On February 15, 2013, we wrote a post about the increase in the number of female Royal Canadian Mounted Police who are filing sexual harassment lawsuits, and noted that “to its (belated) credit, the Mounties are promising to “stamp out sexual harassment and bullying:”
“Harassment has no place in the RCMP. We recognize it may be impossible to prevent entirely, but we will implement a zero tolerance approach. … The RCMP stands little to gain by denying the obvious – and it will not do so. … As long as these cases dominate the public discourse they will undermine public confidence in our institution and consume effort. Where wrong has been committed, it will be made right.”
We surmise that the Mounties are not doing such a good job of rooting out sexual harassment – we read today that “almost 300 current and former female Mounties have come forward to join a class-action lawsuit alleging harassment within the ranks of the RCMP.”
The suit was filed last year by a former RCMP officer who alleged “a number of humiliating incidents” during her 19-year tenure. “The alleged incidents described in Merlo’s affidavit range from receiving verbal propositions, to facing gender-based comments challenging her ability to perform her duties, to witnessing differences in how male and female officers were accommodated at her workplace.”
The lead plaintiff was quoted as saying “I’m amazed, actually, that for so many years a lot of us thought we were alone and didn’t say anything, Once we did start talking, we realized that there was quite a group of us … I’m just amazed.”