Click here for the latest story: Judge orders former Remai Modern CEO be removed from 'sluggish' human rights case

The investigator looking into allegations that the former head of Saskatoon's premier art gallery bullied and harassed female co-workers says she faced repeated "resistance" during her inquiry.

"The investigation into this complaint has been unusually complex and challenging," Lewanna Dubray, an investigator with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission, wrote in a sworn affidavit filed in court this week.

The investigation into Gregory Burke — the former CEO and executive director of the city-owned Remai Modern Art Museum — was the first time during Dubray's 11-year tenure at the commission where the chief commissioner wanted a lawyer to oversee the probe, Dubray wrote.

Most commission investigations interview three to four people. Dubray had spoken to 22 people, she wrote. A final witness from the City of Saskatoon was scheduled to be interviewed this past Thursday.

The main complaint

The investigation was sparked by a complaint from a woman who used to work at the Mendel Art Gallery. Mendel Art Gallery eventually became Remai Modern Art Museum, so both corporations are named alongside Burke in the complaint.

The woman alleged Burke, the gallery's CEO and executive director, repeatedly undermined and bullied her on the basis of her gender from March 2013 to October 2014.

"Mr. Burke used anger, fear of loss of employment, accusation, humiliation, contradictory directives and withholding of information to control and demean me and and other female staff," the woman wrote in her complaint.

What witnesses said

Dubray then interviewed the woman, Burke, gallery workers, board members and HR staff with the City of Saskatoon.

Seven gallery workers generally supported the woman's claims in some way, Dubray wrote.

"Burke seemed to have problems with any leadership or assertiveness shown by women within the workplace," Dubray wrote of one former female gallery employee's comments.

Dubray wrote another female ex-employee "felt undermined and belittled in her position." Dubray noted "significant turnover in management and leadership" at the gallery, including on its board.

Below is a table showing Remai Modern staff as of last March. Burke has since parted ways with the gallery.

This chart shows the staff situation at Remai Modern as of last March. Since then, Gregory Burke has left the organization. (CBC)

One female witness, who worked with Burke before he became CEO of Mendel Art Gallery, described a difficult working relationship but did not believe it stemmed from her gender.

One witness said Burke mistreated both a male employee and female employees.

Two expressed satisfaction in working with Burke, with one saying Burke was passionate about what he did.

'Full of hearsay'

Burke has denied the allegations in the human rights complaint. His lawyer, Jay Watson, said Burke has no comment on the additional complaints and concerns mentioned in Dubray's investigation.

Those include two previous harassment complaints filed by other female Mendel Art Gallery employees, as well as 13 people who went to the City of Saskatoon ombudsperson with unspecified concerns about Burke.

Thirteen people complained to the City of Saskatoon omudsperson about former Remai Modern CEO Gregory Burke, according to an investigator with the (Remai Modern)

Watson said Dubray's affidavit was "full of hearsay."

He's asking a Saskatoon provincial court judge to quash the probe, saying it has dragged on for an "inordinate" amount of time and rendered Burke unemployable.

The judge's decision is pending.

Scott Newell, the lawyer for the commission, said it's in the public interest for the investigation to reach its natural conclusion. He said he expected the probe to wrap by Jan. 31.

"We have a publicly [City of Saskatoon] funded institution and we have serious allegations," Newell said.

Repeated 'resistance'

Dubray's affidavit provides her account of repeated "resistance" she said she faced from the gallery and the city when asking for documents to help her investigation.

"The city responded in a timely manner to all requests from the human rights commission for city documents," city solicitor Cindy Yelland said Thursday.

"There's no basis for that whatsoever," echoed Kevin Wilson, the lawyer for the gallery.

"In reality," Wilson added, "the delays are primarily the responsibility of the human rights commission," noting that it took the commission seven months to formalize the complaint.

"I admit that that took too long," Newell conceded.

Initially unco-operative witnesses also delayed the process, Dubray wrote. One witness, no longer living in Saskatchewan, never responded to her.

