A woman who accused former Canadian Olympic Committee president Marcel Aubut of harassment has revealed her identity in an exclusive interview with CTV News Chief Anchor Lisa LaFlamme.
Leanne Nicolle, the former executive director of the Canadian Olympic Foundation, says that Aubut’s alleged harassment “shattered” her self-esteem.
Now, she says she’s strong enough to speak out. Recent high-profile accusations of harassment have also inspired her to tell her story.
Nicolle says that she was warned about Aubut before she even started the job in 2013, although she didn’t think it would affect her.
It all began, she says, with compliments. “A lot of them were on my beauty or on my size or my shape,” she adds. “Some of them were on the fact that I was smart.”
At first, Nicolle saw the compliments as benign, she says. “And I really just thought, here's this old guy caught in some historical era.”
Then came the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, where she and her staff were working “crazy hours” -- mostly, she says, to meet Aubut’s demands.
Nicolle says Aubut yelled at employees and “constantly” berated them, to the point that they were broken.
In addition to the alleged verbal harassment, Nicolle says there was an inappropriate “physical connection.”
“You know, just inappropriate hugging and you knew it came from somewhere else,” she tells LaFlamme.
The alleged harassment left Nicolle considering whether to quit her job, struggling to sleep and experiencing nightmares. “My self-esteem was shattered,” she says.
Nicolle adds that she felt angry and scared. “Like how dare you take this from me, take my authenticity, my truth, on one side,” she says. “But on the other hand, I was so afraid. I was so scared. I was scared of him.”
Nicolle says she felt alone, in part because the coworkers who knew what was happening were also affected by the alleged abuse.
“They were being harassed and they were being yelled at all the time and living in constant fear of reprisal,” she says. “Constant fear. Like the whole organization was based in fear.”
Nicolle says that “recent events” in the world related to harassment and sexual harassment are part of the reason she’s speaking out now, two years after she anonymously accused Aubut of harassment, along with two other women.
Aubut issued a statement days after the accusations became public stating that he was stepping down from his position at COC due to allegations “by people who accuse me of intentions that I never had.”
“Although I assume full responsibility for my effusive and demonstrative personality, I would like to reiterate that I never intended to offend or upset anyone with my remarks or my behaviour,” he said.
The allegations against Aubut were never tested in court. CTV News reached out to Aubut for comment but he declined.
Nicolle says that she just wanted Aubut gone. “I wanted a safe place to work,” she says.
