In a series of posts on Reddit a week ago someone using the sobriquet “Living_Mongoose7608” accused me of victim shaming Teena Bogner after I asked her to disclose details of the settlement she had agreed with the bullying, tyrannical Progressive Conservative MPP for Newmarket-Aurora, Dawn Gallagher Murphy. 
Bogner abruptly dropped her action against Gallagher Murphy at the Ontario Labour Relations Board which was due to come up on 25 February 2025 – two days before the Provincial Election.
The syntax and tone of Mongoose’s posts suggests this is the very same person, a lawyer by trade, who wearing a different hat, has emailed me over the months to complain about Dawn Gallagher Murphy and the toll her toxic behaviour has taken on former employees.
Standing up to Goliath
In Reddit, Mongoose writes:
“More victim shaming. Yes, let’s dump on the victim and make her the problem, not the elected official. Oh, and let’s not forget that this woman had the strength to stand up to Goliath in a very public way. I’m glad that others now feel confident to come forward. This guy is a misogynist and a dope.”
Mongoose continues (in reply to another post on the same subject):
“… The author is throwing a fit because he didn’t get his own way. It’s none of our damn business what (or if) her settlement was, especially this guy. Is he going to pay her legal fees when the MPP et al sue her for breach of contract? Why is it up to her to hold the MPP accountable??? That’s our job. Why didn’t the author contact the MPP, PC Party, the Premier, Queen’s Park??? I am seriously appalled that someone would victim shame like this, and you would agree. Shame on you and the author. What’s next? We blame people who settle out of court for car accidents, human rights violations, wrongful dismissal. Grow up. None of our business. It isn’t her fault her boss is a tyrant.”
Not in a million years
In the unlikely event of finding myself in the same situation I would not have settled. Not in a million years. When an enraged Conrad Black threatened to sue me for defamation I challenged him to go ahead.
I told him truth is an absolute defence. I never heard any more about it.
And am I victim shaming Teena Bogner?
The very idea is preposterous.
But I still want to know the terms of the settlement. Was there an apology? Did money change hands? If so, did this buy Bogner's silence? Where does this deafening silence leave the others who suffered at the hands of Gallagher Murphy?
If Bogner broke the terms of any non-disclosure agreement does anyone seriously believe Gallagher Murphy would sue? It would be the end of her political career.
Quivering wallflower
Teena Bogner is not a quivering wallflower. She has had many leadership positions and knows her way around the system. In fact, she boasts about it. Bogner made her name as a champion of openness and transparency as President of the Newmarket Taxpayers’ Advocacy Group. She regularly excoriated the Town for keeping facts under wraps. But now that she has settled with the hypocrite Gallagher Murphy she bites her lip and refuses to comment further, bluntly and confidently telling me to leave her alone.
Instead, Bogner’s case is being advanced by proxies. On 31 January 2025 Rob Kurtz bizarrely launched a petition on “Change.org” calling on Doug Ford to replace PC candidate Dawn Gallagher Murphy by February 13, 2025.
As if!
Let’s get real. The last time I looked the petition had 58 signatures.
That’s not going to dent Gallagher Murphy’s majority.
"Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under’t"
Most people out there have never heard of the tyrannical, highly stressed Gallagher Murphy. Since her election in June 2022 she has never stopped campaigning, tweeting endlessly about her good works and blanketing the local press in self-promoting ads. People don’t recognise the picture of Gallagher Murphy painted by her former employees, a snarling, shouting, blaspheming fraud, pretending to be someone she isn’t.
Teena Bogner should never have settled with this despotic, high-handed MPP. Bogner tells us DGM’s hostility affected her (Bogner’s) health. We know from the latest revelations published in the Newmarket Era yesterday that a second former worker:
“quit working for the MPP to preserve her mental health after three months of escalating “bullying”.”
This young woman consulted a therapist to talk about the emotional toll working for Gallagher Murphy had on her. And these revelations go back to 2022 when Gallagher Murphy was first elected.
No fewer than seven former employees have allegedly expressed concerns about the MPP’s toxic workplace.
Overwhelmed with stress
The reporting, by the respected veteran journalist, Lisa Queen, quotes the exit interview letter the employee sent to Doug Ford in 2022 complaining about the treatment that was meted out to her by the tempestuous and unstable MPP:
“During periods of stress, Dawn Gallagher Murphy cannot stay calm. She becomes overwhelmed with the stress, which then leads her to verbally lash out at a target. The lashing often looks like outwardly swearing and blaming me for the stress.”
All the polls currently point to Ford’s Progressive Conservatives being re-elected. And, if these polls are accurate, Newmarket-Aurora is not going to buck the trend unless the other candidates in the election make Gallagher Murphy’s bullying and harassment an election issue.
They must speak out. They've got nothing to lose and everything to gain.
It they do they will be reported in the local press and, very probably, the broadcast media too. All across the Province.
