Shattered career dreams
Harassment, disillusionment drove Sydney Mines native Louise Butts to abandon her career with the RCMP
Within 10 minutes of arriving at an RCMP office for her second career posting, Louise Butts’s lifelong dream began to crumble.
“It started the night that I walked into the detachment,” the former Mountie said.
The Sydney Mines native arrived in Newfoundland in the winter of 1987, at age 27, after spending nine months in Ottawa.
In short order, she was offered a beer.
“I couldn’t believe there was a liquor fridge in the coffee room,” she said. “It didn’t match. To me, it wasn’t normal. At the time it struck me as being very, very odd. It wasn’t professional.”
That proved to be just the start of many incidents Butts deemed “less than normal.”
Over the next eight years, the dream that began when she was a young girl, of proudly donning the famous red serge uniform to help others, was shattered.
“There were a lot of very petty things that went on. But they were signs of a more serious, ingrained attitude,” she said.
From what she called outright sexism and sexual innuendo, to harassment in varying forms and a lack of support from her superior officers, it took a toll.
“We were afraid, we were intimidated.” In late 1992, when she became pregnant during a long-term relationship, she was transferred to a smaller detachment.
There, Butts said her sergeant informed her that while he had requested an extra member because the detachment was overworked, the last thing he wanted was a pregnant, female member.
And while she never witnessed any on-duty drinking, Butts said, after-hours alcohol consumption among members was a constant.
“There was a lot of drinking and I shared in that,” she said. “And if I wasn’t working I was drinking. There was no plan or regulations around a healthy lifestyle or what to do.”
In 1994, she determined she had had enough and after informing her sergeant she was taking leave, she packed up her daughter and moved back to her home in Cape Breton.
But the harassment continued even while on medical leave, she said, and finally on Jan. 16, 1997 — 11 years to the day after she had signed up — Butts submitted her resignation.
“When I left the force I felt like I was a total failure, that I had let everybody down,” she said. “My family couldn’t understand why I was leaving. My mother was disillusioned. She was disappointed.”
And for the past 20 years her experiences on the force have been her deep, dark secret. Last winter, Butts added her name to the Merlo-Davidson class-action lawsuit against the RCMP. Beyond that, however, and with the exception of her spiritual adviser and mental health professional, Butts said she has not related her story to anyone, until now.
“Over the past 20 years I have always wanted to tell my story,” she said. “But I was in no condition to talk. I was very angry. I was very upset. For me now, the anger is gone. And I realize that I am not alone, that this did happen and is happening today with other members.”
Butts, 57, now lives in Truro and is one of thousands of current and former RCMP officers and employees who filed claims of sexual harassment in a classaction lawsuit initiated by former Mounties Janet Merlo and Linda Davidson.
The federal government has set aside $100 million for payouts to those involved in the suit although there is no cap.
Under the settlement, the harassed current and former female employees are to receive between $10,000 and $220,000.
It also stipulates the RCMP must work to eliminate harassment within its ranks.
Butts doesn’t yet know how much she will receive. And while the money will help her financially, the peace of mind of finally having it publicly acknowledged that she was not at fault, is its own reward.
As for her personal healing journey, she points to a particular event — a funeral in Truro for a fellow RCMP member.
“My healing started when I met all my ex co-workers at the church … it was validation for me,” she said. “I had one member say to me, ‘I’m really sorry for how you were treated.’
“That was the beginning of my healing.”
As for the financial aspect, “it will also give me the opportunity to go back to school and continue my education.”