I must echo Lodewijk's words.
Washing dirty linen in public is beneficial to no one and damages everyone involved including those making the accusations. There will be and are lessons to be learned but right now there is a huge chilling effect from the presence of lawyers on many sides and there is nothing to be gained from this thread. There are proper avenues to deal with this, and if you deem them appropriate then use hem, but this place is not one of those avenues.
Regards Seddon
On Fri, Oct 20, 2017 at 6:18 PM, Lodewijk lodewijk@effeietsanders.org wrote:
While this topic is painful and important, I don't have the feeling any progress is being made by continuing this tirade on this mailing list.
I can see that hiring lawyers to investigate, will (at least in my culture) always have a whiff of subjectivity. Even though this seems (from what I understand) to be the default approach in the US, which is the primary context in which the WMF operates. I would like to emphasize one sentence in Katherine's email: "the Foundation remains fully committed to reviewing and investigating additional information, if presented, of sexual or other harassment allegedly committed by any Wikimedia Foundation staff or board member. " This sounds to me as an invitation to the plaintiffs (*) to request to reopen the investigation and present further testimony and evidence. For obvious privacy concerns, I imagine this won't happen in public. I hope that they will make use of this offer.
What I don't see however, is what the alternate pathway is that the plaintiffs have in mind. It is suggested that this is a complaint that has been filed with the judicial system in France, which makes it even harder for anyone involved to publicly comment (while I'm not legally schooled, I suspect that any lawyer would probably advise against it). Therefore, I don't have the impression that continuing the very personal discussion about individuals without offering an alternative pathway is particularly helpful - especially as we don't even know in detail what the allegations are (a crucial piece of context). I'm even more concerned where discussions start to be held through the media (although I'm not sure I misunderstood that part).
The plaintiffs have however also mentioned that the general climate should be improved. That seems a topic where public conversations can actually be helpful. I don't have a shred of doubt that there was a toxic climate in Wikimedia France. Both parties accuse each other for being responsible for that. What I would be more interested in, is what you as the WMFR community, or we as the international community, could have done to de-escalate that situation much earlier. This is not the first conflict situation in our movement, and I fear it'll be the last.
When the dust has settled a bit, I would be in favor of asking (a subset of) the Affiliations Committee to look into the situation (and perhaps similar conflicts in other communities that were less visible), and come with some recommendations. This will probably not be very satisfactory for the involved parties where it comes to 'justice being done' - but it may help avoid more pain in the future.
With a sad heart,
Lodewijk
(*) The reason I'm not mentioning people by name is not because I don't respect them, but because I don't necessarily want this thread to turn up in search results for eternity. I imagine others may have similar good faith reasons.
On Fri, Oct 20, 2017 at 8:21 AM, Frans Grijzenhout frans@wikimedia.nl wrote:
Hi Remi, You're mail is one big complaint, may I remind you to the last phrase of your Board Handbook? It states: Fortes capacité
d’auto-évaluation
(Strong self-assessment capability). Thank you, Frans
*Frans Grijzenhout*, voorzitter / chair
+31 6 5333 9499
*Vereniging Wikimedia Nederland* Mariaplaats 3 - 3511 LH Utrecht Kamer van Koophandel 17189036 http://www.wikimedia.nl/
2017-10-20 13:49 GMT+02:00 Rémi Mathis mathis.remi@gmail.com:
Katherine,
I told you a month ago "Maybe you should reply as a responsible human
being
and not as a trained crisis communication people". This is truer
everyday.
What did you write this email yesterday, and not one,two, three months
ago?
Because I left Wikimedia France, because a Fields Medallist left,
because
the president of Picasso Museum left, and because journalists began to
talk
about the harassment and the violence of some members of the community. Because the fact that Nathalie Martin had filed a complaint against Christophe Henner begins to spread not only amongst the community but
also
outside. Because the articles made people aware of the problem and that they are victims too, and new testimonies are being sent to journalists. Because you met Christophe Henner in person the day before.
Because you are doing your job to protect your boss and make as little noise as possible. But when I donate to Wikimedia, when I edit
Wikipedia,
that's not what I want from you. I want a safe community.
I wrote to you, Christophe and your team more than ten times between
July
and today. I even met your Legal Conselor and Christophe Henner to talk about the harassment. I never got an email back from you. Not a single
word
to a private message I sent. You only answered once on Twitter, because
it
was a public conversation.
