Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says he is taking seriously allegations that management at Canada’s spy service operates an “old boy’s club” where employees fear reprisal if they speak out against their bosses’ Islamophobic, racist or anti-gay slurs.

Goodale said in a statement that he will ensure CSIS is a workplace “free from harassment,” but did not directly address calls by the NDP and a Muslim civil rights group to order an immediate investigation into the management culture at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

The damning allegations that working at CSIS means enduring a toxic environment surfaced this week as part of a $35-million lawsuit launched by five intelligence officers and analysts.

The Toronto Star first reported Thursday about the 54-page statement of claim about one of the country’s most secretive agencies.

Listed in the claims are excerpts of emails sent to one of the complainants, an intelligence officer who is gay and has a Muslim partner. An October 2015 email allegedly sent by one of his managers stated: “Careful your Muslim in-laws don’t behead you in your sleep for being homo.”

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Read more: Five CSIS employees are accusing the spy agency of Islamophobia, racism and homophobia in a $35-million lawsuit

On Friday, Matthew Dubé, the NDP critic for Public Safety, wrote in a statement calling for an investigation: “These shocking allegations of consistent harassment, fuelled by racist, homophobic and Islamophobic notions suggest the presence of deep rooted bigotry within CSIS.”

“Such treatment would be totally unacceptable in any workplace in Canada, but here constitutes potential concerns for Canada’s national security as those accused serve as supervisors within our most powerful and secretive agency. With its expanded powers and limited accountability, CSIS must perform its duties with the utmost professionalism.”

The National Council of Canadian Muslims also issued a statement Friday demanding an investigation. “For several years, concerns have been frequently raised about racial profiling and discrimination by CSIS against Canadian Muslim communities, and against other minorities. If proven, these allegations point to a poisonous culture within the Service and raise questions about its ability to carry out its mandate for the benefit of all Canadians without discrimination,” wrote NCCM’s Executive Director Ihsaan Gardee.

Toronto lawyer John Phillips, who represents the five CSIS employees, said in an interview yesterday that the complainants had been “betrayed” by the Service.

The statement of claim uses pseudonyms to refer to the officers and analysts, along with the mangers mentioned in the suit. Under Canada’s Security of Information Act identifying a spy can be considered an offence.

“My clients have tried over the course of the last year or more — individually and sometimes together — to try to get this addressed internally to CSIS, all to no avail,” he said. “They truly regret they’ve had to take the step of proceeding with the claim but something to be done.”

David Vigneault, who was appointed CSIS’s director last month, said he could not respond to the allegations at the matter was before the courts.

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“I believe strongly in leading an organization where every employee promotes a work environment which is free from harassment and conducive to the equitable treatment of all individuals,” Vigneault wrote in a statement released to the Star Thursday night and posted on CSIS’s website Friday.

“CSIS does not tolerate harassment, discrimination or bullying under any circumstances.”

Here is the statement of claim filed in Federal Court this week: