Calgary police officer wants more accountability for workplace sexual harassment
Posted Jul 26, 2017 8:02 am.
Last Updated Jul 26, 2017 8:19 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A Calgary police officer wants more done to change a culture of sexual harassment in the workplace.
She confronted a commission meeting Tuesday, as members were hearing about changes in dealing with misconduct.
Cst. Kim Prodaniuk felt there’s been a lot of talk, and not a lot of action.
“When are we gonna get real here, and start hearing about meaningful accountability and consequences to take care of these situations in the real on-goings and the day-to-day workplace and not these pie-in-the-sky ideas of what should happen in the CPS?,” she asked.
In February, another police officer, Cst. Jen Magnus, confronted a police commission meeting, and resigned over what she said was years of bullying.
“The CPS is great at creating policies and training that aren’t in reality being adhered; and backroom politics are absolutely rampant. That is currently affecting morale,” Cst. Prodaniuk said.
She cited a recent Gender Perception Survey that found 25 per cent of Calgary police women believe gender is negatively impacting their careers, and 36 per cent have experienced sexual harassment but not reported it.
Calgary Police Chief Roger Chaffin wasn’t surprised by the comments.
He said he respects wanting a quick fix, but it’s going to take time — and none of their policies are “lip service.”
“This has been an immense amount of work to get to where we are, I mean, this is work that has been going on for the last three years, trying to re-organize ourselves, and to make sure we are presenting ourselves as a fair and equitable workplace,” Chaffin said.
He promised anyone who crosses a line will be held accountable.
“The changes aren’t always as rapid as people want, but they are happening,” he said.
“It’s going to be measured over months and years, not sort of days and weeks, so, we certainly have some miles to walk in.”
Chaffin said issues will always occur, but they will have ways to sort through them and improve behaviour.
One of the processes being put into place is a way to confidentially report incidents or concerns through a third party advocate.
