Ombudsman

The mandate of the ombudsman is to ensure that the administration deals fairly and equitably with all situations experienced by members of the Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM)¹ community. To do so:

• She advises members of the IRCM community.
• She handles requests for assistance or receives complaints from members who, after exhausting the internal resorts available to them, feel they are victims of error, injustice, unfairness, or discrimination on the part of the administration.
• She works to improve justice and equity practices.
• She annually reports her activities to the IRCM Board of Directors.
• When internal resorts have been exhausted without success, the Ombudsman may investigate.
• When a complaint is founded, she intervenes with the persons responsible and makes recommendations.
• When she finds that the complaint is unfounded, she informs the person and closes the file.

When intervening, the Ombudsman puts forward not only the applicable legal standards, but also the rules of justice and equity. The handling of situations referred to her, reflects the values of respect for the individual, fair treatment of problems, transparency, and accountability. The work in dispute prevention and resolution favours an approach based on collaboration and the openness of the parties to identify mutually satisfactory solutions.

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Notes:
1- The following are considered members of the IRCM community: students, researchers and employees. Clinic users must instead refer to the CHUM Service Quality and Complaints Commissioner.