Now, I'm for you "an individual", you never only *say my name*. At the same time, I receive a letter from Henner's lawyer trying to
make
me
remove my post. Still keeping people quiet instead of accepting and therefore tackling
the
problems.
I spent nine years working for the movement as a benevolent member. I
have
been chair for 3 years, I worked 9-12pm for the movement for years, I
was
threatened by the French Intelligence Service. And thanks to this dedication, I made a lot of friends ; I met a lot of extraordinay
people
;
we contracted with the Bibliothèque nationale, Versailles Palace, Ministries, etc. We made a huge and very good job.
Now, do you really think I'm leaving with no reason? Do you really
think
I'm a liar or frivolous? Do you think I'm being manipulated by an evil witch we had to get rid of - as some say to journalists and some add
(with
neutrality of course) to the Wikipedia article about me?
Denouncing the violence, I'm losing 30 of my closest friends, stopping
one
of my favouriste activities and canceling 9 years of my life.
Sending an email like this one, "managing" instead of "caring", you
only
do
the job you're getting paid for. But, maybe you also realise that you are shatterring lives of "individuals"... who have no names. But since we don't even have names, since there is no violence or harassment problem to deal with, I'm sure
you
will never have any problem to look at yourself in a mirror.
Even Hollywood is facing the violence and harassment problem. Wikimedia still doesn't. I'm sad. But now I'm only sad for you and one of the greatest human projects of the time, you are currently making vile and foul. As for me, it's over.
X, individual [used to be] associated with our movement
On 19 October 2017 at 23:19, Katherine Maher kmaher@wikimedia.org
wrote:
Everyone,
The past six months have been a complex and troubling time for our community in France. Let me be absolutely clear, with no confusion or ambiguity, that the Wikimedia Foundation condemns harassment. We take
all
harassment claims seriously, investigate them promptly, and take the appropriate action to enforce our policies whenever necessary. My
goal
here
today is to provide more information about the actions of the
Wikimedia
Foundation, the principles to which we adhere, and the situation in
which
our movement finds itself.
As many of you know, there have been months of discussion within the
French
Wikimedia community, independent committees and governance bodies,
and
the
Wikimedia Foundation about the governance and operations of Wikimédia France. During this time, we have seen growing tensions between a
number
of
the former leaders of Wikimédia France and some members of the French Wikimedia community. This situation created great strain on the
French
community, former and current staff of Wikimédia France, and
concerned
Wikimedia volunteers around the world. Much of this was documented by community members[1] and in the press.[2] Over the past months the Foundation has received formal and informal complaints alleging
harassment
and other harmful behaviour, and we have enforced existing policies whenever applicable.
Recently, an individual associated with our movement published an
essay
about the events in France on the blogging site Medium and shared
that
essay with this list. It contained a number of deeply concerning allegations of harassment. Let me first address the most troubling
claims
of the recent essay—those regarding the Foundation’s handling of allegations against the Wikimedia Foundation’s current Board Chair.
In May of 2017 the Wikimedia Foundation was informed, in a letter and
for
the first time, that the then-Executive Director of Wikimédia France
was
alleging claims of harassment against the current Board Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation, dating back to his tenure as former Chair of Wikimédia France. In this letter the Executive Director described a
number
of interactions with the Foundation’s Board Chair when he was Chair
of
Wikimédia France, and went on to accuse him of using his position as Foundation Board Chair to to turn the Wikimedia Foundation’s
sentiment
against the French chapter.
Contrary to the assertion in the Medium essay, while the former
Wikimédia
France Executive Director’s letter detailed tense and disagreeable interactions between the two individuals, it did not characterize
those
interactions as sexual harassment. Also contrary to the essay’s
assertions,
the Wikimedia Foundation took immediate and appropriate action after receiving the complaint.
The Wikimedia Foundation, under clear direction from our Board,
responded
promptly:
- We notified the Vice Chair and Board Governance Chair
immediately
after receiving the then-Executive Director’s letter.
- Under their direction and supervision, we promptly hired expert
French
legal counsel to conduct an investigation on this issue.
- The Foundation Board Chair was informed of the investigation and
recused from all relevant discussions. The Board Chair was also
recused
from any discussion regarding Wikimédia France and the French
Wikimedia
community, including any participation in funding decisions.
- The investigation by the experts found that the French chapter’s
Executive Director’s detailed statements of facts, in addition to
not
being characterized by her as sexual harassment, also did not support a finding of sexual harassment.
