The Draft Report is followed by my Reply which corrects the factual information.  The correction of the time-line significantly changes the cause-and-effect relationship claimed by Ashu.  I believe I was cleared!  My membership continued.  Ashu canceled his membership rather than have a hearing of his complaint.

From: Ombuds Chair [mailto:ombuds.chair  AT  greenparty.ca] Sent: July 29, 2014 9:04 AM To: Rob Rainer <rob.rainer   AT greenparty.ca>; sandra.finley <sandra.finleY  AT  greenparty.ca>; Aaron Padolsky <aaron.padolsky  AT gmail.com>; amgsolo@mavericktechnologies.us Cc: Victor Lau <votelau  AY  gmail.com>; Alex Almendrades <alex.almendrades  AY  greenparty.ca>; Larry Waldinger <lwaldinger  AAT gmail.com>

Subject: Ombuds Report   (INSERT:   DRAFT REPORT)

We have completed our report; please note that we have not included all of the facts that each of you will think were significant, but we have included (in general terms) a summary of the ones we thought most important.

IF anyone finds that we have made a statement in the “Factual Background” section which is wrong — which is erroneous — please let us know.  If we have made a factual mistake we are willing to revise, in which case we would send a revised report to each of you.  But we are not willing to expand the report by including excessive detail.

If anyone has questions, please feel free to ask us.

Best wishes to all —

Sara Golling

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Green Party of Canada

Ombuds and Appeals Committee

(INSERT:  DRAFT)  REPORT, July 2014

Complaints of Ashu Solo

 

NOTE: The complaints herein were not sent to the Ombuds and Appeals Committee in any one coherent document by the complainant, but were identified and deliberated upon by this Committee from a long series of emails (well over 200, plus many attachments) which included a request by Ashu Solo that the Ombuds Committee review his complaints.

The “Factual Background” section of this report does not contain all of the facts available to us, but it does summarize the facts this Committee deemed most relevant to the complaints.

The Complaints:

1. Ashu Solo (referred to hereafter as “Solo”) complained that Federal Council (“FC”) had unfairly barred his application for renewed membership in the Green Party of Canada (“GPC” or “the Party”) on the basis of a complaint about him from GPC member Sandra Finley ( “Finley”), without hearing his side of the story.
2. Solo complained (initially to the Ethics Committee, then to the Ombuds Committee) that Sandra Finley had been (inter alia) spreading lies about him, harassing him, and “cyber-bullying” him.
3. Solo complained that the Ethics Committee had ignored his complaints about Finley and had not communicated with him even to let him know that they did not think they had any duty to follow up on his complaint in any way, because he was no longer a member of the GPC.

The Factual Background:  (“A”  to “Y” in the document)

1. Solo is a former GPC member.
2. Solo was originally recruited to the GPC in the spring of 2013, probably because of his civil rights activism, specifically around the separation of religion and municipal government in Saskatoon.
3. Solo had been promoted within the local Electoral District Association (“EDA”) in Saskatchewan as a potential candidate because of his energy and media coverage, but not all Party members agreed that Solo should be a candidate.
4. Solo began using GPC resources to promote his civil rights causes, but when he was asked to stop doing that, he complied.
5. Finley, then an Electoral District CEO, received a complaint about Solo’s activities from an individual named Tonia Zimmerman.
6. Solo was elected CEO of his EDA at an AGM which was not properly called; Finley remained as CEO until a new AGM was called with proper notice. Finley refused to send out a communication from Solo to the membership prior to the new AGM, saying it was not the practice of the EDA, and Solo protested this.   The AGM was held with proper notice this time, and another person was elected CEO, not Solo.
7. Finley began looking into Solo’s qualifications for GPC candidacy and for holding office in the GPC, and sought out information about him and his background.
8. Finley began expressing doubts about some of the claims Solo made about his qualifications and experience.
9. Solo responded by sending a large number of emails to Finley and to many other GPC officers and members, accusing Finley of defaming, bullying and harassing him.
10. Solo resigned from the Party because he had been advised by another member that leaving the Party would stop what he saw as attacks against him.
11. In January of 2014, Solo applied to rejoin the Party, and was sent a receipt for his membership fee. His membership was cancelled the following month (February 2014), and his fee returned to him without explanation.   It is not clear who cancelled his membership or why.
12. On or around April 8, 2014, Finley sent a complaint about Solo to FC, listing the reasons why she thought he should be denied membership or expelled from membership.
13. FC did not tell Solo about the complaint from Finley or ask him for any input on its contents before deciding to bar him from membership.
14. FC sent Solo a letter explaining that he was being barred from membership because of violations of the member Code of Conduct, without specifying how he had violated it.
15. Solo sent a list of ten complaints against Finley to the GPC Ethics Committee.
16. The Ethics Committee did not communicate with Solo because he was not a member, and the Committee thought it owed no duty to anyone who is not a member of the Party. (When this Committee enquired of the Ethics Committee, its Chair said he thought he had sent a message to Solo, but was unable to find any record of it. Solo says he never received any such message.)
17. Included in the Ethics Committee Handbook is the mandate of the Committee, which includes the following:

