The Atlantic Filmmakers Co-operative posted a statement on its Facebook page Tuesday, in part addressing the claims made public this week by a woman that she was sexually assaulted by a current staff member several years ago while working on a film. In light of that incident—about which the organization determined “no further action was warranted”—AFCOOP says it’s received “similar allegations” that it’s begun looking into.
“The Board has commenced an investigation into these allegations and has again engaged external legal counsel,” the statement reads. “As a membership-based community organization we are aware that without confidence in AFCOOP’s leadership and a sense of safety in interacting with our staff, we cannot fulfill our function in the community.”
AFCOOP (of which I am a past member of the board of directors) is a member-run film centre and registered charity founded in 1973.
The organization’s popular annual event The Holiday Super-8 Film Challenge, scheduled for December 13, has been cancelled as AFCOOP deals with the investigation.
AFCOOP’s full statement:
In 2016 AFCOOP received an anonymous email alleging that an AFCOOP staff person had sexually assaulted the sender of the email. AFCOOP engaged external legal counsel and conducted an investigation, which included interviews with AFCOOP staff. It was determined at that time that no further action was warranted. We realize that, from an external perspective, this summary may be unsatisfying—please be assured that we took the allegations seriously and acted based on the information available.
Recently other similar allegations have been brought to AFCOOP’s attention. The Board has commenced an investigation into these allegations and has again engaged external legal counsel. As a membership-based community organization we are aware that without confidence in AFCOOP’s leadership and a sense of safety in interacting with our staff, we cannot fulfill our function in the community. AFCOOP takes allegations of this nature extremely seriously and is committed to maintaining creative spaces that are free of all forms of discrimination based on a protected ground, bullying, harassment, violence and sexualized violence.
If you have any questions or concerns please contact AFCOOP’s director Martha Cooley: director@afcoop.ca or the chair of our board, Jennifer Comeau: jennifercomeau@gmail.com
Related Stories
Putting trials on trial
Arts groups pen open letter about AFCOOP sexual assault allegations
This article appears in Nov 16-22, 2017.
Why is this newsworthy? An allegation was made, investigated and it found no further follow up was warranted. And? And nothing more? Why is this newsworthy? An allegation was…
Oddly, the follow-up article has no comments enabled.
I fail to see how an open letter to the art community reassuring them all is well is warranted when an allegation was made, investigated and it found no further follow up was necessary.
It leads me to question:
1. Did they follow-up using due diligence?
2. If so, why do they think responding to a small group is imperative?
3. In all, what is (more) wrong there?
We have become a reactive society: someone cries and we jump. We jump until it has been workshopped and inquiries have been held – only to determine AGAIN that an allegation was made, investigated and it found no further follow up is necessary.
Being reactive detracts from the complainant’s experience and tarnishes the reputation of great companies and organizations. And that brings me back to my simple list of questions which then includes one more: Who is lying?
@PRIYAPUS
Just a friendly suggestion; work on your comprehension skills and make sure you know what your talking about before assuming any authority to criticize it. You preach about society being reactionary, while being reactionary…
What they said is that now that there has been another allegation they have opened another investigation with the intention of being more thorough this time. As for how they plan on finding credible evidence… Your guess is as good as mine.
A one-off alegation thats impossible to prove left them with no option but to let it go undetermined, but a second finger point is what could make it “news worthy” especially if it’s directed at the same person which I don’t believe they confirm.
I personally hate false allegations almost as much as true ones. So I would like to know the result of their investigation, if any.