Involuntary: Terminated MCC workers call for accountability and change
Editor’s note: This is a shortened version of an article published by Canadian Mennonite magazine (July 2024 issue). See News for a response from MCC’s executive directors.
(John Clarke)
“I still use it,” Anicka Fast says of the brownish knitted potholder she received at Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) orientation in Akron, Pennsylvania, in 2009. Fast and her husband John Clarke were en route to their first MCC assignment at the time.
Fast is grateful to the women who, for many years, offered those hand-crafted gestures of community support to participants in MCC orientations. She’s grateful even though she and Clarke were terminated without cause by MCC last year.
The abrupt end came while Fast and her family were in a time of crisis following nearly three years in conflict-ridden Burkina Faso. Fast had just received a preliminary diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
The couple are among seven people involuntarily terminated by MCC who wrote a June 11 open letter (link is external) to “the global MCC constituency” calling for the organization to be held accountable to its peacebuilding principles in relation to treatment of its own workers.
Organizational culture
MCC is among the most prominent and storied Mennonite institutions. Many of its North American supporters volunteer in MCC thrift stores, faithfully attend relief sales, hang MCC calendars on their walls and entrust donations to the international relief, development and peacebuilding organization. Last year, MCC Canada and MCC U.S., which operate in tandem, reported combined revenue of more than CDN$160 million.
The concerns of the terminated workers raise questions about how MCC, and, by implication, other organizations, deal with internal conflicts and how the influence of human resources (HR) practices affects organizational culture.
Several people who have held leadership positions with MCC or related organizations are also raising concerns about MCC culture and/or the termination of Fast and Clarke.
Letter to constituents
The nine-page letter (link is external) to MCC constituents details the experiences of the seven former workers and their serious allegations. They say they are speaking up because they care about MCC and believe constituents should know of their experiences.
The letter is linked to an online petition (link is external) that had been signed by 652 people* when this article was published.
Canadian Mennonite interviewed all seven people behind the letter, reviewed numerous related documents and spoke with two other people, both of whom were terminated without cause by MCC. The seven people interviewed served in five countries on two continents and were terminated—some with cause—between 2009 and 2024.
One common element among them was the feeling that when conflict arose within MCC, and when they asked questions, MCC did not respond with the degree of openness and care they expected. They were left feeling confused and ultimately betrayed by an organization they believed in and had sacrificed much for. Still, they express an enduring desire for the good of MCC.
Three of the people did not publish their names for fear of jeopardizing relationships or employment.
The other side
MCC did not make anyone available for an interview but provided a written statement it had previously sent to constituents who expressed concern about the termination of Fast and Clarke. The full statement is available at canadianmennonite.org/involuntary.
The statement says, “MCC seeks to ensure the physical and mental health of all staff and partners, making it our highest priority.”
Following release of the June 11 open letter, MCC spokesperson Laura Kalmar expanded on MCC’s earlier statement, writing in an email to Canadian Mennonite, “MCC may hold a different view of the circumstances outlined by John and Anicka—as well as the others who signed the open letter—while, at the same time, endeavouring to be a listening, learning and growing organization.”
Kalmar further noted MCC’s “inability to discuss details of confidential HR matters, especially those currently under litigation.” Fast and Clarke are pursuing their concerns via the Quebec labour board, known as the Commission des Normes, de L'équité, de la Santé et de la Sécurité du Travail.
In a June 18 statement(link is external), MCC said, in relation to legal action and public discussion, “We will share the facts as we know them in a court of law at the appropriate time.”
Anicka Fast & John Clarke
Fast and Clarke, along with their two children, began an assignment with MCC in Burkina Faso in July 2020. They oversaw programming there, with a team of approximately 12. For part of the term, Fast was seconded on a part-time basis to Mennonite Mission Network and Mennonite World Conference in addition to her MCC duties.
The couple had served with MCC in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 2009 to 2012. Fast’s 2020 PhD dissertation focused on the history of Mennonite churches in DR Congo.
Speaking by video call from the Netherlands, where they now live, Fast and Clarke said they’re speaking up less for themselves than out of a broader concern for the organization.
Questions raised
The couple said that part way through their term in Burkina Faso, they raised questions with MCC HR staff in the U.S. Clarke was concerned about the process by which job openings were designated as open to either local or international applicants. These were sensitive decisions and a “known issue” within MCC, according to Clarke.
“I named the problem and asked for guidance,” he said. Clarke had the impression his questions were unwelcome. Responses from HR staff were inadequate and unreasonably delayed in his view.
Tensions escalated in March 2023 when a particular HR process was handled in a way Clarke described as heavy-handed and non-restorative. Privacy policies prevent him from discussing specifics.
Fast and Clarke said they contacted HR directors hoping for resolution, but repeated efforts proved frustrating.
