WHEN THE MUSIC’S OVER
Harassed Mountie wins apology
It was a cathartic phone call for RCMP Staff Sgt. Caroline O’Farrell.
More than three decades after being subjected to what she alleges were humiliating and demeaning hazings, bullying and sexual abuse by male members of the national police force’s famed Musical Ride, she was finally able to tell the RCMP commissioner about her pain and emotional suffering.
And for the first time since she filed her lawsuit four years ago, O’Farrell said she heard an apology.
“I let him know what’s been on my chest all this years,” she said of the Monday call with RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson.
“He listened, he listened very well. It definitely helped, and I let him know that it helped and that I needed to speak to him so openly, so candidly, so that it would help me to obtain closure and have him understand from my point of view directly how harassment, bullying and intimidation … how it can hurt you so terribly psychologically,” O’Farrell said.
Attempts to reach Paulson weren’t successful Thursday.
The phone call came as the RCMP and O’Farrell settled a multimillion-dollar lawsuit she filed four years ago, alleging harassment and abuse that included being the subject of a “suicide pool” and repeated “horse troughings” in which she was dragged through manure and urine after being named one of the first female members of the Musical Ride in 1986.
Internal investigations substantiated more than 120 events of abuse and harassment, but there were few consequences for the perpetrators, and O’Farrell was simply removed from the Ride, her lawyer says.
The amount of the settlement is confidential.
“I feel vindicated to some degree,” O’Farrell said. “I was very embarrassed, humiliated, ashamed for the RCMP and humiliated for myself and so I blocked it out of my memory and tried to avoid thinking about it.”
O’Farrell said she views the settlement as a “recognition of the harm that was done to me … my marriage, my personal relationships.”
The settlement with O’Farrell comes six months after a historic apology by the RCMP to all its female members for decades of abuse and harassment, along with a $100-million settlement to right the wrongs suffered by women in the ranks.
But the RCMP continued fighting O’Farrell’s claim, which was filed separately from the classaction lawsuit and wasn’t subject to the $100-million settlement. When the RCMP and other defendants failed to have O’Farrell’s case dismissed summarily after the class-action deal, the parties began to have serious settlement discussions, said her Ottawa lawyer, Peter Cronyn.
O’Farrell, 56, is still with the RCMP, stationed in Niagara-onthe-Lake, Ont. She plans to retire in August with a full pension after 35 years of service.
She’s been diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder and suffers from severe psychological distress, including flashbacks and nightmares — the result, she alleges, of abuse and harassment as member of the Musical Ride.
The alleged abuse included being repeatedly doused with cold water and then dragged face down by the arms and legs through stall shavings that included horse urine and manure. Others would then kick the wood chips, dirt, urine and feces onto O’Farrell’s head and body.
One of the hazings allegedly occurred shortly after she joined the equestrian course in April 1986. Another was before her bachelorette party, while yet another was after male colleagues locked her in a tack room and held a mock trial — including costumes, a judge, prosecutor and defence lawyer — and demanded she give them her underwear.
One day her boots were filled with manure. In another incident in 1987, a fellow RCMP officer stuck his finger out of the fly of his pants and stuck it near her ear as she slept while another member filmed it, the lawsuit alleged. O’Farrell also alleges other officers held a “suicide pool” and took bets on when she might kill herself.
O’Farrell was removed from the Ride in July 1987 because her supervisors felt it would be best for her own protection. One of her alleged tormentors, Sgt. Maj. Marc Godue, was recently removed from his position as riding master pending the outcome of a review following allegations of animal abuse.
Thirteen of O’Farrell’s former colleagues were named in the lawsuit. O’Farrell alleged that, when she complained, the RCMP didn’t take appropriate action to stop her abusers.
Canada’s attorney general had long argued O’Farrell was disqualified from suing because she received a disability pension — a position at odds with the terms of the $100-million settlement female members of the force received, which didn’t disqualify those who received pensions.
“She had been seriously abused and harmed, there had been a thorough investigation back at the time of the events and they were substantiated,” Cronyn said.
“In my own view, the right thing to do would have been to reach a settlement with her as soon as possible, rather than drag her through a protracted legal process. That said, it does appear that the RCMP is now trying to do the right thing, and so I guess better late than never.”
O’Farrell said she now hopes to be an advocate for others with post-traumatic stress disorder and to help other women in the RCMP who have experienced harassment.
“I hope the other women get some closure like I’m going to start to get now,” she said.
I was very embarrassed, humiliated, ashamed for the RCMP and humiliated for myself …