Sexual Harassment and a Culture of Misogyny In the RCMP Pt. 1: Cpl. Galliford's Allegations

Photo found here

Many Canadians are shocked by the increasing cases of sexual harassment, abuse, and overall misconduct within the RCMP or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Unfortunately, we are not enraged enough. 

Just this month another female Mountie brought forth allegations of workplace humiliation, sexual abuse, and harassment dating back to the 1980s. These new allegations coupled with the recently obtained photos of an RCMP Corporal on a BDSM website provides the public with more insight into the misogyny-drenched, so-called “old boys” culture within the RCMP. This kind of workplace abuse and overall contempt towards female employees and victims of male violence should rouse anger in all Canadians.

Trigger Warning:  This post contains accounts of sexual harassment, psychological abuse, sexual assault, pornography, and murder. 

Much of the media coverage on the RCMP sexual harassment allegations are only known by a few chronologically-distant reports and interviews and yet, it is so vital that these accounts of abuse and harassment are made as public as possible. After all, these are the folks that have the job description of "serving and protecting" the Canadian populace.  

Therefore, in an attempt to contribute to the publicizing process, here are several of the over 150 women's accounts of sexual harassment and abuse in the RCMP starting with Cpl. Catherine Galliford.

The first woman to publicly accuse the RCMP of upholding a culture of sexual harassment and abuse was Cpl. Catherine Galliford, a former media relations officer. She worked extensively on the highly-publicized Robert Pickton serial murder case which investigated the horrific murders of numerous women from the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, British Columbia. 

Galliford's civil suit states that the sexual harassment and abuse began as far back as 1990, the same year she joined the force. Galliford describes enduring sexual harassment, sexual assault, and bullying for 16 years. The torment ended, but only after she was forced to leave her job due to a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. 

The men accused in her lawsuit include three Mounties, the provincial Justice Minister, a Vancouver Police detective, Canada’s Attorney General, and an RCMP-employed physician who allegedly disclosed Galliford’s confidential medical files to her ex-husband.  However, the abuse and harassment began even before Galliford was officially hired. The actual Supreme Court of British Columbia civil claim that was released by the CBC shows that upon entering the RCMP, Vancouver Police Department Officer Marvin Wawia aggressively forced himself upon Galliford. He threatened that if she refused him sex, she would be refused the job.

The civil claim also outlines numerous other accounts of workplace chauvinism and abuse perpetrated by male officers.  Insp. Doug Henderson, an officer that Galliford did not know, began organizing trips for the RCMP. Sure enough Galliford was informed that would be required to travel with Henderson, despite her discomfort with the idea of travelling with someone unfamiliar. On the first trip, Henderson booked only one hotel room in Edmonton, going as far as booking a large suite and ordering wine for two. In the suite, Henderson groped Galliford's breasts and exposed his penis to her. Sadly, this would not be the last time that Galliford would be placed in a horrifying situation with a male officer.

Galliford first met VPD Detective Phil Little when she was assigned to work on the Missing Women's Task Force. Little established and led an investigative team that collaborated with the RCMP for cold case homicides. Galliford became a part of this team. However, shortly after becoming her boss, Little began to watch Galliford through her office window and mouth sexual and rude suggestions to her while she tried to work. "I never met a woman I can't put a leg over," he once told her. "I don't know what I like better, your eyes or your mouth," is also quoted of Little in Galliford's civil claim. Other times Little would describe the sex he claimed with other female investigators to Galliford and boast about his favourite sexual positions. Bizarrely he once even required that she attend the filming of a season of the local documentary-style TV show "KinK" in order to determine if Pickton was in any of the episodes. Her boss then insisted that he would join her so that they could "watch the show together," which as Galliford's claim states is, "essentially porn." Furthermore, Little, like Henderson, exposed himself to Galliford. 

In her civil claim, Galliford recalls members of the VPD and RCMP watching pornography and engaging in sexual harassment on the job even after the Missing Women Task force was created in 2001.  According to an RCMP watch blog, Galliford also revealed that when the horrible details of the Pickton murder began to surface, including details of how Pickton butchered women and scattered their body parts on his pig farm, RCMP officers would laugh with one another. The particular incident included Detective D., Staff Sergeant L. and Cpl. Galliford. Detective D. turned to Galliford and told her that he had had a dream about Willy Pickton. According to the civil claim, he told Galliford that he "fantasized about Pickton escaping from jail, hunting her down, stripping her naked, and hanging her from the meat hook and gutting her like a pig." The men laughed at the remark.

Although she has suffered immensely, Cpl. Galliford's allegations and lawsuit have now inspired many other female officers to speak up about what Galliford calls the “pervasive culture” within the RCMP, one that she says she felt“powerless to stop."

Just recently however, the RCMP publicly denied the allegations of abuse and harassment, claiming that Galliford is just an alcoholic who took too long to get sober. They even allege that she “rejected offers” by other officers to help “keep her away” from the those harassing her – also known as the “she asked for it” defense. The RCMP, acting in accordance with other victim-blamers, also raise the fact that Galliford did not report the abuse and harassment early enough. This, apparently, is some kind of defense.

"I didn’t complain. They’re right when they say that,"Galliford told the CBC, "I did not complain because when you go to someone to complain about harassment and abuse in the workplace, it’s almost as if they’re paying lip service."
"There really isn’t an investigation and so I really didn’t think there was any point because I knew that if I complained about what was happening to me, I would become a target and my career would be over," she added.


Furthermore, Galliford re-affirmed that "it was never consensual because it was always a person in a position of authority above me." "What I noticed over time is that these people who were my supervisors would try to get me in a place where they could do or say what they wanted and I was alone with them and they made sure that there were no other witnesses."

The subsequent posts in this series will include several other women’s accounts of sexual harassment, abuse, and misconduct in the RCMP as well as the recently surfaced BDSM photos of a Mountie.