Lawsuit against RCMP certified as class action

TORONTO (CP) — A proposed agreement to compensate women who endured sexual harassment as employees of the RCMP has passed a key hurdle, with a Federal Court judge agreeing two lawsuits against the police force can proceed as a class action.

In certifying the class action, Judge Ann Marie McDonald said she was satisfied the women have shown they have reasonable grounds to press their lawsuit.

McDonald also approved the proposed definition of class members — essentially all women who work for, or did work for, the RCMP starting in 1974.

While individual claims will have to be assessed, McDonald found that a class action is preferable to forcing victims to press claims on their own.

“Based upon the information provided by the RCMP, there may be as many as 20,000 females who qualify as primary class members,” the judge said in her written decision. “Individual actions would be inefficient and uneconomic.”

Former RCMP officers Janet Merlo and Linda Davidson, both of whom say they suffered gender-based discrimination and harassment, are appropriate as representative plaintiffs, the ruling states.

Certification of the class action, which Ottawa did not oppose at a hearing last week, paves the way now for the court to give its blessing to a tentative settlement reached last May between the federal government and the women.

In May last year, the two sides reached the tentative deal to compensate women who experienced workplace sexual harassment or gender-based discrimination while working for the RCMP. Details were announced in October and Commissioner Bob Paulson apologized for having failed the women.