Sexual Harassment and a Culture of Misogyny In the RCMP Pt. 2: More Women Speak Out

      TRIGGER WARNING for sexual abuse, rape, eating disorders, and victim blaming

      Since Cpl. Catherine Galliford came forward with sexual harassment and abuse allegations against the RCMP, many other women have begun speaking out. There are now as many as 150 women who have joined in the lawsuit against the RCMP. 

      

      Here are just some of those accounts.

Image from Cop Watch Vancouver

When Cst. Susan Gastaldo launched a lawsuit against her boss, Staff Sgt. Travis Pearson, accusing him of raping her on more than one occasion, she found herself taking the blame. Pearson denied the allegations, arguing that their "affair" was consensual and the sex was never forced. He admitted that he had an inappropriate affair with an officer but affirmed everything was completely consensual. Pearson even gave his cellphone to the reviewing panel to show them the text messages of an apparent sexual and/or affectionate nature that he exchanged with Gastaldo as "proof." After reviewing the text messages, the panel called for discipline but decided that only Gastaldo's job would held in question. 


Gastaldo's lawyer argued against the penalties, “He is the supervisor, she is the subordinate. He gets a $4,000 fine. Are we really going to impose upon her loss of job, loss of income, pension, promotional opportunities, benefits in the range of $4 million? That would be very disconcerting."


Gastaldo maintains that she was raped on numerous occasions and that their “relationship” was not consensual. Nevertheless, the panel reviewing the complaints decided that she was lying. “The board isn't convinced that a person who has been sexually assaulted would readily communicate with their assailant," stated male chairperson John Reid on the exchanged text messages. Even the lawyer representing the British Columbia RCMP concluded that Gastaldo has "never accepted responsibility for her actions." [Emphasis mine]

Photo from Flickr

Another lawsuit that gained publicity was launched last December by Cpl. Elisabeth Mary Couture who accused the RCMP of upholding a work environment of "fear and control." The men involved in her civil claim include the BC Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General as well as three RCMP officers and the Attorney General of Canada. Couture worked with the drug and organized crime awareness service but found herself becoming more panicked and anxious on the job. These symptoms, she affirms, were caused by her work environment. The panic and anxiety worsened to the point where Couture was forced to take a sick leave. 

Her civil claim states that “the defendants wilfully engaged in this outrageous conduct, deliberately and intentionally imposing the various unreasonable rules on Couture and deliberately and intentionally interfering with the conduct of her work." 


Everything she did was scrutinized and controlled, she says, even out-of-office coffee and lunch breaks were frowned upon if the top management was not involved. On one occasion she was even accused of being “too wordy” and was instructed to speak to her supervisors only “in a minute or less.” Nevertheless, on another occasion, when she spoke quietly to a co-worker, she was yelled at harshly by a supervisor.

Cpl. Couture remains on a sick leave from the RCMP but her lawsuit is growing stronger and larger, with many more women speaking out. 

The first Aboriginal female Mountie in Winnipeg, Cst. Marge Hudson, who worked on the force from 1979 to 2009 brought forth her own sexual harassment and abuse allegations in May 2012. Hudson did not only experience sexual harassment on the job, she also endured racism, bullying, and discrimination throughout her 30 year career.

Photo from Flickr

Further, while non-Aboriginal officers worked their way up the ranks, Hudson spent three decades without budging from her position as constable. “Am I brown, is that the reason? Am I female, is that the reason?” she told the CBC’s Sheila North-Wilson in an interview. “I had two shots against me right there — being aboriginal, being female.” 

She encourages more women to speak out about the clearly pervasive abuse in the RCMP, “Women are not just going to disappear … and they must treat us women fairly, which I know they haven’t. And that’s obvious to see, with 150 female members coming forward.”

One of the 150 has filed her second lawsuit against the RCMP. The most recent allegations come from Cst. Karen Katz, a prominent officer involved in investigating biker gangs in BC.  Her lawsuit which was launched in early July outlines similar incidents of abuse, harassment, and humiliation within the RCMP.  Her first lawsuit, which has yet to go through the courts, named fellow officer Baldev Singh Bamra, the Federal Minister of Public Safety, the Attorney General of Canada, and the Solicitor General of British Columbia as the offenders. Similarly to Galliford, Katz states that she endured harassment and abuse as soon as she began her career in the RCMP in 1980.

Katz filed a second suit this month, alleging disturbing harassment campaigns such as “fat parades” on the job, among other things. These “fat parades,” she recalls, consisted of male officers telling the female officers to “weigh-in” and then “parade” around the station and reveal their weights to the male corporals. The male officers and superiors would then proceed to shame, humiliate, and belittle the female officers about their bodies, size and overall physical appearance. The male officers continued to tell Katz that she was fat whenever they could, going as far as screaming at her for eating dessert in the cafeteria. 


 But it did not stop there.


A male officer even requested oral sex from Katz. The accused colleague worked alongside Katz in her first placement in Prince George, BC and had reportedly told Katz, “you are just the right height to put a beer on your head and you can give me ... (oral sex)." Other male RCMP officers would inquire about her sex life, describe their penises to her and boast about their own sexual experiences. As if this was not enough, Katz was even subjected to pornography on the job, unwelcome cheek kisses, and shoulder rubs. Due to the traumatic experiences of humiliation and sexual harassment, Katz developed bulimia, unbearable stomach pains, and post-traumatic stress disorder. "The reasons I stayed was because I've always wanted to be a police officer in the RCMP and serving the Canadian public," she said.
"I tolerated it, but I tolerated it with a notebook on the side, taking notes ... getting copies of my health services files, my personnel files, my every file, keeping track, knowing I was a target." Katz has been on sick leave since 2009.

Unfortunately, these are not the only women who have been harassed or abused in the RCMP or in any workplace for that matter; there are many more women in many more jobs. Women are frequently subjected to workplace sexual harassment, abuse and bullying by male co-workers and superiors. Jobs traditionally held by males and that are perceived under patriarchy, as being “masculine” or “male”–such as medicine, engineering, mechanics, trades, business as well as policing and fire-fighting–can be volatile work environments for women. These male-saturated workplaces may try to preserve their ‘boys club’ perv-o-sphere through harassment campaigns to push out female employees. Sexual harassment is about male power. As Burn states so simply in her women's studies text, "it [sexual harassment] arises from and reinforces the subordinate position of women in society. By intimidating and discouraging women from work, male dominance occupationally and economically is assured" (p. 118).




















notes:


S. M. Burns, 2005, Chapter 5 Women's Work, Sexual Harassment in "Women Across Cultures: A Global Perspective," 2nd ed, p. 119.