“A. Mandate Statement:

“The Mandate of this Committee is to develop and implement an ethics program based on ethics best practices and the highest ethical standards, which will include ethical guidelines for the GPC leadership and membership relating to the ethical conduct and ethical risk management within the GPC and in our external relationships.”

18.  Finley writes a blog with opinions and materials on many different topics, and she posted the material she had collected on Solo on her blog, including the emails he had sent to her, and others that he had sent to other people which had been forwarded to her. She also posted her opinions and doubts about the truth of Solo’s claims.

19.  Solo protested about these blog posts, on the basis that they could be found by anyone doing a Google search on his name and that his activism has garnered him many enemies (one of whom physically assaulted him, and the assault was reported in mainstream news media)

20.  Finley put password protection on the blog posts, but the password did not block the titles of the posts.

21.  When the Ombuds Committee began investigating Solo’s complaints, we asked Finley to provide us with the ability to access the password-protected part of her blog (by giving us a password for it); Finley responded by removing the password protection.

22.  Solo became upset by the removal of the password protection and sent emails to a number of people to try to get Finley to reinstate the password protection. A number of these emails threatened legal proceedings against Finley, the GPC, and various individuals.

23.  During the course of this Committee’s investigation into Solo’s complaints, Solo sent a large number of emails to us and copied them to various other levels of the Party (or vice versa), including the Leader, in which he was highly critical of FC, the Ethics Committee, and the Leader (inter alia), alleging various instances of wrong-doing, incompetence, racism, sexism, and other major flaws, and using accusations, name-calling and threats.

24.  When this Committee asked Solo to substantiate his claims that Finley was “spreading lies” about him, and “harassing” him, Solo referred us to many specific expressions of doubt about him, or statements about him, in Finley’s blog and stated that the various things that Finley’s doubts imply are untrue, and that her statements about him on her blog endanger him and cause him distress and anxiety.

25.  This Committee, and other GPC members, suggested that Finley replace the password protection on her blog, but this Committee has no authority over her or what she publishes on her blog.

 

Findings: The Ombuds and Appeals Committee finds that:

