Claims 'undisclosed personal relationship' was friendship, not affair
The Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC) former chief financial officer has filed a nearly $50-million lawsuit against the bank claiming she was wrongfully dismissed and that what the employer did tainted her reputation.
Nadine Ahn filed the lawsuit in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Aug. 8, saying that allegations by RBC that she had an “undisclosed close personal relationship” with another employee who received preferential treatment has no merit, the Canadian Press reported.
The employer’s decision to fire her was tainted in part by gender-based stereotypes about friendships between women and men, she claimed in the lawsuit, according to the report.
RBC fired both Ahn and Ken Mason – the colleague with whom she had allegedly had an “undisclosed” relationship – back in April.
The way the bank made the announcement caused the widespread belief that Ahn and Mason, both of whom are married with children, according to their filings, were having an affair, Ahn’s lawsuit claimed.
Back then, RBC’s investigation found evidence that Ahn was “in an undisclosed close personal relationship with another employee which led to preferential treatment of the employee including promotion and compensation increases,” said RBC. This is in contravention of the RBC Code of Conduct.
“The statement is false and was known, or ought to have been known by RBC, that it would both publicly humiliate Ms. Ahn and cause her extreme reputational harm and mental distress,” she said, according to the CP report posted on Global News.
In response, RBC spokeswoman Gillian McArdle defended the employer’s review process.
“We conducted a thorough review with an investigation by outside legal counsel and the facts are very clear that there was a significant breach of our Code of Conduct based on the irrefutable evidence collected during the investigation,” she said.
The employer will vigorously defend in court against Ahn’s claims that RBC’s claims of undisclosed personal relationship between her and Mason were without merit, according to the CP report.
Previously, Nadia Zaman, senior associate at Rudner Law in Toronto, detailed the risks of romance in the workplace in a Canadian HR Reporter article.
Colleague also files $20.3-million lawsuit
Mason has also filed a $20.3-million case against RBC claiming that his termination was based on false rumours, speculation, and “discriminatory stereotypes based on heteronormative and sexist assumptions about male-female working relationships,” according to the CP report.
Mason’s lawsuit said the bank’s code of conduct on close personal relationships is vague, creating opportunity for subjective, unfair application.
“Close personal relationships” could be anything from family to intimate relationships to close friends, according to his lawsuit.
He claims that while he and Ahn were friends and trusted colleagues, they did not have an affair.
In October 2023, Toronto city's integrity commissioner former mayor John Tory committed two cases of violations against the Code of Conduct for Members of Council during his days as the top official of the city, including having a romantic affair with a staffer.
