In 2007 I wrote ‘Women Not Wanted’ about my career as a female RCMP officer. The hope was to encourage others to speak about the serious problems of workplace bullying and harassment management style in the RCMP, this ‘protect our own’ mindset deeply embedded in officers. THe second goal was to provide education about how harassment starts, what happens when there is no enforcement of policies and finally, accountability. Acknowledging the problem and finding creative solutions to fix the current system. Since 1998 the struggle to get anyone in media and government to to pay attention to the RCMP systemic bullying and harassment workplace culture was a long long winding road.
In the last few years there has been dramatic changes as more and more individuals speakup, along with two Senate Committee reports, a class action lawsuit with hundreds of female officers and dozens of individual lawsuits, the RCMP has been forced to pay attention to the tarnished image, moral issues and workplace culture.
Nothing will change if there is not effective enforcement of these new policies, rules and regulations. The current Commissioner has been at the helm for a few years and yet the bullying continues despite the ‘changes’. Let us not forget that there are good people in the organization who want to do the right thing but in a bad system. Is there something else we could do for current serving officers and the next generation of RCMP recruits?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ralph-goodale-rcmp-harassment-1.3455802