1. Federal Council did not follow proper procedure in barring Solo from membership without seeking his input on the complaint from Finley and her request that he be barred from membership in the Party. The rules of natural justice require that a person be made aware of accusations against him/her and be given an opportunity to respond to them.
2. The cancellation of membership in February, 2014, without any due process, was improper.
3. The Ethics Committee was mistaken in thinking that it was acceptable procedure to simply ignore complaints against a member of the Party because the complaints were received from a non-member of the Party about whom a member had complained earlier.  The mandate of the Ethics Committee states that the GPC should pay attention to ethical risk management within the GPC and also in our external relationships (emphasis added).
4. It is in the best interests of the GPC for all units to respond with courtesy and in a timely fashion to both members and also non-members in all communications, even when receiving communications in violent language from disgruntled non-members who complain about the Party or about individuals in the Party, and even when those communications are exaggerated, threatening, or otherwise offensive.
5. Solo, the complainant to the Ombuds Committee in this case, has protested what he thought was unjust treatment by Federal Council, the Ethics Committee, and Finley, by means of an excessive number of e-mails containing repetitive messages, accusing many people in the Party of many failings and much wrong-doing. The e-mails include name-calling, and many threats of lawsuits for various causes of action, and threats to communicate accusations to someone’s employer.   This response has caused other people distress and anxiety, and to think that he was being verbally abusive and harassing them. They lost patience with Solo, and they lost sympathy for him, even though some of them believed he had been wronged.
6. Finley took her “vetting” research further than necessary for the purpose originally claimed, and took it upon herself to drive Solo out of the Party, in part by publicizing her doubts and speculations about him.
7. Finley, by posting her thoughts, doubts and speculations about Solo (with supporting links) on her blog, and making them open to public view, has caused Solo great distress and has added fuel to the continuing barrage of e-mails from Solo to other people.
8. This Committee does not have the resources to establish the degree of accuracy of the claims or allegations made by Solo and Finley.

Recommendations:  (a to h on original – in HTML shows as 1 to 8) 

1. 1. FC should always hear from all parties involved when anyone makes a complaint about a member of the Party or a potential member of the Party.
   2. The Ethics Committee should respond to complaints, no matter who has made the complaint, and must follow the rules of natural justice.
   3. All members of the Ethics Committee should take courses in Ethics immediately. There are free on-line courses and tutorials available.
   4. Finley should remove all material about Solo from her blog, and should not publish anything further anywhere about Solo. If she wishes to save the materials for her own reference, she can easily do so without using a forum accessible to the public.
   5. FC should suspend Finley from membership until she permanently removes all material about Solo from her blog, and if she publishes any further material anywhere about Solo.
   6. Solo should cease all communications with and about the GPC and its members, and should stop sending communications to the media about the GPC or any of its members, and should not publish (or cause to be published) anything anywhere about the GPC or any of its members.
   7. Solo should accept, for the time being, that he is barred from rejoining the GPC, and that he brought this barring upon himself by his practice of sending too many e-mails, imputing motives to others and using name-calling, accusations, and threats in those e-mails.
   8. Solo, Finley, FC, the Ethics Committee, and all members of the GPC everywhere, should study Non-Violent Communication and its benefits. We strongly recommend that Solo pursue this topic and absorb and follow its precepts, as we think it can improve matters for him in all areas of his life.  Respectfully submitted,

The Ombuds and Appeals Committee

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing, and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there. –Rumi        (from:   www.cnvc.org)

Recommended viewing:

http://www.upworthy.com/its-probably-one-of-the-best-reactions-you-can-give-to-someone-who-doesnt-like-you?g=3&c=upw1

And a little further food for thought for all parties:

I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single argument left.

Margaret Thatcher

Honest debate stops when the name calling starts.

Jeffrey Benjamin

End of document.

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SANDRA – – REPLY TO DRAFT ETHICS COMMITTEE REPORT

From: Ombuds Chair  Sent: July 29, 2014 3:17 PM To: Sandra Finley  Subject: Re: Ashu SOlo, Ombuds Report

Thank you, Sandra, for helping to clarify the chain of events.  With only an enormous series of different but often repetitive emails, it was not always easy to pin-point time frames.   I will discuss your input with Kathleen and we will consider our next steps.

Regards — Sara

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On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 1:20 PM, Sandra Finley wrote:

Thank you Sara.

My input:

1. RE:   Item E, Statement of Facts

Finley, then an Electoral District CEO, received a complaint about Solo’s activities from an individual named Tonia Zimmerman. 

I think it is relevant and should be added to Item E:

Finley forwarded the complaint to the GPC Ethics Committee and to the GPS for resolution. 

– – – – – – – – – – –

2. A simple change to the Facts removes an erroneous cause-and-effect relationship.  Currently:

–          R.  …  she posted the material she had collected on Solo on her blog

–          S.  Solo protested about these blog posts,

–          T.         Finley put password protection on the blog posts

That is not at all the case.   Everything was under password protection until June 20, 2014.

