Lori Culbert (Vancouver Sun) – The RCMP’s top recruiter in B.C. doesn’t believe the recent spate of sexual harassment lawsuits filed against the force will reduce the number of women interested in a policing career.
Instead of being deterred by the bad press, many of today’s new female recruits understand what policing is about and what the job entails, Supt. Maria Nickel said.
“Really, you are going into a predominantly male environment and that you need to rely on that inner strength that we all have, and to put that to your advantage when you are in any work situation,” Nickel said in an interview.
“Let’s face it, you could work for a bank somewhere and be subjected to some form of harassment. You need to be able to have that strength to deal with it. I think the bulk of the ladies who are coming out as applicants realize that.”
The comments from Nickel, who is in charge of recruiting for B.C. and Yukon, came hours before the RCMP issued a sweeping denial Tuesday of allegations in a high-profile sexual harassment suit by B.C. Cpl. Catherine Galliford.
The allegations by Galliford, who was the force’s public face during the Air India and Robert Pickton cases, prompted other women to come forward with their own claims of abuse.
In March, Vancouver lawyer David Klein filed a lawsuit alleging harassment and mistreatment of another female RCMP officer.
He has since heard from 200 female Mounties interested in joining the suit, if it is certified as a class action.
Nickel said female recruits need “resilience,” especially to deal with harassment if it arises.
“You can either let yourself be a victim of it, if you will, or you can rely on that inner strength to say, ‘No, you know, my intention is that I am going to succeed,’” she said.
By saying new female recruits need inner strength to work within a male environment, Nickel insisted she was not devaluing the allegations in the women’s lawsuits. “I’m not personally familiar with their situations,” she added.
Nickel noted that the number of female recruits rose in the last fiscal year over the previous one.
From March 2011 to March 2012, the RCMP recruited 562 people from across Canada, 156 of whom (27 per cent) were women.
The previous year, 22 per cent of the 567 recruits were women, Nickel said.
Still, the percentage of sworn officers who are female has remained frozen at about 20 per cent for many years.
The force’s top officer, Commissioner Bob Paulson, has said he wants female representation to climb to 35 per cent. In a memo last month, which was leaked to the media, Paulson said a better gender balance would lead to a “healthier workplace.”
He has also launched an RCMP-wide assessment to determine whether women are treated equally when it comes to recruitment and promotion.
Nickel said hiring and training more female officers will take time, but she hopes to meet Paulson’s targets within a year.
A woman who is “very quiet, introverted, [and] withdrawn” is not an ideal candidate for front-line policing, she said, but may be encouraged to pursue a civilian role with the RCMP.
Nickel agreed that interviewers today watch for sexist tendencies in male recruits. Men displaying such traits are told they are not suitable candidates “at this point,” but are not permanently rejected.
Staff Sgt. Abe Townsend, who is on the national executive of the RCMP’s staff relations representation program, said increasing female recruits is laudable, but argued an analysis of labour market availability indicates the 35-per-cent benchmark is not achievable in the near future.
“In order to meet the stretch target, we wouldn’t want to see the recruitment standards minimized,” he added.
Townsend wouldn’t comment on whether the harassment lawsuits will discourage women from joining the RCMP, but said management should use the opportunity to tell Canadians the concerns are being addressed and that a career in policing is rewarding.
“I would hope that the exposure from the somewhat isolated incidents — when you look at the broader number of female officers that we have — isn’t taken out of context,” he added.
Nickel’s unit holds women-only recruiting events, where female Mounties with varied work and life experiences speak about policing.
“It is really important for potential applicants to understand that, ‘Yes, you can balance a career with being a mom,’” said Nickel, a 35-year veteran who has raised two sons and is now a grandmother.
She allowed there is a small percentage of the force, however, that still needs convincing that women can do all facets of police work.
“There are always going to be people who have a different mindset about what is a man’s role, what is a women’s role in any organization …,” Nickel said, “and you need to work on changing that mentality.”
[Source]
OMG, what a load of tripe and especially from one who has not done a lot of front line policing.
Any member looking for support or a place where you will be treated with respect from your peers to help you cope with any abuse, bullying or work related issues can contsct membersupport@hotmail.ca
And they are johnnyG. Got a call from a friend in Ottawa. Coming soon to a det near you is the decree that you will be required to identify and classify ANY relationship with another member, in writing, to be monitored (not to be confused with the present co-hab rule). Especially if one is of junior rank and not even if they work in the same unit. Cant wait to see the paper on that one. So we will see if Galliford and the CO submit their papers on that front. This Orwellian response is in part because Galliford was co-habitating with one of the persons she is suing. Love hath no fury….
