Many staff inside the country’s leading mental health institution say they are suffering their own trauma from a toxic workplace rife with discrimination and bullying.

Anonymous employee feedback from health-care providers at Toronto’s

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)

include widespread staff complaints about a work culture they say left them with mental health challenges including anxiety, depression and even suicidality.

When they attempt to address their grievances, many say they were met with retaliation and a lack of accountability.

“I would throw up before work,” one employee said. “I know no one would support me.”

Some staff blamed the workplace culture at CAMH for mental health challenges. “They make you doubt your sanity,” one respondent wrote.

Some respondents explicitly noted a gap between the hospital’s mental health mission and the psychological state of its employees.

“It is ironic that an organization that provides mental health support is so disconnected from the mental health of its staff,” said one respondent.

Another wrote: “The fact that the organization puts out statements about anti-racism that don’t align with what we experience internally, it’s a problem. They don’t walk the talk internally.”

CAMH, hailed as a leading international mental health voice that provides training on staff mental health to major employers in Canada, said it has reviewed the criticisms by staff and taken active steps to address them.

“I know this is what happens in workplaces — It is very different when you hear it from colleagues,” said CAMH equity director, Kwame McKenzie in an interview. “It’s very poignant. It’s very raw. It makes you think of the urgency that you need to do something different.”

The responses were gathered in 2021 and 2023 by an external consulting group and the hospital’s equity office respectively, and were obtained by the

Investigative Journalism Bureau

through freedom of information legislation.

The internal reviews, which unfolded during COVID and the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, are only the latest attempts to understand longstanding issues at CAMH.

Following a 2019 internal survey that raised concerns of racism, hospital administrators decided additional indepth interviews were needed to better understand the experience of employees. In 2021 and 2023, a total of about 2,000 employees — nearly half the hospital’s staff — took part in separate workplace reviews.

In 2021, a working group conducted in-depth interviews with 50 staff members representing a wide range of positions across the hospital that documented widespread allegations of harassment, bullying and intimidation.

Some employees described toxic workplace environments and traumatic encounters with colleagues and leadership that led to significant mental health challenges. “The story is consistent across participants — the themes are raw and clear,” the report concluded.

One respondent said they became suicidal after repeated bullying and exclusion: “I internalized how bad they made me feel about myself.”

The respondent pool included staff identifying as Black, white, First Nation, Asian and from other racial groups, and reflected a wide range of religious affiliations.

About 70 per cent of respondents expressed they experienced discrimination based on their racial and cultural background. One in eight reported feeling discrimination based on religion, and a third felt discrimination based on age.

CAMH has been recognized

multiple times by Mediacorp Canada on its annual list of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers.

Another key theme in the surveys is staff feeling unsupported by management after filing a grievance.

“We went to grievance and won. My manager did not want to fire him because they were friends.”

About half of participants said they didn’t know how to file a complaint, and 43 per cent said they would not refer colleagues to job opportunities at CAMH.

In 2023, CAMH followed up with a survey that was completed by 45 per cent of the hospital’s staff. The results continued to highlight equity concerns.

McKenzie, a psychiatrist and director of health equity at CAMH for more than a decade, commissioned the surveys to help the hospital collect concrete data to improve the workplace, he said. While he acknowledged the findings being made public could raise difficult questions, he said the hospital is committed to transparency and improvement.

“We wanted to do it because we wanted to find out what was… upsetting staff in order to try and create some solutions,” said McKenzie. “We are actually really proud of that fact, that we’re a sort of organization that has the courage to try to do it.”

Eight current and former CAMH nursing staff interviewed for this story described a culture that is often punitive and driven by blame.

Jacqueline Boyce, a current nurse at CAMH for more than two decades, wasn’t surprised by the findings. She said she’s witnessed countless alleged inequities firsthand and understands the deep mistrust many staff feel toward the organization, as well as the fear among nurses of speaking out. She said most remain silent out of fear.

“If you speak up, they can come after your job,” she said. “If you feel that’s a threat, you just stay calm, your voice becomes powerless and nothing is done.

“People, they take whatever’s handed out to them and shut up, right? Their safety is in being quiet.”

CAMH was an early adopter of the

National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace,

launched in 2013. It promotes a culture where staff are encouraged to report errors or concerns without fear of punishment.

But another current nurse, whose identity is being protected due to fears of retribution, said raising issues or defending her work frequently resulted in disciplinary meetings and veiled threats from leaders, leaving her feeling unsafe and anxious for her job.