Burke oversaw the transition from Mendel Art Gallery to Remai Modern Art Museum. (Guy Quenneville/CBC)

Debray's affidavit also suggests some of the delays stemmed from the complainant herself.

The timeline

What follows is a timeline of the years-long commission process so far, including its delays, as recounted by Dubray in her affidavit. All quotes from Dubray are taken from that document. Additional material comes from an earlier affidavit filed by Burke.

Unless otherwise indicated, quotes and comments from lawyers come from a hearing that took place in provincial court earlier this week.

Other events previously reported by CBC News, such as Burke's employment status at the gallery, have been noted as well.

..............

Oct. 6, 2015: The woman filled out a questionnaire outlining her complaint.

April 12, 2016: The complaint was signed and formalized.

May 30, 2016: Burke and the corporate bodies for Mendel Art Gallery and Remai Modern (referred to from here on in as "the gallery") were served with notice of the complaint.

A 'vexatious' accusation

May 31, 2016: Burke and the gallery requested an immediate dismissal of the "vexatious" complaint, saying it was "made for improper motives."

Wilson, the lawyer representing both Burke and the gallery at the time, said the woman had "refused to accept the new direction and vision for the Remai Modern or Burke's management style. She repeatedly declined Mr. Burke's right to provide direction to her as CEO."

The woman had never raised concerns to the gallery about discrimination, Wilson added.

Oct. 28, 2016: Burke and the gallery asked the commission for an update on the file.

Nov. 2016: The commission decided to seek additional evidence from the complainant in light of Burke and the gallery's view that her complaint was vexatious and frivolous.

Dec. 2016 - Jan. 2017: Dubray was unable to reach the complainant to conduct an initial interview.

Discouraged by other women's experiences

February 14, 2017: The woman gave her first interview to Dubray and mentioned that two other female employees had previously made similar complaints about allegedly being bullied by Burke.

"Her attempts to pursue a complaint through the City of Saskatoon contributed to the delay in filing [the human rights] complaint," Dubray wrote. "She was discouraged because the two previous harassment complaints were dismissed."

The human rights complainant said she also tried to pursue her complaint a through the City of Saskatoon, which owned Mendel Art Gallery, according to the human rights investigator. (Guy Quenneville/CBC)

Former Remai Modern board chair Scott Verity has said that three workplace complaints at the gallery were investigated by "qualified third parties" and found to be unsubstantiated.

"In all cases, we listened and responded to concerns whenever they were raised," Verity said.

It's not clear if the previous complaints cited by the woman and those confirmed by Verity are the same.

May 2017: The commission told Burke and the gallery their application for immediate dismissal of the complaint was denied, saying it was unusual to take that step before an investigation was complete.

Jay Watson, Burke's current lawyer, has cited that year-long decision on the dismissal as an example of the commission's unreasonably slow pace.

Investigation launches 31 months ago

June 2017: The complaint entered investigation stage. Dubray sought to compare the experiences of men and women under Burke's supervision.

"If Burke treated women negatively in the workplace, as compared to men, this would generally support the complaint," Dubray said.

Summer 2017: Burke said he was willing to go to mediation but the woman said she was not.

Nov. 28, 2017: Dubray sought to interview the woman again but was told she was busy with her school studies and wanted to delay the interview. Dubray sent another interview request in March 2018.

April 12, 2018: "I sent a warning letter to the complainant advising her of the need to co-operate with the commission's investigation and setting a deadline," Dubray wrote.

May 1, 2018: Dubray interviewed the woman again.

May 22, 2018: Dubray requested documents from Burke and the gallery, including a Mendel Art Gallery staff organization chart for the years 2014 and 2015 and the last known contact information for some employees.

July 11, 2018: The gallery questioned the relevance of the org chart and said it would take some time to compile, according to Dubray.

"Counsel for the [gallery] resisted my request for copies of the harassment complaints filed by other gallery employees," Dubray wrote.

