Ep 12: Speaking Truth to Power - What Happens When You Refuse to Sign an NDA?

Quick heads up: This episode contains discussions of workplace harassment, bullying, and sexual harassment, including personal accounts. Listener discretion is advised. Please take care while listening.

What does it really mean to speak truth to power—and what do you risk when you do? For Liz LeClair, founder of Uprising Consulting, the cost was becoming “unhireable” in Halifax, Nova Scotia. After coming forward and speaking out about the sexual harassment she experienced in her workplace, she found herself sidelined by the very organizations that once praised her courage for speaking out. 

In this episode, Liz shares her deeply personal story—one that lays bare how institutions often protect power over people. Instead of staying silent, she made the courageous decision to speak out, report the harassment, and pursue legal action because the institution she turned to refused to act. In doing so, she carved out a new path, creating a business and a space where she could speak freely and work alongside people who know her values and stand with her.

Through her consulting practice, Liz is committed to shifting power, championing equity and justice, and supporting underserved communities through community-centric fundraising—helping them access the tools and resources they need to advance their causes. She also serves on the board of the African American Development Officers Network (AADO) as its only Canadian member.

Most powerfully, Liz sheds light on the weaponization of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), originally designed to protect intellectual property but now routinely used to silence victims of harassment, discrimination, and assault. 

This episode exposes the "halo effect" surrounding nonprofit organizations—the dangerous assumption that because they do good work, they're incapable of causing harm. Liz challenges the culture of "niceness" that pervades female-dominated workplaces and reveals how second-wave white feminism often replicates, rather than dismantles patriarchal power structures.

Liz shares that while speaking out carries real costs, it also brings unexpected gifts: clarity about who truly shares your values, freedom to speak your truth, and the opportunity to create spaces where others can do the same.

Yes, there’s fear in speaking out. There’s pain in institutional betrayal. But there’s also liberation in choosing integrity over quiet complicity. This isn’t just a conversation. It’s a call to action.

This episode is part one of a two-part series, so be sure to tune in to Part 2, where Liz and I continue our conversation on the misuse of non-disclosure agreements in workplace harassment and sexual assault cases. We explore the power of speaking up, what advocacy and feminism look like today, and how some governments are beginning to address NDAs—though there's still a long way to go.

Join us for this thought-provoking exploration of courage, truth-telling, and creating change when systems fail us.

Check out Liz LeClair's work:

Website: https://www.uprisingconsulting.ca/

Substack: https://uprisingphilanthropy.substack.com/