OTTAWA – Chief Justice Richard Wagner says Rideau Hall’s employees were “very unhappy” because they had “suffered a lot” for years by the time he temporarily replaced former governor general Julie Payette, who resigned for presiding over a “toxic” workplace.

“There are 150 employees at Rideau Hall. They were people who, I must say, were very unhappy because there had been very difficult circumstances leading up to the departure. They had suffered a lot for years,” Wagner told attendees of a Quebec journalism conference in May.