City of Markham places HR director on leave for saying N-word during guest lecture

A high-level human resources employee at the City of Markham has been placed on leave after she said and displayed the N-word while giving a guest lecture to students at George Brown College.

Janet Ashfield, Markham's deputy director of people services, spoke to more than 100 students in the college's human resources management program on Wednesday, according to a video recording of the virtual class viewed by CBC Toronto.

As part of her presentation, Ashfield presented a real-world case study about two firefighters who lost their jobs after posting offensive content on social media. She asked the students how they would have handled the situation if they were the arbitrator in the case.

While outlining the scenario, Ashfield said the N-word out loud as she quoted one of the firefighter's social media posts. The video shows her presentation slides also spelled out the word in full.

In an email to CBC Toronto, Ashfield said she apologized immediately and again at the end of the class for what happened. She said she hasn't previously used the word in full when referencing the case study in previous training discussions, and "deeply" regrets that she used it during this presentation. 

The recording shows a student later asked Ashfield to address comments in the chat from students who were questioning the appropriateness of using the word. Ashfield responded by saying it was necessary to use the exact word to understand the full context of the case study.

"You are absolutely right. That is an absolutely inappropriate word to be used, but that's the word that was used," Ashfield said.

"Clearly, it's uncomfortable, but you cannot work around words and say, 'Well, you know, it was really inappropriate what they said,'" said Ashfield. "I need to know what they said. I need to understand what they said in order to go forward."

The student then said they disagreed.

"I don't agree that it should be said at all, especially from someone who's Caucasian. It's a very racist term," the student said.

In a statement to CBC Toronto on Thursday, a spokesperson for the City of Markham said Ashfield was placed on administrative leave as a result of the "troubling" incident.

"The City of Markham was recently made aware of a troubling incident involving the use of racist language by a staff member," Bryan Frois wrote in the statement.

The city said it has hired a third-party investigator to review the situation and provide recommendations.

"The City of Markham stands firmly against all forms of hate, racism and discrimination."