Canada is facing its own Time’s Up moment

‘Time’s up’ campaign finally hits home, write Erica Ifill and Erin Gee.

Oct. 5, 2017 will forever be the beginning of the end.

It’s when women decided “Time’s Up!” on dealing with sexual harassment and assault in the workplace. For months we have seen women across the United States from a wide range of industries (entertainment, politics, sports and hospitality) share their stories about workplace sexual harassment and assault.

We have heard so many stories about men behaving badly in the workplace that it’s really only surprising when it’s someone we assumed was better than that, or when the allegations are so egregious that they are impossible to ignore.

And that’s what happened Wednesday night with former Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown.

Since the Weinstein allegations broke on Oct. 5, 2017, we have wondered when Canada’s reckoning would come. We thought it was when popular Ottawa chef Matthew Carmichael faced allegations of harassment and assault in his restaurants, but we were wrong.

We thought it was when The Canadian Press surveyed female MPs and found that 58 per cent of respondents said that they had been targets of sexual misconduct, but again, we were wrong.

This time, however, it’s here.

On Wednesday evening, CTV reported allegations against Patrick Brown, made by two women, one of whom was a political staffer: One alleged he made advances when she was in high school, the staffer alleged he sexually assaulted her after an event.

Brown resigned overnight Thursday, and earlier, in a news conference, denied the allegations.

Politics is the ultimate power profession, a space typically occupied by white, heterosexual males in Canada. When we work for a candidate or someone who holds office, we think they can do no wrong. We believe in them, in their message, in what they stand for. We deify them.

It is that power discrepancy, absent of accountability, that can make them dangerous.

Despite what some will say, sexual harassment and assault are not about sex, they are not about what the individual was wearing at the time of the incident, or how drunk the victim was or about past or future sexual behaviour. Sexual harassment and assault are about the imbalance of power without checks and balances to that power.

In instances of workplace sexual harassment and assault, these incidents are also about work. Or rather the creation of an environment that makes doing your job more challenging, stressful and fearful than required or intended. Sexual harassment is a tax to be paid with your mental — and in the most serious instances — physical being.

This sort of behaviour makes the place you spend a third of your life a living hell.

All that those who experience workplace sexual harassment and assault want is to go to work; to learn skills, get mentored and make his or her community better.

Imagine always having to second guess whether or not you were actually good at your job because you didn’t know if it was because your boss wanted to have sex with you. Imagine waking up everyday thinking of ways to thwart sexual advances from your colleagues.

And then we wonder why more young women aren’t choosing to run for public office.

Organizations like Equal Voice in Canada and She Should Run in the United States are non-partisan organizations that seek to help elect more women to office. This is a noble cause and more women should indeed hold public office.

But perhaps the question we should be asking isn’t about how to help them win these seats; the question should be how do we even get them to run in the first place?