“I would go home and just cry,” she said, her voice breaking as she recalled interactions with managers over the years. “How would you feel working in a mental institution and every time you come in you feel (you’re walking on) pins and needles. Would you be able to function in this environment?”

Many of the concerns raised by staff at CAMH are echoed by

health-care workers across Canada

who cite staff shortages, heavy workloads and safety concerns for increasing burnout, absences and high turnover.

But there are unique challenges for staff in mental health care who must manage both their own emotions and those of clients in extreme distress, said Kim Foster, a mental health nurse and researcher who has studied the well-being of the mental health clinical workforce in Australia.

“It’s difficult to provide psychological care if you yourself are not feeling psychologically safe,” said Foster. “We’re a mental health service. We should be practicing what we preach.”

But the challenges are often more deep-rooted than a few bad apples in management, she said.

“I do think managers get blamed for a lot of things that are perhaps not always their fault,” she said. “They themselves are often working in stressed, pressured environments. If you haven’t got managers who are experienced, or you have a culture in senior management that doesn’t support staff, that of course makes things difficult.”

Psychologist, N. Zoe Hilton, professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Toronto and research chair at the Waypoint Research Institute in Penetanguishene, Ont., led the Trauma Among Psychiatric Workers Project, a multi-hospital

study

designed to understand how workplace factors impact trauma experiences among nurses and other hospital staff.

Part of the study, published in 2020, surveyed 761 staff across three psychiatric hospitals in Ontario and conducted interviews with two dozen workers. They found 29 per cent of participants met the clinical screening threshold for PTSD, depression or anxiety.

“I think that’s really important research that CAMH has done,” said Hilton. “I think it’s important for giving that voice to staff who may not be able to speak out in their workplaces.

CAMH’s McKenzie said he takes staff accounts of a troubled workplace culture seriously. “I’m always mortified to hear when our (staff) are disappointed in us or upset by us and think we should do better,” he said. “There’s a hell of a lot (of supports for clinical and non-clinical workers) at CAMH — there needs to be. If we’ve got people saying, ‘we want more,’ we need to be able to listen and work out what we can do in order to improve things for individuals.”

CAMH promotes itself publicly as a leader in workplace wellness, advising companies like Maple Leaf Foods and Sun Life on how to improve employee well-being and organizational accountability.

The hospital hasn’t followed its own advice, said current and former staff who spoke with the Investigative Journalism Bureau.

One nurse, whose identity is being protected due to fear of retribution, said that although she’s aware of resources, she has avoided them. Her past experiences have left her fearful that anything she shares could be used against her.

“You lose trust because of the experiences that you go through — the trauma,” she said. “You hurt me already and now you’re telling me you set up someone to come help me. You think I’m going to accept that?… It’s not safe for me.”

Instead, she draws on support from her religious community outside of work and uses her vacation days as informal mental health leave.

Staff feedback also suggests a double standard in how patient abuse toward staff is addressed. “Patients calling me the ‘N’ word was the norm, no one had consequences,” one nurse said. “If a white nurse was made uncomfortable, the patient would have been secluded. But for Black nurses, this is just our job.”

Discriminatory patient care was also identified as a factor in staff mental health concerns, according to the CAMH research.

CAMH’s own “

Dismantling Anti-Black Racism

,” published in February 2021, says Black patients at CAMH are restrained 44 per cent more than white patients.

In a statement, CAMH said the decision to publicly release the restraint data was an intentional “step toward acknowledging systemic inequities and holding ourselves to a higher standard to do better.”

McKenzie said the disparity has significantly decreased since then through training and policy changes in the hospital.

“I don’t think we have solved this problem,” he said. “But I think that the plan of getting the data, showing the data and starting the conversations across CAMH about how we can improve and move towards equity have made a start. There’s a long way to go before we can honestly say that we have totally equitable services at CAMH.”

The path ahead

Survey respondents in the CAMH reports made recommendations for addressing the issues including forming an independent, employee-led committee to address workplace violence and discrimination, an independent ombudsperson to mediate complaints and clear accountability mechanisms.

CAMH has introduced several equity initiatives in recent years, including employee resource groups focused on anti-harassment and anti-discrimination, as well as better data collection.

In a statement, CAMH said it recognizes its responsibility to provide ongoing mental health support for staff, not just in times of crisis, but as a sustained commitment to employee well-being.

As of January 2024, the hospital said it increased mental health coverage for unionized and management staff and introduced unlimited coverage for Ontario Nurses Association members. In response to staff feedback, coverage was expanded to include off-site and private providers. Employees also have access to an employee family assistance program.

