The discovery of a hidden video camera at the Ontario Federation of Labour headquarters has shaken employees and triggered bitter finger pointing and strong denials among current and former top union brass.

In early July, a staff member discovered a concealed working camera in an exit sign near the reception area of the building at 15 Gervais Dr. in Toronto, the Star has learned.

Photos show a hole to accommodate the camera was cut through a symbol of a woman — commonly used to identify women’s washrooms — that appeared on the left side of the sign. The lens was positioned in the middle of the figure’s skirt.

OFL president Sid Ryan confirmed a grievance has been filed by a staff member with respect to the camera. He says he was told cameras were installed in the building “for security reasons” but says he had no idea there was a hidden camera in the reception area until it was discovered by a staff member this summer.

Ryan blames former president Wayne Samuelson’s administration for installing the camera, but Samuelson told the Star: “I know one thing — it was not me. I never put in any secret cameras. It’s not something I would ever do. It’s not in my DNA.”

Samuelson, who was president from 1997 until 2009, when Ryan was elected, produced an OFL invoice that he says suggests the “spy” camera was purchased and installed long after he left office.

“It was put in under his (Ryan’s) watch . . . and at the end of the day he (Ryan) spends half of his life blaming me for stuff,” Samuelson said. “It’s an interesting story, the Ontario Federation of Labour using spy cameras.”

Ryan said the invoice appears to be for a new monitoring system that he says has nothing to do with the camera in the exit sign.

Said Ryan: “I had zero knowledge of a hidden camera in our office . . . it was installed before I became president.”

He provided the Star a letter said to be written by a former building superintendant, which said: “I . . . was authorized/instructed by Wayne Samuelson about eight years ago to install cameras in the building.”

There is no mention in the letter of instructions to hide the camera in the exit sign.

Upon discovery of the camera, Nancy Hutchison, the OFL secretary-treasurer, wrote a memo to OFL executive board members regarding the results of a preliminary investigation she conducted.

“Staff members were visibly upset and distraught as a result of the discovery of a concealed surveillance camera, which they had no knowledge of in their workplace,” wrote Hutchison.

“Many of the federation staff are now experiencing anxiety and stress due to this discovery. One member left work” and was “unable to continue working” due to a “loss of privacy, trust and feeling of being violated,” stated Hutchison, who refused to speak to the Star about her investigation.

The Star learned this staff member was off work for about three weeks, starting July 7.

Hutchison confirmed in her memo the camera was live.

Patty Clancy, a staff representative for the Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union (COPE), said the discovery of the camera was a complete surprise and added the matter is being dealt with through the collective agreement.

The camera, which was pointed at the main doors to the office and the reception desk, has since been removed. The hole is now covered by black tape, Ryan said.

OFL’s Hutchison said in her memo as a result of her investigation she confirmed that Ryan was aware of the concealed camera.

“Sid informed me . . . he has known about the camera since 2010,” she stated.

But Ryan said in an interview that he was made aware there was a security system at the OFL after being elected president, but was not made aware of the hidden camera.

During a tour of the OFL building in 2009, after he was elected president, Ryan said the office administrator told him there was “a security room in the building where there are cameras outside and various cameras around the building.”

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He said the administrator also said “there is a camera trained on the door of the OFL office in the reception area because there were intruders coming in and harassing the staff.”

“That was as much as I was told,” he said.

However, he said he was unaware there was a hidden camera in the reception area.

Toronto employment lawyer Natalie MacDonald, an expert in workplace issues with Rudner MacDonald law firm, told the Star an employer must have a legitimate reason for installing a secret camera to monitor staff to deal with such things as recurring theft.

“They really have to have a lawful justification for doing so . . . employers must in fact be acting in good faith in order to hide a camera,” MacDonald said.

“If they don’t have a good reason and they are just trying to spy on their employees, that’s when you get into an argument that it could be a poisoned workplace, and you could find the employer in a situation where they are being sued,” she said.

The discovery of the camera and subsequent fallout is seen by some as exacerbating the growing rift among current and former OFL presidents and the various member unions, who are divided on whether Ryan, the former Ontario president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and unsuccessful political candidate, should stay on as OFL head.

Ryan said the fact the Star received another so-called brown envelope with respect to OFL matters is further proof there is a concerted smear campaign to undermine him as he heads into convention later this year where he will seek re-election.

“Part of this story is somebody is leaking you confidential financial information in a concerted campaign to sully my good name and try to connect me into things I have not done. This is the second or third confidential financial document you have received in a very short period of time. You must ask yourself what is the agenda here and am I being used to further an agenda against the president of the OFL,” Ryan said.

Earlier this year, the Star revealed the troubled OFL is so cash-strapped that a financial administrator has been assigned to oversee its affairs.

During her investigation into the hidden camera, Hutchison also stated in her memo she was told Gord Wilson, OFL president from 1986 to 1997, had it installed — an accusation she said Wilson denied.

“Gord was adamant he did no such thing and questioned if the technology would have even existed during his tenure,” she wrote.

Wilson told the Star there are a lot of ways to determine whether employees are doing their jobs properly without resorting to spying on them.

“It certainly wasn’t done in my time and I don’t believe Samuelson would have done it, so you can draw your own conclusions,” he said.