(CBC News) – Alleged sexual harassment and bullying within B.C.’s RCMP will not affect policing contract talks between provincial and federal governments, says B.C.’s Solicitor General and Attorney General Shirley Bond.
The minister is in the process of hammering out a potential 20-year contract with B.C.’s RCMP, who are leading block negotiations that also include Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and the territories.
“I don’t expect this to impact our negotiations. I have been reassured that there is a process in place to investigate any allegations that are made, and again these are allegations,” she said.
Two female members of the force — Cpl. Catherine Galliford and former constable Krista Carle — have told CBC News of years of sexual harassment by senior RCMP officers.
Galliford says she has not heard back about any investigation in the four years since she launched her complaint.
But Bond says she’s confident the RCMP isn’t glossing over allegations of sexual harassment.
“I am confident that the RCMP takes allegations of harassment seriously, and certainly have been reminded today that they have strategies in place to support staff and foster a workplace that is free of discrimination, as it should be.”
Meanwhile Rob Creaser, a former vice-president of the B.C. Mounted Police Professional Association, has said he would be deeply concerned if he were at the negotiating table.
“I don’t think you want to go into a long-term deal knowing that you have these kinds of issues festering in the workplace. B.C. was wanting more local accountability.”
The retired police officer says there are deep flaws within the RCMP.
“You’re negotiating for another 20 years of RCMP service here. There needs to be some major fixes within the organization.”
Battle for unionization
Creaser’s comments follow calls from the B.C. Mounted Police Professional Association for the RCMP to be allowed to unionize.
Cpl. Patrick Meihan, current president of the association, believes such allegations would be better dealt with if police were unionized and hopes a court challenge to be heard this month will make unionization possible.
“I can’t stand by and watch members get railroaded for standing up for their beliefs or speaking out against something that they don’t think is right.”
Meihan said RCMP members are “treated as worse than criminals sometimes” for standing up for themselves in the face of managerial abuse.
A section of the 1918 act that created the RCMP prohibits unionization, but the ban was struck down as unconstitutional by an Ontario Superior Court judge in 2009.
It would have allowed the B.C association and another association in Ontario to take steps toward negotiating a collective agreement with the federal government.
The federal government fought that ruling in the Ontario Court of Appeal, which granted Ottawa a temporary delay.
Another court challenge is scheduled to be heard in two weeks.
Meihan said taxpayers should back an RCMP union, because members’ grievances are taking years to resolve and often mean officers aren’t on the job.
“They are sitting at home, collecting a full salary, full benefits, everything,” said Meihan. “The Mounties are just refusing to put them back to work because they are deemed as either a problem child or they upset somebody and somebody is just having a tantrum.”
Senior RCMP officers would not comment on the union question, but in a statement noted that out of its 6,200 B.C. members, 48 are off work due to a workplace conflict.
[Source]
Every talking head has an agenda. .007% of the workforce (of officers only), which does not include civilian employees is off work due to workplace conflict which I assume includes harassment.
A workforce including civilian staff numbers 9500.
A small percentage of employees wish to unionize.
The Provincial authorities wish to have more control and pay less during present negotiations.
A poll available through FOI of the RCMP officers in Canada overwhelmingly supported a continuation of the present representative system with some modifications.
Deduce what you will.
And nor should it….
Nonunion RCMP Member Representation Works
I disagree with Tom Stamatakis, president of the Canadian Police Association, who suggest a union would provide the safeguards necessary to create levels of accountability.. The zero tolerance harassment policy is in place, and the challenges that may exist with the RCMP grievance process, including the length of time it takes to process a complaint, is the responsibility of individual managers. The great majority of RCMP managers adhere to the policy. As a former Mountie manager I can attest to that.
One of B.C.’s highest profile Mounties says she’s suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after years of sexual harassment.
Const. Catherine Galliford was the face of the B.C. RCMP for years. During her tenure as the RCMP’s spokesperson, Galliford announced the arrest of Robert William Pickton and revealed charges had been laid in the Air India bombing.
But in an internal RCMP complaint, Galliford makes serious allegations about misconduct inside the RCMP. She shared the complaint with CBC News and spoke with reporter Natalie Clancy about her claims saying:
“Everything that came out of his [a supervisor's] mouth was sexual,” Galliford said. “If I had a dime for every time one of my bosses asked me to sit on his knee, I’d be on a yacht in the Bahamas right now.”
Galliford says she faced constant sexual advances from several senior officers from the moment she graduated from the RCMP Academy in 1991.
She outlines years of harassment in a 115-page internal complaint that the RCMP has yet to respond to, including allegations a supervisor on the Missing Women’s Task Force.
An RCMP officer files a sexual harassment complaint against a male supervisor, the case SHOULD NOT take so long to be heard.
That is exactly what happened to Const. Laura Lehne who said what happened to her sends a clear message to women wanting to join the force.
The goal of the RCMP has always been justice for all, including it’s members. The question is: how best to maintain that. The RCMP grievance process, and the morality that exists in the force, leads the way towards equal treatment. It is senior management that need to tackle the deeper causes that produce differential results – junior supervisors.
Strong affirmative management aims at the higher levels of the force, but if we want to improve, the best way to do it is to concentrate on junior managers, so all are prepared to avail themselves of the learning opportunity. Then, affirmative action, is not too little, too late.
Management is like an individual mounting a horse who always tends to fall off on the other side of the horse. This seems to be the case with attempting to redress the discriminatory iniquities of the force’s history, the well-intentioned social engineers now engage in new forms of discriminatory iniquity and thereby think that they have successfully mounted the horse of workplace harmony. But, in reality, they have only fallen off on the other side of the issue.
No one should wait for remedy, and as a former RCMP officer I support Catherine and other women in the RCMP including my youngest daughter who is training.
C’mon Shirley you don’t actually believe the words coming out of your mouth. What do you know about the RCMP, which allows you to make such statements about your confidence in the RCMP taking allegations of harassment seriously. I would expect a woman in your position to speak from a stance of experience instead of taking a stand of what you would hope to be happening. It is better to remain silent and thought a fool, than to speak up and remove all doubt.