a link to the defence statement dated May 14, 2008 and posted in its entirety here. In that defence statement, the argument is that the government employees followed proper record-keeping procedures and that Robert Harrison signed a consent form to have his file disclosed, not knowing it contained the allegation. It would seem that Harrison expected this could be settled out of court but the Ministry communicated that it intended to book a 10-day trial in March 2009. Once again Darrell Evans said this was a landmark case and that his organization, the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association supported Harrison.
Gerry Bellett of the Vancouver Sun wrote the story on May 2010 that discloses that the B.C. Court of Appeal has quashed an attempt by a former child care worker to sue the government for $520 million after unsubstantiated allegations that he sexually abused a child cost him his job. However, a B.C. Supreme Court judge said the issue regarding Bischoff's part should go to trial as he did not have enough information to dismiss the action.
The Supreme Court of Canada has an online record of docket 33250 Robert Glen Harrison, et al. v. Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia, et al. Regarding a sealing order on his file.
Vancouver Sun Article April 10 2008
Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch) for information purposes only.
