What happens when the people responsible for protecting a nation's borders find themselves entirely unprotected in their own workplace?

In this episode, host Christian Lane sits down with Danielle Getzie and Josée St-Pierre, two long-serving members of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). Together, they share their deeply personal and parallel experiences navigating systemic harassment, discrimination, and a culture of leadership retaliation.

Instead of walking away, Danielle and Josée chose to fight back, founding the Nova Alliance, a survivor-informed, peer-support organization helping current and former CBSA members safely navigate psychological workplace injuries.

Tune in as they pull back the curtain on a grueling bureaucratic system, discuss the impending federal parliamentary study into the CBSA's toxic environment, and explain why true institutional change must start with accountability and human empathy.

• [00:00] – Introduction to host Christian Lane and guests Danielle Getzie and Josée St-Pierre.
• [02:17] – Josée’s career path: From loving land border immigration work to stepping into a leadership role.
• [05:18] – Moving from silence to advocacy: Josée opens up about surviving sexual harassment, the impact on her mental health, and the systemic retaliation she faced after reporting it.
• [13:16] – Danielle’s story: Achieving her dream as a detector dog handler and facing immediate targeting after challenging a discriminatory 90-day maternity leave policy.
• [18:50] – Turning trauma into action: How navigating a daunting, unsupportive grievance process led Danielle to establish the Nova Alliance in 2024.
• [25:18] – Identifying the pattern: Recognizing that their individual struggles were actually symptoms of a country-wide, systemic playbook.
• [34:16] – The structural beast: A discussion on whether the suffering is caused by broken bureaucratic processes, poor leadership administration, or both.
• [40:11] – The Parliamentary Study: Unpacking the federal investigation into systemic discrimination within the CBSA.
• [43:54] – The Manager's Dilemma: Host Christian Lane shares his perspective as a former manager on how the system forces leaders to suppress empathy to survive.
• [59:40] – Looking forward: The desired objective for the Nova Alliance and the critical need for third-party accountability.
• [01:09:14] – How to connect with the Nova Alliance for confidential peer-support.

Are you a current or former member of the CBSA who needs help?

Connect with Nova Alliance on Instagram @novaalliance.ca or email them at novaalliance.ca@gmail.com

Follow the Team Ten Eight Podcast on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn!