An Olive Branch Reports

Released March 20, 2019

In July of 2018, the Kalapa Council (the former governing body of Shambhala) engaged the services of An Olive Branch, an independent third-party organization, to perform a variety of services in the wake of complaints raised about ethical misconduct on the part of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and other leaders and community members. Their assignment has now concluded.  

Through our work with An Olive Branch, Shambhala intended to provide direct support to individuals who had been harmed within Shambhala and to begin the process of understanding and changing the structural and institutional processes that allowed misconduct and abuse to occur. The Interim Board wishes to acknowledge what has occurred, the impact it has had on individual lives, and express our deepest apology to those who have experienced harm in any Shambhala program or environment.

We are releasing all of the materials that An Olive Branch has delivered to the Interim Board.  These include:

• The Listening Post Report, derived from the listening post service open from September 2018-December 2018 that was available to current or past members of the Shambhala community to receive support around various types of harm they experienced in the sangha. The report is a compilation of data, themes and quotations from these phone, video or written contacts with An Olive Branch. We received the final version on March 12, 2019.
• The Final Report which was written for the Interim Board, however, we would like to share it with the entire community as it contains An Olive Branch’s recommendations for Shambhala. We received the final report on March 14, 2019.

Wickwire Holm Report

Released February 3, 2019

The Shambhala Board has received the investigative report from Wickwire Holm, a Halifax law firm, and we are releasing it to the sangha. We would like to explain what is contained in the Wickwire Holm Claims Investigation, the perspective of the Interim Board (IB) and how we plan to go forward and support the community.

The Kalapa Council engaged Wickwire Holm in July 2018 to conduct a third-party investigation of claims of sexual misconduct within the Shambhala community (described in the July 20 Community Letter). In November of last year the Interim Board took over management of the engagement of Wickwire Holm from Shambhala’s legal counsel, Alex Halpern, and worked directly with an investigative attorney with the firm, Selina Bath. Ms. Bath was the investigator and writer of the reports. IB members met with her a number of times to understand the scope and progress of her work and her timeframes. At all times, the IB did not attempt to influence her investigation or her findings, and she was steadfast in her adherence to that independence. The Claims Investigation is the product of that work and represents her independent findings.

One of the most important principles we expressed to Ms. Bath was that all Claimants’ and Witnesses’ identities would be kept confidential. However, for an individual’s report to become a claim, the individual had to be willing to identify themselves to Wickwire Holm and to have Wickwire Holm identify them to the respondent. Otherwise, there would be no way for Wickwire Holm to investigate and to interview the respondent and any witnesses to the claim.

More people were willing to share their experiences of harm with Ms. Bath than were willing to have them investigated. She respected those individuals’ wishes to remain anonymous and did not include them in the formal investigation. This information is described in the General Introduction and Summary.

We appreciate each individual who came forward to aid in this investigation as a reporter, claimant or witness.

We are releasing the results of the investigation received from Wickwire Holm to the Community in a single package, which includes:

• General Introduction and Summary
• Three completed Claims Investigations, two of which concern Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

Browse a list of upcoming regional events related to issues of community care here: https://shambhala.org/programs/. Below you can see the next ten upcoming events. If you are a Shambhala leader and would like to have an event listed here, please contact [email protected] for instructions about how to list your event in the Shambhala Database.