(Published in 24 Hours Nov. 30, 2011)
The RCMP is a boys club
By
Leo Knight
Many years ago when I served in the RCMP, it was often stated that the force was "100 years of tradition unhampered by progress."
The words were, of course, said in jest. But it seems they bear more than a kernel of truth given the sexual harassment allegations made earlier this month by Cpl. Catherine Galliford.
The tradition in the RCMP is a double-edged sword. On the one side, it gives the organization its pride and its global reputation as an icon of Canada. But, it is the other side, the darker one of the old boys club that causes many of the problems the force has with its domestic reputation and ongoing image battles in the wake of successive public relations disasters.
The RCMP was late in the game when it came to allowing women into the fold. In 1974, the first all-female troop graduated from the RCMP training academy in Regina. Those first female members were treated with suspicion, and sometimes derision, from the outset by the once quintessential men’s club. In the world of tough, hard-edged cops, they regarded females as a potential liability who would be of little use when back-up was needed.
Anytime a woman tries to make it in a man’s world, she has to do things twice as well to be thought of as half as good.
It’s terribly unfair. But nobody said the world was a fair place. And the RCMP was then, and to a certain degree still is, a man’s world.
I don’t doubt the veracity of Galliford’s accusations. I have heard others of a similar nature many times over the years.
Stories of female members being refused a promotion or a transfer to a special section because of their gender; or, stories about male Neanderthals who were complained about several times by different female members and all that ever happened was that he would be promoted or transferred away from the complainant.
Newly appointed Commissioner Bob Paulson has said rampant sexual harassment in the force would be his first priority. If he really means that, he will have to dismantle the old boys network that has controlled everything in the organization for decades.
The RCMP ranks are filled with courageous, service-minded men and women who should make us all proud.
The existence of some testosterone-laden misogynists within should be disturbing.
But much more so has been the tolerance and protection of them by the leaders in our national police force.