- Based on the information provided, French counsel also looked at
whether the allegations supported a finding of “moral” harassment, ultimately concluding that they did not.
- The findings were conveyed to the then-chair of the board of
Wikimédia
France. The chapter leadership was asked on more than one occasion
if
it
had any additional evidence or wished to further discuss the conclusions. No additional information was provided.
- Under these circumstances, the Board of the Wikimedia Foundation
found
no merit to the charges.
*As has been repeatedly stated, the Foundation remains fully
committed
to
reviewing and investigating additional information, if presented, of
sexual
or other harassment allegedly committed by any Wikimedia Foundation
staff
or board member. We fully condemn harassment in the Wikimedia
movement.*
The essay in Medium also references experiences of a number of former Wikimédia France Board members who reportedly left their posts
because
of
alleged harassment from French Wikimedia community members. In the
majority
of these cases, the Wikimedia Foundation has not received complaints
and
has no further information about these allegations.
We are aware that some people working at the Foundation for some
months
have received comments from a number of community members through
informal
channels about alleged intra-community harassment. These included complaints and allegations of harassment made against the former
Wikimédia
France Executive Director and then-Board Chair by Wikimédia France
staff
and community members, as well as counter-complaints from former
Wikimédia
France board members against members of the French community. In each instance of which we are aware, the individual raising the complaint
was
directed to the Wikimedia Foundation’s Support and Safety team, which
is
trained and equipped to independently investigate and assess these
matters,
particularly where members of the larger Wikimedia community are
concerned.
In total, the Foundation received roughly a dozen of these
complaints.
Each
of these complaints received by the Foundation was investigated and responded to promptly, enforcing the relevant anti-harassment
policies
whenever appropriate. In some cases, and when appropriate, our
response
resulted in content (for example, content that identified Wikimedia community members who guarded their anonymity) being removed from
public
websites or the Foundation contacting users who posted inappropriate material. In others, we found that while certain comments at times
crossed
the lines of civility, the actions did not meet the threshold of
sanction
under our policies or constitute intentional or sustained patterns of harassment.
As a cumulative result of these complaints, the Wikimedia Foundation
has
recommended to Wikimédia France that they take immediate steps to
implement
a friendly space policy. At the chapter’s exceptional September
general
assembly, the motion to develop and implement a friendly space policy passed with overwhelming support, with 98% of the membership voting
in
favor.[3] The Wikimedia Foundation has offered Wikimédia France our assistance with this policy’s composition and implementation.
We are committed to working with the new Wikimédia France conseil d’administration (governing board) to support the French community as
they
work to address and resolve these and other outstanding issues. The Wikimedia Foundation and the new leadership of Wikimédia France are
already
cooperating to address the governance-related concerns raised by the volunteer Funds Dissemination Committee in the first half of 2017. As
part
of this work, we have encouraged them to review how they will
independently
handle claims of harassment in the future. The Wikimedia Foundation
and
Wikimédia France share a common goal: a healthy, welcoming,
respectful,
inclusive Wikimedia community in France.
I know I am not alone in my dismay for how these events have
unfolded.
Many
dedicated, good-faith members of the French community, including
current
community members and present and former Wikimédia France board and
staff
members, have experienced distress and anxiety over recent months.
Those
outside of the community have watched with dismay as our peers and
friends
have found themselves disoriented, distressed, alienated, or at odds
with
one another. And yet we also know that many in France now feel a
renewed
sense of purpose for building the healthy and welcoming community we
all
desire.
Situations such as the recent events in France provide us with an opportunity to learn from the past in order to do better in the
future.
We
have seen this time and again in our communities, as organizations (including the Wikimedia Foundation) have emerged from governance and
other
challenges stronger, with deepened commitments to openness,
collaboration,
and humility.
Today is another such opportunity.
Katherine
[1] https://www.mathisbenguigui.eu/wikimedia-timeline/
[2] http://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2017/09/11/vers-une- sortie-de-crise-a-wikimedia-france_5184101_4408996.html
http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/rue89/rue89-nos-vies- connectees/20170718.OBS2248/exclusions-menaces-budget- recale-c-est-la-crise-chez-wikimedia-france.html
[3] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/04/ WMFR_AG_2017-09-09.pdf/page1-2550px-WMFR_AG_2017-09-09.pdf.jpg
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