“We’re not perfect, but we’re giving it a bloody good try,” said McKenzie.

In her two decades at CAMH, Boyce said she has seen some positive movement. But decades of inequity, she said, are a lot to unpack.

At 66, the longtime nurse doubts the kind of meaningful change needed to address trauma, discrimination and bullying will happen in her lifetime.

“We chose this work to be advocates, to be caregivers… but who takes care of the caregiver?”

The Investigative Journalism Bureau (IJB) at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health is a collaborative investigative newsroom supported by Postmedia that partners with academics, researchers and journalists while training the next generation of investigative reporters.

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OTTAWA — When Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Quebec Premier François Legault faced reporters last week, some grinning and nervous laughter ensued when both men were asked why their two provinces could not come to a bilateral agreement on internal trade.

Ford has so far signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on trade with every province and territory — except for Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Ford said he had “all the confidence” in Legault, whom he considers to be a friend, and called him a “smart business person” who “wants prosperity for the people of Quebec” and understands that “when Quebec and Ontario prosper, the whole country prospers.”

“So, I’m confident we’ll sit down and really hash out a deal,” he said.

Speaking in French, Legault said his government wholeheartedly agrees with Ford’s objective of lifting internal trade barriers between provinces, but said Quebec would attain the same objective by debating and passing legislation — Bill 112 — in the fall.

The bill seeks to facilitate the commercialization of goods from other provinces and territories in Quebec — with some exceptions that will be made public on the government’s website — as well as the mobility of certified workers in the province.

In an interview, Quebec Minister for the Economy Christopher Skeete, who tabled the bill, said he appreciates the intent behind Ontario and others signing MOUs with other jurisdictions, but said these agreements would amount to added layers of bureaucracy.

“The thinking for us is if you pass a bill like we’re passing with Bill 112, that basically just opens everything. Then the point for an MOU becomes moot,” he said.

Skeete, who is also responsible for red tape reduction, said the signing of MOUs between different provinces and territories will lead to businesses having to potentially go through dozens of separate agreements if they want to do business elsewhere in the country.

“I’m not sure we’re providing the clarity that the exercise in cross-border trade seeks to remedy. I think the way forward is to say mutual recognition and harmonization where possible, and let’s just go. I think that is the posture that we need to be dealing with.”

Ontario already adopted Bill 2, the Protect Ontario Through Free Trade Within Canada Act, which enables provincial regulators to mutually recognize goods, services and recognized workers from reciprocating provinces and territories and the federal government.

An official in Ford’s office, speaking on a not-for-attribution basis to discuss internal matters more freely, said they respect Quebec’s wish to go solely the legislative route.

“Certainly, we respect that process, and our door continues to remain open,” they said.

The official added each MOU does not need dedicated legislation to enact the terms set out between Ontario and each province or territory, but specific agreements could help with the free flow of direct alcohol sales to consumers, for instance.

Legault has a majority government in Quebec, which means that Bill 112 will almost certainly pass in the fall. But the bulk of the work on determining which goods should be excluded by regulation from internal trade will commence right after, said Skeete.

“The clock starts when we pass the bill,” he said, adding that different departments inside the Quebec government will have about 12 months to get back to the government and give them a list of goods that they want to opt out of or want to exclude from internal trade.

“In other words, if there’s something that’s being sold outside of Quebec that you absolutely want to have a different norm, you’re going to have to tell us, and then we will publish that on our (ministry of the) Economy website for transparency.”

That way, Skeete added, “businesses will know exactly what they’re getting themselves into when they do business in Quebec.”

Many requirements that are considered not essential would be dropped once Bill 112 is in place. For instance, Transport Quebec currently has requirements that scooters should have reflectors be a specific colour, and be located both on the wheels and in the back.

“That kind of thing creates a barrier. So, we can agree that the scooter needs to have certain safety measures … but certainly, the colour and the location of the reflectors is really not the dealbreaker. So, that’s the kind of thing that would disappear,” said Skeete.

Some things, however, will not change under Bill 112. A senior government official in Quebec said French language laws will continue to apply for goods, and that professional orders in Quebec could require the mastery of French to practice in the province.

Quebec also has more stringent consumer protection laws, which means that goods coming into the province are still subject to certain guarantees, warranties and other norms bound by Quebec’s Office de la protection du consommateur, noted Skeete.

The example of the scooter made in another province would not be exempt from warranty obligations unique to Quebec nor would it be exempt from having instructions in French for how to handle the scooter if it were to be sold in the province, he said.

