Julie Imbach, the former co-ordinator of volunteer services, says her career at Canada's largest homeless shelter hit a dead end after she rebuffed former executive director Dermot Baldwin's request to have sexually explicit conversations.
Imbach decided to speak out after hearing recent allegations of bullying and harassment at the shelter and wanted to express her frustration that the problems at the DI haven't been addressed and the workplace culture hasn't changed.
The DI's board of directors announced Tuesday the immediate resignation of executive director Debbie Newman, who said in a statement the workplace allegations were a distraction from her work.
Despite Newman's resignation, the city and province are conducting their own investigations into the DI's human resources policies and procedures. The two levels of government contribute more than half of the shelter's $23-million annual operating budget.
Former executive director Dermot Baldwin denies allegations[]
Baldwin was the executive director of the Drop-In Centre for 16 years, retiring in 2010. The shelter is located on a street that now bears his name.
Baldwin denies the allegations and says he's never been accused of making inappropriate sexual comments.
What do you do when somebody says stuff like that about you? You deny it, but then the seeds are sown to doubt your character and your personality and your ethics.
"It's not in my 50-year history to have ever done that with anybody and it's simply not true. What do you do when somebody says stuff like that about you? You deny it, but then the seeds are sown to doubt your character and your personality and your ethics. And so those are sown, and so we're going to take legal action, I guess. That's the only recourse I have," said Baldwin.
'It made me feel sick to my stomach': Imbach[]
Imbach was hired at the Drop-In Centre in 1999. She was the co-ordinator of volunteer services in 2004 when she says Baldwin asked her sexually explicit questions and suggested that her future at the shelter would not go well if she didn't want to have those conversations.
She says it happened on three occasions: twice at the shelter and once at a restaurant where the two had dinner before an evening event for the Drop-In Centre.
"I just realized in that moment there's nothing I had done and now my career might evaporate or change or be very different based on his whim and whether I was willing to indulge him in sexual conversations, and it made me feel sick to my stomach," said Imbach.