In contrast this one is somewhat more disturbing. Three Toronto police officers have been charged with gang raping a female officer. The Toronto Sun is reporting that the three police officers, Joshua Cabero, Leslie Nyznik and Sameer Kara were swiftly freed on $15,000 bail
Rape is a heinous crime all on it's own. Gang rape is deranged. Yet three police officers gang raping a fellow officer is a colossal betrayal of trust. Sexual harassment is a huge problem within the RCMP that they refuse to address. That's why they are facing a class action lawsuit about it. As EAF has mentioned over 300 female officers are part of a class action lawsuit alleging sexual harassment in their workplace. That is huge.
I was under the impression that Catherine Galliford was leading that class action but I understand that is not true it is Janet Merlo who is leading it. Catherine Galliford's case is entirely separate. Catherine was the public face for the RCMP in the media during the Pickton case and Air India. I have no idea why they don't settle that one. I understand she is willing to agree to a gag order. If they don't settle there will be no gag order. It is clear they want to drag it on and punish her by burning tax dollars to cover their criminal negligence.
Janet Merlo wrote a book about her experiences called No One to Tell: Breaking My Silence on Life in the RCMP. The Globe and Mail reported that Janet paints a picture of near daily harassment. Some of the allegations are just stupid innuendos that are obviously not appropriate in any work force not to mention the RCMP. In any other industry the company would deal with it to fulfill their legal obligation instead of sweep it under the carpet and not only tolerate the inappropriate behavior but actually promote people who are intrenched in it.
Yet some of the allegations are much more serious and include actual rape. During the Winter Olympics in Vancouver members of the RCMP were accused of smuggling a stripper in a hockey duffel bag onto a cruise ship for security personal. During that drunken party a police officer was accused of raping a female coworker. That story was buried because whistle blowers are afraid of retaliation since they get slandered and attacked for reporting criminal activity. Not all the allegations are unproven. Don Ray was convicted and sent to Surrey. The fact that he is still employed with the RCMP is proof they refuse to recognize their legal obligation to remove sexual harassment from the workplace. Any other industry he would have been fired.
Well, like American Express, "Membership has it's privileges"....... ;-)
ReplyDeleteIt's a problem with the culture of policing in Canada. It goes back decades. There is a pervasive outlook of "We're the police, we can do whatever we want". It's VPD's unofficial motto, and indeed I heard 2 different officers say this to fellow "members" on 2 different occasions. If they will say that within earshot of a civilian, with no sense of how inappropriate it is to even think it, never mind express it, imagine how common and widespread that attitude truly is. And the reality is, it's the truth, cops in Canada prove it all the time.
While there will always be those people who when given a "shield" (it's called that for a reason apparently) will use it to do things they shouldn't, the volume of misbehavior on a per capita basis is seemly well beyond what we might expect it to be. Add to that the fact that once you are a police officer in Canada, it's pretty apparent that you will be able to commit offenses and suffer little to no punishment. Even if this was just perception (and it's not, it's reality) this WILL attract a lot of the wrong people to the job. And here we are......
What this female officer should have done IMO is invite all three back for a second round, and once she had them all sitting at a table having a drink, shot all three in the head. I'll bet you she could easily get the Crown to offer a plea to involuntary manslaughter due to diminished capacity/PTSD or something from being gang raped.
Edit to add: I once dated a girl who was bisexual and who had numerous gay male friends. As a strictly hetero male, I have an issue with that unless they can keep it to themselves, (they usually can't) so I never hung out with her when she was hanging out with them. That said, she once made an interesting statement, which I can only guess she heard from one of them while discussing "alternative" male sexuality. It basically went along the lines of "any man who is comfortable with an erection in the room other than his own" being not solidly hetero, and that 2 or 3 on one was often a subconsciously acceptable way for such men to be naked with other guys, that they were in fact having sex with other men but with the buffer of a woman's body between them.
DeleteIn other words, maybe next time these three overcompensating closet cases can just get a room and leave her out of it. And if there was anything like Justice in Canada, the Crown would make that happen for them. "Prison Rules", etc.