Witnesses support human rights complaint

July - Sept. 2018: Dubray interviewed two former female gallery employees, both of whom supported the woman's allegations.

"[One] also asserted that after the [human rights] complainant left the gallery, Burke targeted other gallery employees," Dubray wrote.

Oct. 1, 2018: Dubray again requested the org chart and other documents.

Oct. 31, 2018: Copies of the investigation reports into the two previous harassment allegations against Burke, dated 2014 and 2016, were given to Dubray.

Nov. 27, 2018: Dubray interviewed Burke.

Dec. 4, 2018: Dubray threatened the gallery with a court order to obtain the gallery staff contact information. She received the information six days later.

Dec. 19, 2018: Burke announced he was resigning from Remai Modern to accept a new job at an art gallery in his home country of New Zealand.

Jan. 2019: Dubray interviewed several gallery employees, past and present, who had mixed experiences with Burke. One male manager said he had a positive time working with Burke.

March 5, 2019: CBC News reported Burke was under investigation by the commission.

March 8, 2019: CBC News reported that several gallery employees came to the City of Saskatoon's ombudsperson with concerns about the workplace.

March 11, 2019: Scott Newell, the lawyer for the commission, told Dubray he believed the commission may have only received a fraction of the documents relevant to the complaint.

Newell told Dubray to interview at least one Remai Modern board member, noting that the human rights complainant said she'd gone to board members with her concerns about Burke.

March 18, 2019: Burke announced he pulled away from his new job opportunity in New Zealand, citing the "distraction" of coverage of the human rights allegation.

May 16, 2019: Dubray interviewed two board members. Dubray said the two had no direct knowledge of any incidents.

"During the interview, counsel for the gallery objected to the questions I had drafted to elicit information regarding a pattern and practice of discrimination in the workplace on the basis of relevance," Dubray wrote in her affidavit.

Commissioner criticizes previous investigations

Aug. 12, 2019: David Arnot, Saskatchewan's chief human rights commissioner, told Burke and the gallery of the need for more investigation.

Arnot also criticized how the two previous complaints were handled.

"It appears that these allegations were not taken seriously," Arnot wrote. "The [investigations] are not wholly independent because they were carried out by an investigator retained and presumably compensated by the board."

Sept. 27, 2019: The gallery provided Dubray the org chart.

A trend of female complaints

Oct. 29, 2019: Burke filed the court application to have the investigation permanently halted, citing its prolonged timeline and the damage to his career.

October - November 2019: Dubray interviewed four former Burke co-workers plus a former City of Saskatoon human resources staffer who had been assigned to the gallery.

"[The staffer] found a trend that the complaints being brought forward were mainly from female employees," Dubray wrote.

Dec. 2, 2019: Dubray interviewed city ombudsperson Claudia Hemani who, according to Dubray, "was tasked to investigate complaints against Burke, some of which are similar to the [human rights complainant]."

Thirteen people complained to the ombudsperson about Burke, according to Dubray.

"[Hemani] advised me that she believed that there was evidence tying Burke's negative treatment of female employees to their [gender]," Dubray wrote.

Dec. 19, 2019: Dubray was expected to interview the final witness: a City of Saskatoon human resources staffer Dubray believed was involved in overseeing how the city responded to complaints about Burke.

"I have not been able to identify a witness with a working knowledge of the human resources at the gallery for the relevant time period," Dubray noted near the end of her affidavit.

"It appears that the City of Saskatoon's oversight of the gallery's human resources and Burke increased over time."

Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark said it's city council's role to respond to issues that come up. (Trevor Bothorel/CBC)

In an interview on Friday, Mayor Charlie Clark said city council felt it was necessary to step in.

"Council's role in all of this is to ensure if there's issues that arise or issues that come to our attention that we are giving direction to our administration to work with the [Remai Modern] board to make sure that they're getting addressed," he said.

"And so in this situation, we did get indications that there were concerns that arose, that we needed to make sure that the right procedures were in place and that our administration and the board were working together to address them."