Labour case reveals deep divisions inside Parks Canada following discovery of HMS Erebus, Terror

Published Feb 24, 2024 • Last updated 17 hours ago • 4 minute read

Astern of the Erebus wreck, Parks Canada underwater archaeologist Filippo Ronca measures the muzzle bore diameter of one of two cannons found on the site. Photo by Thierry Boyer /Parks Canada

An underwater archaeologist fired for harassment after repeatedly accusing his Parks Canada manager of mishandling dives to the wrecks of HMS Erebus and Terror has been reinstated to his old job by a federal labour relations board.

The board’s decision reveals deep divisions and clashing egos inside Parks Canada following the discovery of explorer Sir John Franklin’s lost ships.

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It also describes the tension that flowed from then environment minister Catherine McKenna’s request to dive to the Erebus wreck.

Dive safety officer Filippo Ronca was fired from the federal government in September 2018 following a workplace harassment investigation. At the time, he was responsible for safety issues with Parks Canada’s underwater archaeology team.

Filippo Ronca, an underwater archaeologist and dive safety officer who worked on HMS Erebus and Terror, has won his job back thanks to a labour board decision that reveals deep divisions and clashing egos inside Parks Canada following the discovery of Franklin’s lost ships. PARKS CANADA POSTMEDIA

The team played a leading role in exploring the wrecks of Erebus and Terror, the two ships from the doomed Franklin expedition. The sunken ships were discovered, with much public fanfare, in 2014 and 2106, and the team made hundreds of dives to the wrecks.

Ronca, a 17-year veteran of the underwater archaeology team, was fired after taking serious issue with his manager’s decision to assign him to projects that kept him away from the Arctic dive sites.

The manager, Marc-André Bernier, wanted Ronca to work on the team’s other dive projects in B.C.’s Gulf Islands, Labrador’s Red Bay and Ontario’s Trent-Severn Waterway.

Ronca, however, insisted that, as dive safety officer, he should be in the Arctic to oversee the more dangerous work on HMS Erebus and Terror.

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Bernier charged that Ronca had angrily confronted him about his decision on a handful of occasions, including once at a health and safety committee meeting. Bernier testified that Ronca had “fire in his eyes” and that he was scared by the anger directed at him during that meeting.

In his own testimony, Ronca said he was impassioned about his position, but he denied being angry or threatening.

On Aug. 23, 2017, Bernier lodged a formal harassment complaint against Ronca, triggering an investigation.

On the same day, Ronca filed a complaint under the Canadian Labour Code about what he alleged were unsafe practices at Parks Canada. An occupational health and safety investigation was launched into the workings of the underwater archaeology team.

Bernier testified that he believed Ronca’s complaint was part of an effort to embarrass him and to halt work on the Erebus and Terror. He told the labour relations board that the health and safety investigation snowballed and adversely affected both the morale and operations of the underwater archaeology team.

Parks Canada’s director of archaeology and history, Jarred Picher, testified the investigation “destroyed the fabric” of the team and jeopardized its operations.

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After he was fired for harassment, Ronca grieved his dismissal and charged that it came in direct retaliation for his health and safety complaint.

In a recently released decision, an adjudicator with the federal labour relations board agreed.

Adjudicator James Knopp said Ronca’s behaviour amounted to what he called “a mild form of insubordination bordering on harassment.”

But it warranted discipline, not dismissal, he concluded in a 73-page decision.

“The grievor (Ronca) simply could not take ‘no’ for an answer and would not let matters drop,” Knopp said. “His behaviour passed the point of a normal work-related difference of opinion.

“The appropriate disciplinary response, given all the mitigating and aggravating factors, would have been a written reprimand, which falls far short of a lengthy period of unpaid suspension, and much farther short of dismissal.”

Knopp ordered Ronca reinstated to his old position with back pay and pension benefits. The sanctions imposed against him for his workplace behaviour, Knopp said, should be replaced by a written reprimand.

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The labour board decision also reveals that McKenna’s office asked Ronca to approve the minister, a certified diver, for a visit to the Erebus wreck, which sat in only 11 metres of water. The Terror was in much deeper water.

Ronca was “quite outspoken” in his opposition to repeated requests from the minister’s office, noting that two guest divers on federal dive sites had died during the previous decade. Ronca testified that, when he met McKenna, the minister responsible for Parks Canada, she said to him, “Oh, you’re the one.”

He eventually recused himself from a decision about McKenna. The minister visited the site in September 2018, but did not dive to the Erebus wreck.

Former environment minister and minister responsible for Parks Canada, Catherine McKenna and Susan le Jeune d’Allegeershecque, former British High Commissioner to Canada , at a 2018 ceremony announcing that Canada received the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, April 26, 2018. Photo by Jean Levac/Postmedia Photo by Jean Levac /POSTMEDIA

Adjudicator James Knopp noted that Parks Canada eliminated the position of dive safety officer soon after Ronca was fired. A new directive made dive safety a collective responsibility, rather than one borne primarily by one person.

“The employer has tacitly acknowledged that the outdated directive was a major part of the problem,” Knopp said, adding: “Perhaps a timely revision of the dive directive should have been the focus of attention, rather than the grievor’s termination.”

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Ronca did not return a phone call seeking comment on the board’s decision.

Franklin’s ill-fated expedition set out from England in 1845 to find the coveted Northwest Passage, a sea lane to Asia across the top of North America. The 129 officers and seamen aboard HMS Erebus and Terror never returned and for many years their fate and that of their ships was an abiding mystery.

Filippo Ronca shining light on a bell on the sunken HMS Erebus. Photo by Thierry Boyer /Parks Canada

Andrew Duffy is a National Newspaper Award-winning reporter and long-form feature writer based in Ottawa. To support his work, including exclusive content for subscribers only, sign up here: ottawacitizen.com/subscribe

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