“The way to do business in Quebec doesn’t change just because you’re importing things from other provinces now.”

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Last week, in a 91-page judgement following an eight-week trial in London, Ont., Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia found all five defendants — 2018 Team Canada world junior hockey players — not guilty of sexual assault involving one complainant, identified only as E.M. due to a publication ban. Carroccia acquitted Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote after saying the complainant’s testimony was not found to be “either credible or reliable.” Here’s what to know about the woman who made that ruling.

She used to work as a waitress

In the questionnaire Carroccia completed to apply for a federal judicial appointment, she listed under “non-legal work history” two occupations. From 1980 to 1987, she worked as a part-time pharmacy assistant at Patterson Big V Drug Store, part of a chain that was later taken over by Shoppers Drug Mart. And in roughly the same period (1980 to 1986) she was a part-time waitress at Caboto Club of Windsor. Described on its website as “Southwestern Ontario’s largest and oldest Italian club,” the Giovanni Caboto Club turns 100 this year.

Her parents came to Canada from Italy

Carroccia is the oldest child of immigrants from Italy. Her parents did not finish grade school, and when they came to Canada her father became a construction worker, and her mother a homemaker. Their first language was not English and, growing up, Carroccia was often their intermediary when dealing with government agencies and English-speaking people.

“While they encouraged me to further my education, financially, they were not always able to assist, so I worked part time jobs as a student to pay for my education,” she said in her judicial application. “They taught me the value of hard work. We have a close-knit and loving large family.

She also noted that, as the mother of two children herself, “I have developed an ability to balance my professional life with my personal life.”

She worked  as a defence lawyer before she was a judge

Carroccia’s legal work history includes 25 years self-employed as a barrister and solicitor practicing in Windsor, with her practice restricted to criminal defence. Prior to that, she worked for five years for Gordner, Klein, Barristers and Solicitors, practicing criminal law; and two years before that at Gignac, Sutts Barristers and Solicitors, in the same capacity.

She has a degree in English language and literature

Carroccia was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1989 after graduating from the University of Windsor’s faculty of law two years earlier. In addition to her law degree, she also holds an English language and literature degree from Windsor, earned in 1984.

She was appointed in June of 2020 as a judge to the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario by then Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada David Lametti. This month, Lametti was named Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Mark Carney, after helping with Carney’s transition into office and as an informal advisor.

She once described herself as a lawyer who ‘works in the trenches’

In her judicial questionnaire, Carroccia noted that most of her time as a lawyer was spent as a sole practitioner. “I do not work in a large firm,” she said. “I view myself as a trial lawyer who ‘works in the trenches.’ My contribution to the law is to represent my clients to the best of my ability, whether they are charged with minor offences or the most serious offences.”

She thinks of herself as a plain speaker

“The audience for the decisions of the Superior Court of Justice is the average Canadian citizen,” she once said. “It is my view that a judge’s decision ought to make sense to an ordinary person, not just to lawyers, scholars and other judges. An individual should be able to understand the decision of a judge and the law upon which it is based even if he or she is not well-versed in the law.”

Her ruling was criticized but also seen by many as fair and balanced

While there was outrage from some quarters at the acquittal, there were also those who praised the verdict and the judge’s careful work. Karen Bellehumeur, lawyer for E.M., said as part of her statement after the verdict: “It’s important to understand that this case, the criminal justice system worked the way it’s designed to work, to aggressively protect the rights of the accused. It’s based on a concept that 10 guilty persons should walk free before one innocent person is wrongly convicted.”

And Meaghan Cunningham, assistant Crown attorney, noted: “A fair trial is one where decisions are made based on the evidence and the law, not on stereotypes and assumptions, and where the trial process respects the security, equality, and privacy rights of the victim, as well as the accused persons.”

Read the full text of the judge’s verdict in the Hockey Canada sex assault trial

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In a very civil tone, the mayor of Windsor, Ont., is asking the fresh faces in the Mark Carney-led Liberal government to butt out of city planning. Mayor Drew Dilkens especially wants to see an end to Trudeau-era affordable housing mandates from Ottawa that don’t serve his community.

“They were just hell-bent on putting forward this really left-principled version of what housing should be,” Drew says of the conditions imposed on cities under the $4-billion housing accelerator fund launched in 2023 by then federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser.

Unlike most other big cities in Canada, Windsor chose not to apply for the housing accelerator dollars — turning down the possibility of a $30-million cash infusion into the city’s densification strategies.

