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WARNING: This story contains details some might find disturbing. Discretion is advised.
A Winnipeg woman who once worked under former Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs grand chief Arlen Dumas is suing him, alleging he sexually assaulted her multiple times in 2022.
A lawsuit filed in Manitoba Court of King’s Bench on Aug. 30 claims Dumas committed “at least eight” instances of sexual battery against the plaintiff, including rape.
None of the claims have been tested in court and no statement of defense has been filed.
At the time of the alleged incidents, the plaintiff, who is not being named due to the nature of the allegations, was working in a new role at AMC. She claimed Dumas created a “hostile and inappropriate” work environment within days of her promotion, ranging from sending inappropriate text messages to calling her pet names and commenting on her appearance.
In one alleged incident detailed in the lawsuit, the plaintiff went on a date in which she drank until she became drunk. According to the lawsuit, she texted Dumas to pick her up from her date’s home, but has little memory after that.
The plaintiff alleges she woke up naked in Dumas’s bed the next morning, when Dumas “overpowered her, put her on her stomach on the bed, wrapped his arm tightly around her to restrain her, pushed her head and neck down into the bed, and forcibly sexually penetrated her.”
The plaintiff nearly lost consciousness from the pressure against her neck, the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit states after that incident, the plaintiff felt pressured to meet with him and go on dates because she feared what happened before could happen again.
The two had sex on four other occasions, instances which the plaintiff claims were not consensual, the lawsuit said.
According to the documents, Dumas repeatedly rescheduled work meetings to be dinner meetings after hours. The lawsuit says the plaintiff agreed on some occasions, but made excuses not to meet on other occasions because it made her uncomfortable.
He also asked to meet with her in his car or at his home, which she refused, the lawsuit states.
During one alleged meeting with an outside organization, the lawsuit claims Dumas tried to turn accusations made against him back on to the plaintiff after she said she didn’t feel comfortable meeting with Dumas alone.
“He also made repeat comments about needing to know if he could trust the Plaintiff and asked the Plaintiff ‘if she would be willing to bury a body with (him),’” the document says.
The plaintiff says in the lawsuit she filed a report with Winnipeg police in March 2022 accusing Dumas of sexual assault, and around the same time complained to AMC about the then-chief’s behaviour, prompting an internal investigation.
Dumas and the plaintiff were suspended until the results of the investigation came back, according to the lawsuit.
“The investigation substantiated all the Plaintiff’s complaints against the Defendant. This included the sexual assaults described above,” the lawsuit says.
When complaints of sexual assault were lodged against Dumas in March 2022, Dumas said at the time the accusation was unfounded.
Dumas was removed as grand chief by way of an assembly vote in August 2022.
The lawsuit claims Dumas owed the plaintiff a duty of care, and by breaching it “directly caused compensable damages to the Plaintiff.”
The plaintiff is seeking damages of $426,000.
The Winnipeg police would not comment on the allegations Wednesday and Dumas’s lawyer did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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