A secret SIM card, a fake name, and one embassy driver paid the price
A government employee's late-night messages to a woman he barely knew triggered a chain of events that ended in a colleague's wrongful arrest overseas, and, eventually, his own firing.
In a decision dated July 10, 2026, Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board member Goretti Fukamusenge upheld Global Affairs Canada's decision to dismiss an information technology employee who had been stationed at the Canadian embassy in Ankara, Turkiye. The board found that his unauthorized use of a government SIM card to pursue a personal relationship, and his shifting account of what happened afterward, justified ending his employment.
A SIM card, a secret persona
The employee worked as a support lead for the embassy's information technology infrastructure, a role that gave him access to a secure storage area where devices used by visiting Canadian delegations were kept. After a Canadian delegation's mission in Turkiye concluded, the SIM card it had purchased for the trip was collected and stored there. In September 2022, the employee took the card for his own use, according to the board's findings.
Using the card, he sent WhatsApp messages to a woman working in Ankara, adopting the pseudonym Pierre Flous to hide his identity. He invited her to dinner. She declined, telling him she had a boyfriend, but he kept pressing, pointing to his financial means, his house and his car. The board found the messages left her feeling insulted and harassed, and she eventually complained to local police.
Because the SIM card was registered in the name of an embassy driver who had purchased it on the delegation's behalf, it was the driver, not the employee, whom Turkish police arrested, detained and questioned over the messages.
Deny, admit, then walk it back
When the ambassador called him in for a meeting on January 9, 2023, the employee denied any involvement. About 35 minutes later, he returned and acknowledged sending the messages. On cross-examination, he said he had wanted to find out whether the woman had ulterior, financial motives for contacting him, an explanation the board did not accept.
At the hearing, he initially maintained that the SIM card was not government property, arguing it was registered in someone else's name. The board found that this position was contradicted by an email he had received in September 2022 confirming that the delegation's phones and SIM card had been returned to the embassy and that he had personally collected them. Confronted with that evidence, on the second day of the hearing, he acknowledged that he had used the card.
In his written submissions, he argued: "The messages in question, although insensitive, contained no threats, insults, or obscene language." About a month after apologizing at the hearing, he suggested in his final arguments that the employer had not proven he sent the messages, a reversal the board said cast doubt on the sincerity of his earlier acknowledgment.
Why decades of service counted against him
The employee pointed to his 35 years in the federal public service, including 16 years with Global Affairs Canada, as a reason to reconsider his dismissal. The board disagreed, finding that seniority in a position built on trust and security clearance raised, rather than lowered, the standard he was expected to meet.
The board wrote that trust "is highly valued, difficult to build up, and easy to lose."
In the board's assessment, the severity of the misconduct, the dishonesty during the investigation and the breach of trust it caused outweighed the employee's clean disciplinary record and length of service. Although it was his first disciplinary offence, the board concluded that the dismissal was not excessive, and it denied the grievance.
See Challal v. Deputy Head (Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development), 2026 FPSLREB 88
