A long and disturbing chapter in the history of the RCMP, has, hopefully, come to an end.
On Oct. 6 the RCMP announced a settlement in decades-old harassment-related lawsuits brought forward by female officers.
The stories were numerous – and those were just from female officers who were brave enough to come forward – of shameful, derogratory and disgusting sexual harassment.
For years, the RCMP turned a blind eye to those women’s complaints. The practice often seemed to be a matter of waiting for the women to simply give up and go away.
Good female officers ended up losing their careers, having their health severely damaged and their lives left in shambles.
Sandy Merlo, a former officer who spearheaded a call for justice, had tried to get her supervisors to take her complaints seriously and had sent a letter to the then-commissioner, but she waited 25 months for a reply and no help was offered.
The new head of the RCMP, commissioner Bob Paulson, pledged in November 2011 that sexual harassment allegations “do not represent the force that I joined and this condition cannot stand.”
But it took two class action lawsuits certified in 2012 and 2015 that carried the potential to embarrass a multitude of officers and expose a systemic sexist environment to force the situation to a settlement.
The settlement came with an excellent apology from Commissioner Paulson that included the words: “...we failed you. We hurt you. For that, I am truly sorry.”
Those words are joined by initiatives and commitments to support women in the RCMP, and an estimated $100-million settlement.
Unfortunately taxpayers will pick up the tab for what shouldn’t have been allowed to continue for far too long.
The male RCMP members who got away with the harassment and were ignored or supported by their superiors should really have to fork out something. But they won’t.
The female officers who left the force and had their lives and dreams shattered may find justice done with this settlement and apology. We hope so.
And, perhaps, young women looking to policing as a career will find it reassuring and a sign of better times to come. But sexist attitudes are often baked into organizations, and it will take time for the remedies to become standard operating procedure.