And we hear from Webster, another talking head, again. I guess he is still miffed his application for Commissioner did not work out.
Let me get this straight. Recruiters look for candidates who don’t have any “sexist” tendencies, yet the outfit has a recruiting program that puts men to the back of the line and hires less qualified females in their place, and some of which wouldn’t be good security guards in a parking lot or a mall. I am sure the interviewers will be asking the males what their thoughts on these “Employment Equity” Quota policies are. You can be sure they will be dumping the ones that tell the truth and say “it’s not fair” or “the best person should be hired”. Say goodbye to anyone who thinks upping the Quota by 1/3rd for a “healthier workplace” is a bunch of HS and a ruse for more political correctness. Resentment of being treated unfairly for being a better candidate will be now confused for sexism. What you are going to end up with is men who are less likely to tell the truth and more RCMP corporate clones and drones that are dumb enough to believe in this artificially driven brand of equality. The sexism will exist, it will just drive it underground. Women will still be mistreated, just the motivations will become non apparent with gender neutral harassment.
The outfit will now focus even more on thought police kind of stuff where you will be judged more harshly for the jokes you tell or your political positions than how you treat and work with others. BTW, I hope they have the same standards for weeding out the Men Haters and the hyper sensitive. We all know that won’t happen. This will be one more RCMP double standard. Anyone who denies Man haters exist, go sit in on a sociology class sometime…. Yup, this is the crap recruits are fed when they are encouraged to get a degree!
I also believe that certain women need more “Inner strength”. They are not always going to hear or see things they don’t like in the office as on the street. The kind of people that going to go complaining about hearing a dirty joke they were not supposed to hear or start filing complaints the second a supervisor talks to them a little too gruffly are the ones who need to be weeded out. NOT the men who would make good cops because they don’t buy into all this social engineering liberal nonsense.
But, I want to be clear that the outfit should have Zero tolerance for those that are trying to ruin the professional and personal reputations of others. The outfit should have zero tolerance for the kinds of people who deliberately try to lower morale and ruin the physical and mental health of their co-workers because they have a personality conflict or because of some kind of professional jealousy.
As history has shown whenever an organization try’s to ban the above board stuff, they just push it under the surface. There the problem just gets worse…
The key to dealing with sexual harassment is to hold the individual accountable who is doing the harassing.
What female RCMP member would feel comfortable complaining to Supt. Nickel after she has made such statements.
In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king. Or should I say woman in this case.
RCMP supt. comments are “shameful”: police psychologis
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130)
http://www.news1130.com/news/local/article/383921–rcmp-supt-comments-are-shameful-police-psychologist
Be “resilient,” rely on your “inner strength”; BC’s top recruiter for the RCMP suggests women need to be tough to work for the Mounties.
Superintendent Maria Nickel also claims the recent lawsuits and accusations of sexual harassment in the force are not turning women away from careers policing, with the number of female recruits actually up in the last fiscal year.
“Really, you are going into a predominantly-male environment and… you need to rely on that inner strength that we all have, and to put that to your advantage when you are in any work situation,” she tells the Vancouver Sun.
“Let’s face it, you could work for a bank somewhere and be subjected to some form of harassment. You need to be able to have that strength to deal with it. I think the bulk of the ladies who are coming out as applicants realize that,” she goes on to say.
“You can either let yourself be a victim of it, if you will, or you can rely on that inner strength to say, ‘No, you know, my intention is that I am going to succeed’.”
Police psychologist Dr. Mike Webster calls the statement a slap in the face for female Mounties. “It’s shameful for her to come out and say something like this.”
Webster feels the RCMP is downplaying the attitudes women face in the force.
“It’s a grin-and-bear-it kind of statement and of course, that’s what’s going to come from inside the organization,” he tells News1130.
“What she’s saying, if you take this to the logical extreme, is ‘Yeah, it’s bad; it’s not a place for women to work. It’s dangerous, but grin and bear it, girls — you’ll be fine,’” argues Webster.
Yesterday, the RCMP made a sweeping denial of claims of sexual harassment by Corporal Catherine Galliford. The force is facing a number of lawsuits from current and former officers and employees.