It felt to Clarke that HR staff were “deflecting.”
The MCC area directors were supportive, but Fast and Clarke said HR staff cut the area directors out of the process leaving the couple feeling “isolated.”
Turmoil in Burkina Faso
Meanwhile, two coup d’etats took place in the country in 2022. At staff devotional times, local colleagues shared stories of villages burned and family members forced to flee. The MCC team responded to an attempted abduction of a staff member’s child, the death of a project participant and people disappearing.
Facing turmoil in the country as well as what they experienced as the resistance of HR staff to address conflict, the couple brought their complaints in writing to the executive directors (EDs) of MCC Canada and MCC U.S.—Rick Cober Bauman and Ann Graber Hershberger, respectively—in accordance with MCC policy.
Three weeks later, though the EDs had not met with the couple, Graber Hershberger replied, saying the EDs had full confidence in the HR directors.
The EDs refused a second request to meet.
“This can’t be happening.” Fast recalled thinking. “We’ll find another person who will understand. We’ll wake up from this.”
Deterioration
Conflict in the country worsened. “We had been hearing stories about genocide, ethnic cleansings, atrocities,” Clarke recalled. They prepared for the possibility of evacuating MCC personnel.
In July 2023, they went to the Netherlands, where Fast holds citizenship, for combined vacation time and stress leave.
There, psychological symptoms surfaced. “I became dysfunctional,” Fast said. “I could not think about going back …. I had hoped I would rest and recover and be able to go back to work, but something had shifted.”
A psychologist said Fast appeared to have PTSD, which was formally diagnosed thereafter. “I had trouble accepting that,” Fast said.
The psychologist recommended Fast not return to Burkina Faso for at least six months.
“At that point, I still believed that MCC would be there for us,” Fast said.
The couple informed their supervisors and suggested a medical leave plan that would see them stay in the Netherlands, with Clarke working remotely and via travel to Burkina Faso. MCC wanted Fast and Clarke to relocate to another African country instead.
At the same time, the couple was trying to pursue the conflict resolution process related to earlier actions of HR staff.
Next level
Fast and Clarke wrote to Ron Ratzlaff, chair of the MCC Canada board, whom they knew and appreciated.
“We feel like we are isolated and have no one we can talk to for help,” they wrote. “We are in a very difficult situation and are reaching out in desperation for your guidance and assistance, in as much as you can provide as chair of MCC Canada board.”
According to the couple, Ratzlaff’s reply was short and business-like. Policy, they were told, prevented board involvement. They were pointed back to the staff who were the source of their concerns.
While board members of an organization do not generally involve themselves in personnel matters, it is often within the purview of a board to ensure neutral third-party avenues for resolving serious conflicts. MCC policies are not public.
Ratzlaff copied his email reply, which included the couple’s detailed concerns with the ED, to the ED. Fast and Clarke had considered it confidential.
It felt to the couple like another dead end—like the process kept turning against them.
The day after Ratzlaff’s email–August 25, 2023–a previously arranged call with senior MCC U.S. staff took place. Fast and Clarke understood the purpose was to discuss relocation and sick leave.
Instead, Fast and Clarke were terminated without cause, effective immediately.
“They didn’t even ask how we were doing,” Fast recalled.
‘Separation package’
MCC staff paused during the call to verify Fast and Clarke’s personal email addresses because the couple were immediately disconnected from MCC’s electronic system and WhatsApp groups. They say they were asked not to talk with any MCC staff.
In the midst of a debilitating mental health crisis—Clarke was subsequently diagnosed with PTSD as well—with no home and two children dealing with their own stresses, Fast and Clarke were without a job and feeling a profound sense of “institutional betrayal,” as Clarke put it.
“MCC knew we were in a real crisis,” Fast said.
During the call, MCC emailed the couple a financial “separation package.” They were offered approximately $160,000 plus unspecified moving and medical expenses if they signed a legal document by which they would give up all rights to recourse, grievance or complaint and would commit to never disclose details of the agreement or speak negatively about MCC.
Such agreements are common in the business world and some church organizations.
The agreement stated that if Fast and Clarke did not sign it, they would receive approximately $118,000 less.
The couple said this felt like MCC was trying to pay them to be quiet instead of seeking to understand and work through the couple’s serious concerns. They felt that a confidential settlement was not the path to peace.
They did not sign.
Public recourse
On November 3, 2023, Fast and Clarke sent a letter of grievance to the MCC Canada and U.S. boards, copied to various church contacts, including Canadian Mennonite.
Ron Ratzlaff and Gilberto Perez, chairs of the MCC Canada and U.S. boards, respectively, responded, expressing a willingness to engage in mediation and saying MCC would initiate a third-party investigation.
“Our heart is to engage with you in a spirit of reconciliation,” Perez and Ratzlaff wrote. “We commit to holding this process prayerfully and with care.”
