Highlighted Stories

HIGHLIGHTED STORIES

• “Throughout my employment at this institution, I witnessed and was also subjected to repeated instances of inappropriate conduct from my manager. These instances affected my mental and physical health greatly. Upper management was made aware of this behaviour on multiple occasions. When resigning my position to move to a new role at a different institution, I was told I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which indicated I would only speak “positively” about the institution. Even though my job performance was praised and no issues were indicated, I was told I would not be given any employment references in the future should I not sign the NDA. I was not permitted to keep a copy of the document after it was signed.”
  
  
• “When the gallery started developing complex financial relationships with private and corporate funders, all staff and board members were given a blanket NDA to sign to make funders feel secure. [The] problem was the reach of the NDA language was well beyond the limits of securing financial and donor information and extended to any discussion of the internal workings of the gallery.  I refused to sign it and requested it be rewritten.”
  
  
• “In my contract work, I was a party in a legal dispute with a public gallery over a discriminatory and harmful incident that was very public. A small settlement was reached with the provision of signing an NDA in relation to the terms of the settlement and the details of the negotiation process. I did not want to sign it but my collaborator did so I signed in support of their wishes.”
  
  
• “My position as Curator was terminated (financial challenges were listed as the reason) and I signed an NDA that was contingent on my receiving a severance. The experience was a significant trauma to me and my entire family, including my husband and child who was pre-school age at the time.”
  
  
• “An NDA was included in my employment contract and in my letter of severance. There was no attempt to enforce the nondisclosures in my case. But there were many incidents that occurred to fellow employees which I felt frightened to speak up about because of the possible consequences. It led to a culture of fear in the workplace.”
  
  
• “In [my province], over 80% of arts admins who have gone on mat leave in the last 5 years have lost their jobs; I felt forced to resign while on parental leave when the board changed my employment contract reducing flexibility, benefits etc despite a 5 year track record of me increasing the budget etc etc. I obtained minutes of a board meeting where they discussed making me a part time Executive Director, also they attempted to introduce a policy of no staff children allowed on site. I was the only staff person with a breastfeeding infant and newborn at the time. This is a feminist artist-run centre. I felt I could not represent them as ED when they were not upholding their own mandate in any way. They would not meet with me to discuss anything. I felt forced to resign. After community outcry at the agm they agreed to mediation with an external mediator. I agreed to sign an NDA for the mediation process. They did not provide an external mediator and the chair of the board mediated.”
  
  
• “After the entire board resigned due to toxic people on board, this left the org open to full on takeover. No oversight despite them not having enough board members to keep their charity status. I still consider the fact that since they did not have quorum, that they fired all staff illegally due to not following protocols (in my opinion). I was not able to speak about this publicly at the time because I was hoping to keep my job. Since then they are still grifting artists and it is morally and ethically disturbing to me to see the shell of an 50 year old organization being misused by con artists.”  
  
  
• “A municipal politician disliked me and put pressure on my boss to get rid of me, which they eventually did; I actually have sympathy for my employer's position, to a degree - this particular politician is horrible and can unfortunately put a lot of pressure on this agency, which has a really important job in Toronto's arts ecosystem.  I would have liked it if they had gone to bat for me more, but also in the grand scheme of things, their mandate is probably more important than my personal career.  The NDA, however, was just fucking insulting.”
  

• “The experience [surrounding the NDA] was traumatizing in a myriad of different ways and to varying degrees for different staff. The bottom line is that it was a gross display of misuse of power and the fact that so few people in the art world know about it, and the senior management and board have not been confronted or forced to own up to their behaviour is partly why it remains a source of stress and anxiety for me. It reinforces the negative perspective that anyone can get away with anything as long as they are in a position of power.”
  
  
• “In order to work on their equity audit and strategy, I was asked to sign an NDA about their internal processes and procedures. I signed an NDA in order to do equity work and it was then used as a threat to silence the harm and discrimination that took place by elected public servants and administration. The NDA was used to manipulate compliance.”
  
  
• “I filed a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario on the basis of disability discrimination (in part related to me raising concerns of racist hiring/firing practices, as well as management incompetence and wage theft). In order to avoid going to the tribunal (and therefore having my complaint on public record), the organization settled with me and had me sign an NDA in exchange for money; It is difficult knowing that, while my experience probably taught the org to actually take human rights seriously, having to keep private what happens means this org’s cycle of treating the lowest waged, and always marginalized, workers (who were the ones actually executing programming) as disposable and exploitable probably continued.”
  
  
• “Preventing past staff from connecting with present staff in the organization. Under this NDA no one could talk about their trauma and were afraid for their careers to follow.”
  
  
• “The NDA was presented to me at the end of my employment in connection with the non-renewal of my contract, despite the role having been presented to me as a permanent position. It included terms that would prevent me from speaking about my experience with the organization and from pursuing a human rights complaint or other legal action. This followed a period in which I had experienced workplace harassment, raised concerns about a lack of adequate accommodations, and was dismissed without cause shortly after returning from a sick leave for mental health.
  
  Despite being in a financially vulnerable position after my contract was not renewed, I chose not to sign the NDA or accept the compensation offered in exchange. I made this decision because I believe in accountability within the sector, particularly in non-profit and artist-run contexts that are often positioned as values-driven and committed to accessibility and inclusion. I found it deeply concerning that I was being asked to agree not to share any negative experiences about the organization, even if truthful, in order to protect its reputation. As an employee of four years, I found the circumstances of my dismissal (shortly after taking mental health-related sick leave) particularly difficult and destabilizing.
  
  As of writing this, the organization has not taken accountability for what I believe were breaches of my employment agreement or misrepresentation of my role. My formal complaint of workplace harassment was not investigated, and I experienced reputational harm within the very small arts community I live in as a result of how the situation was handled. Choosing not to sign the NDA was also important for my wellbeing. Being able to speak openly with my community about my experience was necessary to process what had happened and to mitigate further harm to my mental health.”