City council didn’t dare to accept the funds and later renege on the feds’ conditions, Drew says: “We basically walked away from $30 million because we refused to succumb, or be co-opted into something we felt was bad for the community.”

Then-Liberal MP for Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore, Irek Kusmierczyk (who lost the 2025 election by just four votes to Conservative MP Kathy Borrelli), implored Windsor’s city council to reconsider, insisting the feds were only asking for “gentle density.”

It’s not so gentle, Drew counters, if you find yourself living next door to a new four-plex and you bought your house based on the community’s single-family residential character.

“We did it in our way,” Drew explains in a recent conversation, “because there’s no one who knows their community better, no level of government that knows their community better,” than the local council. The 53-year-old lawyer-cum-mayor grew up in Windsor, and has served on the city’s council for nearly two decades, 11 as mayor.

And when you look at Canada’s Constitution, Drew points out, these issues are “under the bailiwick of the provincial government … who delegate it to the municipalities.”

The city’s locally generated housing strategies — intense densification along transit routes; blanket rezoning in new neighbourhoods to allow for greater density; repurposing several municipally owned properties for housing — were rejected by the fund’s managers as “not ambitious enough.”

“Ambition” was their favourite word, Drew grumbles: “We weren’t ambitious enough and they wanted to work with municipalities who had greater ambition.”

One of the biggest sticking points for Drew? The minimum ticket to entry for this fund was city-wide rezoning to allow four-plexes to be built on any residential lot, as a right — removing the public hearing process and the possibility for appeals. In the suburban Calgary neighbourhood where I live, blanket rezoning means neighbours hold their breath when a lot comes up for sale.

The province of Ontario already mandates three buildings on a residential lot, the bureaucrats told Drew, so what’s the big deal about adding four? His rebuttal: “Then what’s the big deal about adding five? I mean, where does it stop? And when do you get to say enough’s enough; that we have processes in place that allow us to look at sewer capacity, that allow us to deal with parking, that allow us to deal with garbage control?

“We hope to work with the federal government — who wants to truly be a partner in helping build more housing — without jamming down our throats something residents don’t want,” pleads the veteran mayor.

To that end, after Carney took power, the mayor sent a letter — as yet, unanswered — to the government, asking for a re-evaluation of this rigid approach to the housing accelerator fund.

Drew has previously worked with Gregor Robertson, former mayor of Vancouver and now Carney’s point man on housing and infrastructure. He’s optimistic Robertson will bring practical insights about the correlation between affordable housing and density to the federal table. I noted that if increased density brought affordability, Vancouver would be cheap by now.

“I think the benefit of having a fresh government,” Drew offers, “is they can come in and say, ‘Listen, we looked at the program … while we appreciate the intention the past government was trying to employ here, we think there’s a better way of working with municipalities, allowing them the flexibility to determine how to accomplish the goal. We’ll set the goals and then we’ll hold them to account.’”

Drew’s suggestion echoes what I heard Pierre Poilievre say in the last election campaign. But, we agree, there’s nothing wrong with the Liberals stealing good ideas from the Conservatives.

While the housing accelerator initiative is the focus of Windsor council’s attention, Drew’s not happy these blanket zoning mandates are being applied to other programs — including federal public transit and housing infrastructure funding available to municipalities.

“And it gets even better,” Drew continues, his tone increasingly agitated. “Guess who doesn’t have to do this? The entire province of Quebec. They have an exemption. They carved out a different pathway … four units as of right was not a requirement in the province of Quebec.” Indeed, Premier Francois Legault trumpeted his $900-million deal with Ottawa as being “free of conditions.”

The economy of Windsor has taken a sharp downturn in the past 18 months. Before Donald Trump’s re-election, the Conference Board of Canada predicted Windsor would be the fastest-growing city by GDP of the 24 big cities they studied. “We had the battery factory well under construction,” Drew reports, “and we’ve got the Gordie Howe bridge that is winding up construction and should open officially the first week of December this year.

“But the reality is, there’s a lot of fear here,” he shares. “Our unemployment rate was almost 11 per cent and people are in rainy day mode. People are pinching their pennies … The housing market is very slow and everyone’s just in a wait-and-see mode.”

Property developers are on standby, he says, waiting to see if the Carney Liberals will cut development charges by 50 per cent at the municipal level (as promised during the election campaign), and whether the feds will offer low-interest loans for multi-storey residential units.

“Things have just kind of ground to a halt here,” Drew says with a sigh.

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