KRG fires meeting coordinator on eve of ICC conference

PATRICIA D’SOUZA

One of the organizers of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference 2002 General Assembly is considering legal action against the Kativik Regional Government after she was fired just one month before the event.

At 5 p.m. on July 10, Susan Ruston received a hand-delivered termination notice signed by Michael Gordon, the mayor of Kuujjuaq, and Johnny Adams, chairman of the KRG.

“Regrettably, we have to inform you that we have no choice but to terminate, as of today, your employment contract with the Kativik Regional Government as Co-Coordinator of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference event,” the letter says.

“The main reason is your behaviour today in front of international officials and your overall behaviour leading to today’s incident.”

Ruston says she was dismissed “without notice,” on a particularly bad day. “I admit I was irritable that day, but I didn’t expect to get fired,” she said in a telephone interview from her home in Kuujjuaq. “I was having problems. I forgot to take my medication.”

According to a doctor’s note on Ungava Tulattavik Health Centre stationery, provided to Nunatsiaq News by Ruston, she had been under a doctor’s care for “severe depression” since March 2001.

“In the last week she tried to stop her medication on her own, what could explain part of her mood changes,” the doctor’s note says.

In a letter to Gordon, Adams and three other KRG officials on July 15, Ruston recounts the events that led to her termination.

“On June 13, 2002, I was in a meeting in the KRG conference room with international supervisors for Customs Canada. The other co-coordinator walked into the meeting and started arguing with me that the Inuttitut text on the logo was wrong. …. Before I could even introduce [the Customs Canada representatives], he walked out leaving me embarrassed and my visitors uncomfortable,” the letter says.

In a letter to Gordon and Adams on July 10, she explains what set her off the day she was fired. “This ‘incident’ that you refer to was in fact the co-coordinator pushing papers in front of me insisting that I take them when I informed him twice that I already had them. I had better things to do than argue over papers, so I went back to my office.”

“Getting to the critical time”

“She’s a good worker on a lot of points, but in person-to-person, her skills are not as good,” Gordon said in a phone interview. “It’s something that’s been building up. Through the whole winter it was noticed, but it was getting to the critical time.”

Although he was not present for the July 10 incident, Gordon said it occurred in front of two ICC coordinators from Greenland and another from Ottawa. “[Ruston] pushed paperwork, shouted and left without saying a word. The two from Greenland, the coordinator from Ottawa, couldn’t figure out why this was the case,” Gordon said.

Sandy Tooma, the co-coordinator with Ruston on the project, refused to comment.

“I guess you could say it’s the straw that broke the camel’s back. We can’t have these things happen with everything getting to a critical stage,” Gordon said. “Something had to be done. We couldn’t let this go on.”

Gordon acknowledged that Ruston had received no previous warnings about her behaviour. “I don’t think it would have changed her attitude. I guess she needed some support from her doctor,” he said.

“She couldn’t hack it. I don’t know what. She just exploded. It was uncalled for. In this position, you have to be very personable and accommodating as well. We can’t just stop everything for one person’s ranting and raving,” he said. “It’s a very critical job and we can’t let her hold ICC hostage.”

Gordon said he and Adams acted according to KRG policy. Adams was not available for comment. “She was not wronged by us,” Gordon said.

Jean-François Arteau, assistant director general for the KRG, said the organization was left with no alternative but to let Ruston go. “It was such an extraordinary incident that happened that day that we had no choice,” he said.

Ruston was given one week’s pay in lieu of notice, but the KRG was not legally required to give her even that much, Arteau said. “She was with us for seven months, so we could have let her go [with no severance pay]. It was just to be correct and fair that we let her go with one week’s pay.”

Ruston, a single mother, is left to care for her three children with no income. “It doesn’t help that I’m the only one supporting us,” she said.

Though she has worked in accounting, and in finance and administration in the past, Ruston doubts she will be able to find another job [in Kuujjuaq]. “They’ve ruined my life. I’ve never been fired in my life. Who’s going to hire me now?”

She has asked for a legal opinion and is waiting for a response.

“Apparently three people are doing my job now,” she said.