What now for our RCMP?

                   by Kenneth Bagnell

    Kahil Gibran, the Lebanese poet once said something that came back to me as I watched RCMP Commissioner, Bob Paulson, tell Canada of the humiliating sexist misbehavior to women, of so many of his historically renowned Mounties. “Wisdom ceases to be wisdom,” Gibran once wrote, “when it becomes too proud to weep.” In my view, the commissioner was more honorable and affecting because he shed a tear, rather than if he didn’t. “To all the women, I stand humbly before you today” he said, white Kleenex in hand, “and solemnly offer our sincere apology.” We fully understand, Commissioner, and we are the better for your humanity and apology. (I stress this is not intended as an exposure of the majority members of the RCMP but of a sad, significant, number of male members.)

     So what now?  First of all, the women. (They were eligible to join in 1974.) The danger is that a segment of the public will view them as either radical feminists out for revenge or opportunistic women out for dollars. Both are false. For years, women in uniform—military or police—have too often been given the back of the hand by the police culture, and indeed the male public citizenry; they are regarded as the weak sisters. Too many times, years ago in Toronto, I have been with male drivers and passengers, who, when they saw a female officer in the intersection, rolled down the window and whistled at her. Believe me. Years ago, I was with two politicians, one of whom did the whistling. What does that tell us? It tells us that we men, yes many of us, have a way to go in growing up and smartening up.

      Moreover, this is much more than an attitudinal gesture.   It is now over half a century since sexual harassment was publically flagged in the major media organizations of Europe and the US. In fact, Canada’s attitude to equal rights for women began formation even before the US. The first gesture in that direction took place as far back as 1884, when in Ontario, women were formally designated as having equal property rights, a rather modest gesture, but a start, step by step, to Ontario’s Fair Employment Practices Act of the early 1950s.  (It resulted in other provinces promptly following.) Then, also in the 1950s, came other regulations to assure women equality in the world of work. This, in turn, eventually resulted not just in equality of salaries and so on, but in human rights. Thus in 2002, our federal government formally ratified what it called: “The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women. How disappointing that we now have our have national legendary police service, which should be enforcing this, it, breaking it in dreadful numbers.

    This, a few days ago, the full story broke: at least 500 RCMP women have, sometime ago or more recently, been subject to confirmed harassment and worse, all of which is so serious that the federal government has agreed to payouts of $100,000. The forms of sexual interference: Rape. Sexual touching. Physical assault. Threats. Harassment, Bullying. And more.. It’s enormous.  Yes, but worse was the harm; Paulson was very open about it: “For many of our women, this harassment has hurt them mentally and physically. It has destroyed relationships and marriages, and even whole families have suffered as a result. Their very lives have been affected.” But one example:

      A few years ago Constable Janet Merlo (who has taken the lead in the lawsuit) told her supervisor in Nanaimo, British Columbia, that she was expecting. The officer, she reports, shouted at her in a very vulgar tone: “He just started yelling and screaming at me. If I wanted a career in the RCMP, he said, I’d have to decide on that or I could pop out kids my whole life… he told me that next time  I should keep my f x x x ing legs closed.” What a gentleman! Moreover she has also made public the fact that another superior not only made coarse sexual references to her but offered to massage her breasts. This is the much revered RCMP? It may be hard to believe but it’s impossible to accept.

      Ms. Merlo has written a book on her tempestuous career, and not long ago, just before writing, I went to a nearby Library, and was able to pick up: “No One to tell: Breaking My Silence on Life in the The RCMP.” It’s both readable and revealing. But it’s not for you if you like “nice” books. It’s detailed and revealing, not of integrity and heroism, but brutality and bullying. Some of the incidents recorded are absolutely incredible and deeply systemic. Here are three: one of her female colleagues  tells a quick story that leaves me still shaking my head: “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.” Or take this: “In my first few years in the RCMP I’d maintained my silence about a supervisor who had a naked blow-up doll next to his desk and a superior who’d yelled at me to keep my legs shut.” Finally how about this for something truly gross: a sergeant held up an apparently worn out “dildo,” and in front of Janet Merlo and several other RCMP officers shouted this: “Merlo, this thing was brand new yesterday; now it’s worn out. Did you take it home last night?” If there’s ever an award for a humiliating foul mouth, this guy has already earned it. So much for the admirable men we always thought comprised the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Please rise and join me as we salute their memory.

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      Numerous other RCMP women are now speaking out and more are expected to do so. Janet Merlo’s book, No One To Tell, is available in libraries and many bookstores in every province.

Past blogs are archived on my website: your comments are welcome there: www.kennethbagnell.com.