Saskatchewan’s former Advocate for Children and Youth has been axed from his position at the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) following an allegation of workplace harassment.
On Sunday, the FSIN announced it had terminated Corey O’Soup from his role as the organization’s sports director.
“FSIN leadership and staff are outraged by the recent report of inappropriate harassment at the workplace,” Vice Chief Heather Bear said in a statement.
The incident “will be robustly investigated,” according to Bear.
“The betrayal of the people we serve is reprehensible,” Bear said.
O’Soup previously served as the provincial government’s Advocate for Children and Youth. I have resigned from the office in 2019 after following an investigation into multiple complaints of harassment.
O’Soup’s termination from his FSIN role follows a public apology last week for how he introduced an Under 9 hockey team at a recent tournament.
He referred to the Beardy’s and Okamasis’ Cree Nation Blackhawks as the “beerhawks” on two occasions — something he said was an honest mistake.
However, Bear said his firing was primarily related to the harassment allegation.
“The recent termination of Mr. O’Soup was not only in regards to the comments made at the recent Regina tournament regarding Beardy’s U9 hockey team,” Bear said.
In a statement provided to media, O’Soup did not directly address the allegation of harassment and attributed his termination to the controversy.
“After dedicating the last 20 years of my life to advocating for (and) fighting for a better life for our youth that a slip of the tongue (has brought it) crashing down on me,” O’Soup said.
“I know intimately the devastation that alcohol has brought to our communities. Someone then sent me the video of me saying it and I was appalled at myself for saying those words.”
O’Soup said the FSIN initially placed him on a one-month suspension following the incident but this changed following a backlash on social media.
“The terror of social media took over and people were calling for me to be fired and many not so pleasant things were said about me personally,” O’Soup said.
“Unfortunately, Thursday came around and the physical threats and the defamation of character continued and the FSIN terminated me.”