Candidates' Debate
And they should call on the Chamber of Commerce and Newmarket Today (if they haven’t already done so) to organise a candidates’ debate – as they used to do.
Dawn Gallagher Murphy would most likely be a no-show.
In my mind’s eye I see her yelling at an employee to tell the press there is a family emergency and, as much as she’d like to be there, she can’t attend.
But she’s used that excuse before.
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Note: I have not been able to get a copy of the Progressive Conservative Caucus Policy on Harassment. In her response to Teena Bogner's original complaint to the Ontario Labour Relations Board, Dawn Gallagher Murphy relied on this document. The Ontario Legislative Assembly does not have a copy and referred me to the PC Caucus contact. I did so close to one month ago but have received no response. I also asked Teena Bogner to send a copy on if she had one in her possession. I have not received anything from her.
Click "READ MORE" below to read the Newmarket Era story: Second former worker of Newmarket-Aurora MPP complains of "bullying"
Update 7 February 2025 from the Newmarket Era: Re Aurora resident's petition
Second former worker of Newmarket-Aurora MPP complains of ‘bullying’
Former staffer filed exit interview letter with Premier Doug Ford’s office in 2022.
By Lisa Queen Newmarket Era
Tuesday, February 4, 2025
3 min to read
Article was updated 22 hrs ago
Workplace abuse and toxicity, blaming and swearing, phone calls and texts at all hours, an extreme micromanager.
It’s all there in an exit interview letter a former staff member of Newmarket-Aurora MPP Dawn Gallagher Murphy said she filed with Premier Doug Ford’s office in 2022.
The woman, who the Newmarket Era agreed not to name due to her concerns about potential career repercussions, said she quit working for the MPP to preserve her mental health after three months of escalating “bullying.”
She said she has spoken to a therapist several times about the emotional toll — including depression — working for Gallagher Murphy has had on her.
While working for the MPP wasn’t her first job, it was a plum position for anyone in their 20s at the beginning of their career, she said.
After she quit, she said she spent eight months searching for a new job, only to secure part-time work with a significant cut in salary.
She now has a full-time job, outside of politics.
The former employee said she is coming forward about working for Gallagher Murphy, who is running as the Progressive Conservative incumbent in Newmarket-Aurora in the Feb. 27 provincial election, after reading a yorkregion.com story about Teena Bogner.
Bogner filed a complaint with the Ontario Labour Relations Board against Gallagher Murphy, saying the MPP fired her as constituency manager following a short and “toxic” employment period.
The case was settled this month.
Bogner declined to discuss the issue, other than to say the case was settled to her “full satisfaction.”
The former employee said Bogner’s case becoming public gave her the “courage to say something when I realized other people were talking about this. I said, ‘If I’m not the only one, I have to add my story and, hopefully, something comes of it.’”
With voters going to the polls Feb. 27, she said she wants to “bring attention to the fact that we need to know who we are voting for and we need to make sure we put the right people in positions of power and no matter what position you are in, it doesn’t give anyone the right to be treated this way in the workplace and there will be repercussions no matter how important you think you might be.”
The former employee said she witnessed other staff having similar experiences while working for Gallagher Murphy.
“It was basically her way or the highway,” she said.
“She had a very different public face, as politicians do and they should. She was a very professional public figure when she had to interact with the public, but in her office was a very different story … I think the only solution I want to see is this not happening to other people, especially when they’re young in their careers and it has a lasting impact on the development of their career.”
A Jan. 29 email from yorkregion.com to the MPP’s communications co-ordinator, Rayane Boumala, went unanswered.
An automated response came after a followup email on Jan. 30.
“I will be out of the office starting January 29th, and this email will not be monitored,” it said. “Thank you for your understanding.”
An email and voice-mail messages to Gallagher Murphy’s constituency office were not answered by our deadline.
A message to a Progressive Conservative media email and a text to Premier Doug Ford were not answered by our deadline.
In a phone call, Inge Juneau, executive director of the PC caucus, said, “I’m sorry, I don’t comment on HR matters” before hanging up.
In her exit interview letter, Gallagher Murphy’s former employee detailed concerns she experienced working for the MPP, including:
- Gallagher Murphy “showing problematic signs of workplace abuse and toxicity.”
- “DGM emails, texts and calls at all hours of the day and night, including before and after work hours … DGM has said to me “I don’t care that our government released the right to disconnect act. I am an MPP, if you work for me, then you have to answer your phone no matter what time of night it is.”
- “During periods of stress, DGM cannot stay calm. She becomes overwhelmed with the stress, which then leads her to verbally lash out at a target. The lashing often looks like outwardly swearing and blaming me for the stress.”
In a Nov. 22, 2024 post on X (formerly Twitter) to mark Bullying Awareness and Prevention Week, Gallagher Murphy spoke about the need to fight bullying to prevent its impact on victims’ mental health.
“Bullying is unacceptable in all its forms, whether in the form of unwanted, repeated aggression or in situations where there are real or perceived power imbalances between individuals,” she said.
