Government was wrong to discipline officer for giving middle finger to federal buildings: labour board

Glen Collison works at CSC's Millhaven Institution in Bath, Ont. Photo by Meghan Balogh

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Sometimes it’s ok to flip the bird.

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That was the conclusion of the federal labour board when it came to the case of Glen Collison, an officer with Correctional Service Canada (CSC), who was disciplined for “raising a middle finger to a building.”

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Collison, who’s a dog-handler for CSC, had been on a five-week training course at a Canada Boarder Service Agency (CBSA) facility to certify with a new dog when the middle-finger salute took place.

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After he was disciplined, Collison, who works at CSC’s Millhaven Institution in Bath, Ont., filed a labour grievance against his employer. The Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board found that raising a middle finger is “profane,” but that not all “profanity is worthy of discipline.”

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“If the grievor in this case had directed his middle finger toward anyone at the CBSA, I would have agreed with the CSC that doing so was discreditable behaviour warranting some amount of discipline. He did not. He gave the finger to two buildings,” wrote adjudicator Christopher Rootham in the decision.

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The incident in question happened near Collison’s graduation date. Collison was speaking with three other people in the CBSA parking lot when he was asked if he was glad he was finished with the training. Collison’s response was yes. A CBSA employee then asked him what if “they would not let him go home.”

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Collison said that of course they would let him go home, but was asked a second time.

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Collison then responded by giving the middle finger to two CBSA buildings at the complex, the decision said.

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CBSA had recorded the incident on video, which was used as evidence to discipline Collison. The incident was even escalated to executives at CBSA who then referred it to leadership at CSC’s national headquarters.

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The issue “then flowed back down” to Collison’s warden, who docked him a day’s pay — a penalty of $285.

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But Rootham ultimately found that “buildings do not have opinions, and giving a building the finger is different from giving a person the finger. His actions did not challenge the authority of his employer; they showed that he did not like the training facility and were a reaction to being needled about perhaps having to stay.”

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He added that Collison’s “conduct was puerile, but it was not worthy of discipline.”

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Rootham ordered that CSC pay Collison for his docked pay with interest.

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CSC and CBSA did not provide comment on the decision.

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Collison could not immediately be reached for comment. The Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, which represented him in the grievance, declined to comment.

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Questions around investigative process

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During grievance proceedings, Collison argued that his discipline should be set aside because of “procedural fairness” concerns.