Ratzlaff and Perez declined to comment for this article.
Labour board
In October 2023, Fast and Clarke each filed a formal complaint with the provincial labour board in Quebec, their home jurisdiction. Quebec labour law says a person can file a complaint if they have served two uninterrupted years and “[believe] they have not been dismissed for a good and sufficient cause.”
“We [had] been asking [MCC] since April [2023] to just sit down and talk with us, always assuming that things could easily be straightened out, and it was only after multiple failed attempts to get a hearing, and being fired, that we considered this legal channel,” Fast wrote in a December 7, 2023, email to Canadian Mennonite.
The couple informed MCC of this step, emphasizing that they still preferred to find resolution outside legal channels.
The labour board process includes a mediation option. MCC agreed to this, but when Fast and Clarke discovered that process would require them to commit not to speak publicly of the situation, they opted out.
“We do not think that secrecy about these events serves MCC, us, MCC’s partners or the broader Mennonite community, and [we] are determined to preserve our right to speak freely,” they said in an email.
A Quebec tribunal is expected to hear the couple’s case within eight to 14 months.
Fast and Clarke said they are seeking a measure of justice, not a significant financial award, the latter of which they say is highly unlikely in the labour board process.
Investigation
Three months after Fast and Clark requested an independent investigation, a firm hired by MCC informed the couple they would investigate their complaints and send the report to MCC's HR department. It is common practice for third-party reports of this nature to go to the HR department of a business or organization.
After back-and-forth with the investigator, Fast and Clarke declined to participate because they felt the firm MCC selected was not focused on institutional accountability and justice for complainants, and because the investigator’s report would go to the people at the centre of the couple’s complaints—the HR department.
The investigation has proceeded without them.
MCC response
In response to impacts on families cited in the open letter, MCC said in an email to Canadian Mennonite, “We do acknowledge the hurt expressed by these former MCC staff members and their families.” In the June 18 statement, MCC says, “We want to respond with humility and compassion.”
The statement says, “MCC takes all reports of complaints from employees seriously,” noting its Speak Up service by which employees or others can file complaints. “All reports are confidential,” the statement reads. “[C]omplaints are received by a third party on their secure servers. The reports are then handed over to trained MCC HR staff and may be investigated by a neutral third party where appropriate.”
In reference to cases in which staff on the ground disagree with MCC decisions, the statement says, “MCC seeks to find a resolution that is consistent with our policies and offers compassion to those engaged.”
At the time of publishing, Fast and Clarke said MCC EDs were in conversation with them about a possible mediated meeting, something the couple have been seeking since their initial complaint to EDs nearly a year ago.
Other accounts
The accounts of the other five people behind the open letter are reflected to a considerable extent by the comment of a terminated worker who said that in his experience, MCC lacked a spirit of trying to work through difficulties. In the cases of these people, when tensions, conflicts and cross-cultural misunderstandings arose, the ultimate result was that people in positions of less power were terminated.
Three themes were the sense that superiors did not “have the backs” of these workers, the avenues for recourse did not serve these workers well and that MCC did not adequately live up to its peacemaking principles in these situations.
Accountability is needed
Clarke said he knows the couple’s story will be hard for many MCC supporters to hear. He and Fast said repeatedly that they don’t want their story to make people feel bad. Still, while noting that people spend lifetimes volunteering for MCC and donating, Clarke said he does not want a sense of the “unquestioned sacredness” of MCC to prevent people from requiring accountability of MCC leaders. He does not want the “beloved” organization to be turned into an “idol” that cannot be questioned.
The couple recalled an instance when MCC colleagues in Africa simply vanished from the MCC scene. They said no one, including themselves, said anything. That’s the culture, Clarke said: “We don’t ask. We don’t talk about it.” They recall thinking that the people who were gone “must have done something terrible.”
“There seems to be something deeply Mennonite about not questioning authority.” Clarke said.
For Fast, speaking out feels like “touching this sacred, untouchable thing.”
Rod Hollinger-Janzen served as executive coordinator of Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission for 15 years and was involved with Fast’s PhD work, calling it “brilliant” and adding that she was loved by the people. During a video interview, Hollinger-Janzen said there is much he does not know about Fast and Clarke’s termination, but he is perplexed and troubled by what he does know. He questioned how people of the “calibre” of Fast and Clarke, who gave so much of themselves in a high-stress setting, could end up being terminated at a time when they most needed support.
He acknowledged that “organizations have to defend themselves; that just goes with the territory. At the same time, if an organization is not comfortable calling itself into question, that’s also problematic.”
Speaking about the concerns raised by Fast and Clarke, and echoing the sentiment of most of the people Canadian Mennonite interviewed for this article, Hollinger-Janzen said, “we want these problems to be dealt with in a good way so we can have a stronger MCC.”