Helen Irvine is one of the six previous and current laws that have passed the last 18 months trying to file a collective claim against the municipal police forces of British Columbia.
They claim to have been harassed and intimidated by male co -workers and subject to sexual touches and tremendously offensive insults are refounded as “jokes.” One was sexually assaulted by a co -worker.
All are accustomed to hitting brick walls.
Even so, Irvine said she was surprised to listen to a lawyer for the BC office of the police complaint, refer to her efforts as proof of the need to address the “toxic” culture at a public hearing this month on accusations of sexual harassment against an official VPD veteran.
Especially because the OPCC, the body in charge of supervising the disciplinary action in the municipal police forces of BC, is one of the bodies they are demanding. And Irvine said women are still fighting the teeth and nails to be heard both in the workplace and in court.
“We were pleasantly surprised that our lawsuit was filed at that hearing,” said Ivine, a former Delta police officer, to CBC.
“I think it’s positive and shows that we are doing the right thing. We are moving in the right direction.”
Generalized concerns in the public domain ‘
The audience in the actions of the sergeant. Keiron McConnell has highlighted issues of sexual harassment and harassment in municipal surveillance.
McConnell, the most important sergeant of the VPD and a former leader in the Force Gang Squadron, admitted to having sent inappropriate and unwanted sexualized messages to five women. Now he is waiting to listen if the retired judge who supervises the case will accept a proposed resolution that would see it degraded and suspended for 20 days.
The original complaints against McConnell involved seven women, including three coworkers and four students in two of the BC universities where he taught.
The agreement saw him admit to harassing two of the officers and three students.
When Brian Smith, the OPCC lawyer, described the need for discipline, cited both the proposed class action presented by Irvine and others, and a similar demand that saw women members of RCMP and civil employees granted more than $ 125 million for harassment and discrimination.
“Sexual harassment is fundamentally contrary to the high expected ethical standards of all police officers, especially superior officials who have supervision responsibilities,” Smith told the audience.
“Concerns about sexual harassment and toxic cultures in police workplaces are widespread in the public domain.”
‘Systemically discriminatory towards women’
But that declared concern contrasts with the experience of Irvine and its co-demanding, which are paying attention to McConnell procedures.
They believe that their demand influenced the OPCC decision to call such an early public hearing in the process, a first under the changes in the Police Law designed to increase transparency.
But they doubt that it will change, because they say that the problem lies in the Police Law itself: a legislation designed to govern the police, police forces and the police procedure, but not to contemplate the culture of harassment that leads to complaints about the police.
One of the plaintiffs, a former VPD officer whose name is protected by a publication prohibition, was sexually assaulted by an official partner who was later sentenced to a year in jail.
Beyond the disciplinary procedures against the offending officer, the OPCC also supervised a separate investigation into an officer declared guilty of discreditable conduct for sharing text messages sent from the trial that describes the victim as a “bad drunk.”
In addition to the trauma of sexual assault, the woman told CBC that she has experienced all the angles of a system that demoralizes the victims while protecting criminals: named “witness” instead of a “victim” in her own sexual assault and left deeply dissatisfied with the results.
At each stage, he said, the restrictions of the Police Law have been promoted on their face as a justification of the decisions that have frozen it outside the process.
Last month, the OPCC denied his application for a public hearing after the officer who shared texts of the trial received a written reprimand and was ordered to take training in the respectful workplace, punishments that he sees as a joke.
“While we recognize their concerns regarding transparency and equity, the Police Law in its current form does not allow the assistance of the plaintiffs in the discipline procedures,” wrote the office of the police complaint in a letter to the woman.
“I can’t talk enough about the fact that the Police Law was created as a supervision agency for the public and it’s just that,” he told CBC News.
“What it is, is a scheme and, in its own creation and execution, it is systemically discriminatory towards women who work in the race and are victims of anything.”
‘Who is this problem about?’
The proposed class action appoints 13 cities and municipalities, their respective police boards, the OPCC, the Attorney General, the Attorney General and the Province as accused.
A certification hearing was established for October 2026, but it will probably be delayed since the defendants have argued that women must take their complaints to the Compensation Appeal Court at the BC’s workplace before the courts can be involved.
Earlier this month, a judge eliminated existing claims against the OPCC, but it gave Irvine time the others to amend the part of the claim related to the police complaint.
The OPCC said that the Police Law grants the commissioner immunity to legal actions related to any decision that will not be made of “bad faith.”
The judge agreed, but left the women two possible ways to change their statements, either by providing material facts of “bad faith” or asking for a type of order that involves a statement that their rights were violated.
According to Civil Claim notice, Irvine said he complained to the superiors about the “unwanted touch and the comments in the workplace”, but that he was subject to “abuse of retaliation.” It was finally diagnosed with major depressive disorder.
After the initial avalanche of advertising that arrived with the presentation of the lawsuit in 2023, Irvine said the women heard of dozens of possible claimants.
They have become accustomed to delaying and the slow routine of the legal process.
“I don’t know how someone could stand up and say that we have no problem with bullying and bullying or sexual harassment with police women,” Irvine said.
“That is not what is being argued right now. What is Ism argued?
‘There would be consequences for her’
Although the proposed resolution of the McConnell case was presented as a joint presentation by the auditory lawyer, the OPCC lawyer and McConnell himself, the acceptance is not guaranteed.
The former main judge of the Provincial Court, Carol Baird Ellan, can reject the agreement if she considers that she goes against the public interest.
The proposal would see McConnell recognize discreditable conduct towards two of the three officers who finally accused him of harassment.
But the proposal does not address the accusation made by the co -worker who first approached the VPD professional standards section, which means that the complaint that triggered the investigation that led to the public hearing could be dismissed.
According to OPCC documents, the officer took a step forward after realizing a social media post by calling McConnell a “sexual predator” with a “story of sexually assaulting her students” at the Royal Roads University of Victoria.
The officer gave the VPD professional standards section its own Facebook exchanges series with McConnell.
The OPCC audition notice says he said that McConnell’s Facebook messages “began as friendly but progressed to what they felt inappropriate and sexual.”
“He felt that he could not report the behavior of Sergeant McConnell due to his range and state within the VPD and believed that there would be consequences for her in the VPD if he did,” says the notice.
‘An internal view of what happens’
The public hearing lawyer told Baird Ellan to the lawyer’s lawyer who received a copy of the proposal. Your answer remains to be seen.
The other two officers, who were considered “affected” people instead of “plaintiffs” in the language of the Police Law, received printed copies of the resolution proposed in the morning of the hearing.
Degradation is considered the toughest penalty under the Police Law after dismissal. If Baird Ellan accepts the deal, McConnell may request to become a sergeant after a year as a first -class agent.
The same change in the legislation that allowed the OPCC to call the McConnell audience also provides a means for the police commissioner office to proactively investigate systemic problems in municipal surveillance.
But OPCC’s supervision operations director, Cameron Loveless, told the CBC that the agency is still “developing the frames to take them to take them and at this time no decisions have been made by launching any specific systemic investigation.”
Anyway, the plaintiff of class action whose name is protected by a publication prohibition said that he believes that the public hearing brought transparency to the discipline process, but perhaps not as expected.
“Finally, having something in the public eye and listening to the horrified average person to which he continued and then what is the proposed punishment,” he said.
“Now you know. The public audience has just allowed the public an instance. They finally obtained an internal view of what happens in municipal surveillance. And you must be disgusted because that man could appear in your home when you are calling them for help.”