Also, the titles of the postings are such as “listin”, “Documentation Dec 18”, “c ro” – nothing to lead anyone to Ashu Solo.

R, S and T could be stated thus – there is little change to your wording:

1. Finley writes a blog with opinions and materials on many different topics.

1.     Finley posted the material she had collected on Solo on her blog, including the emails he had sent to her, and others that he had sent to other people which had been forwarded to her.  She posted her opinions and doubts about the truth of Solo’s claims. The posts were under password protection, with titles that did not indicate content.

1. Solo protested about these blog posts, on the basis that they could be found by anyone doing a Google search on his name and that his activism has garnered him many enemies (one of whom  physically assaulted him, and the assault was reported in mainstream news media).

– – – – – – – – – 

3. RE:   Items  H & I, Statement of Facts

These are presented as cause and effect.  They are not. 

1. Finley began expressing doubts about some of the claims Solo made about his qualifications and experience.
2. Solo responded by sending a large number of emails to Finley and to many other GPC officers and members, accusing Finley  of defaming,  bullying and harassing him.

The cause-and-effect relationship, borne out by the dates of Ashu’s emails is:

1. Finley forwarded the complaint of Tonia Zimmerman to the GPC Ethics Committee and to the GPS for resolution.
2. Solo responded by sending a large number of emails to Finley and to many other GPC officers and members, accusing Finley  of defaming,  bullying and harassing him.

– – – – – – –  – – – – –

4. From my perspective, the Statement of Facts is misleading in this respect

(The evidence is in the list of emails from Ashu):

–          Ashu began his attacks on me by December 10^th

I didn’t post anything until shortly before Christmas, when it was beginning to look as though he might never stop and I might need proof in future.   The documentation began as a catalogue of his emails.

– – – – – – – – – – – –

5. I don’t think I have ever received a copy of the complaints by Ashu Solo against me.

– – – – – – –  – – – – –

Best wishes,

Sandra Finley

ADDENDUM

This is not to be construed as my intentions regarding the postings about Ashu Solo.

It is FYI:

My involvement in the matter of Ashu Solo drew to a close yesterday with the laying of complaint with the RCMP, please see appended to Debra (EMay’s assistant).

The Saskatoon Health Region recommended to Vicki Strelioff that she lay a complaint against Ashu with Saskatoon Police which she did on Saturday past.  This was after Ashu tried to intimidate her with threats of going to her employer, she did not respond, Ashu did an email launch on Executives in the Health District, there was a disciplinary hearing for Vicki.  And as told,  Vicki was cleared of any wrong-doing and her Union Rep recommended that she go to the Police.

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From: “Sandra Finley”

Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 12:17:31 -0700

To: <debra.eindiguer  AT  greenparty.ca

Subject: RE: Update Ashu: Saskatoon Health Region gave direction: go to Police

Hi Debra,

I understand that the laying of complaint with the Police has nothing to do with you or Elizabeth.

I doubt that charges will be laid against Ashu.    As a consequence of the complaints (from Vicki and myself), the Police will talk with him.  That should cause him to stop doing what he is doing.  If he does more, then he will know there is a possibility of charges.

I understand that Ashu was a problem for you;  it was the basis for intervention by the Exec Director, and later by Elizabeth.

But that is not relevant.

I went to the Parksville RCMP this morning.   They will be talking with S’toon Police and handling it.

The RCMP advice is that I should:

–          completely disengage from everything, including the discussions of what to do re Ashu.

I am going to take their advice.   I will entertain nothing further re Ashu.

RE:  Your question, What I need to know is if you will take down his address and tel number from your blog.

I have been through the negotiation of taking down that info with Larry Waldinger.  In the end, it does not satisfy Ashu.   There is no need to go through it again.

You may want to advise Ashu that I am taking the advice of the RCMP in this matter.   Handle it as you see fit.

Best wishes,

/Sandra