Restaurateurs react to local chef’s sexual harassment
Posted Oct 26, 2017 07:44:36 AM.
Last Updated Oct 26, 2017 07:51:14 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA — A bombshell admission by a local celebrity chef has sent shockwaves through Ottawa’s restaurant scene.
Matt Carmichael admitted to sexually harassing some female employees who worked at his restaurants — Riviera, El Camino and Datsun — and says drugs and alcohol played a role. In a statement e-mailed to some media outlets, Carmichael says he’s been in therapy for drug and alcohol rehabilitation since June, and completed a 30-day program in southern Ontario.
Carmichael’s admission to sexual harassment is no surprise to others in the capital’s restaurant industry. Ivan Gedz, owner and manager of Union Local 613 in Centretown, tells Postmedia that rumours about Carmichael had been swirling for months. He says outsiders hearing the stories second- and third-hand found it difficult to speak up without evidence, while those on the inside worried about bullying tactics and feared speaking out against a celebrity persona like Carmichael.
Gedz tells the paper that it shows how easily things like sexual harrassment can be “hushed up.”
Another local restaurant manager and his wife are trying to connect restaurant workers with local eateries that are looking for staff and have taken a stance against harassment in the workplace.
Local sommelier Grayson McDiarmid and his wife, Anne-Marie McDiarmid, have created a Facebook page called Safe Restaurant Ottawa. They’re still working out logistics but are currently accepting resumes, which they plan to forward to restaurants that are committed to a harassment-free workplace.
