Police face gender-discrimination suit
Constables allege harassment from colleagues and officers; retired superintendent claims brass ignored complaints
TORONTO — A class-action lawsuit has been launched against the Waterloo Regional Police, alleging widespread gender-based discrimination and sexual harassment.
In the suit, announced in Toronto on Thursday, Const. Angelina Rivers and former constable Sharon Zehr say they were subjected to routine harassment and abuse by their male counterparts and their bosses.
The women say they were isolated and ostracized by their male peers and superiors, and their careers were sabotaged.
The women described Waterloo Regional Police as a “culture of misogyny.”
Joining the claim is retired superintendent Barry Zehr. He said he repeatedly spoke to police management about systemic discrimination, but nothing was done.
Zehr is married to Sharon Zehr. He retired from the service in April. “I tried to help,” he said on Thursday morning. “I apologize to the women for not being able to do more,” he said.
The lead lawyer on the case, Doug Elliott, said “the boys will be boys” attitude that permeates Waterloo Regional Police must stop.
The law firm has been contacted by “dozens” of complainants, he said.
The suit is against the police service as well as the
Waterloo Regional Police Services Board. Total damages amount to $167 million.
In a statement, the Waterloo Regional Police Service said it does not condone or tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment in the workplace.
“Some of the allegations attributed by the plaintiffs date back to 1988 and those have only just come to the attention of our service,” Chief Bryan Larkin said in the statement. “Some were already the subject of an investigation by an independent law firm and dealt with appropriately.”
The statement said the chief and police services board take the allegations seriously, but added that it is important to note they remain allegations and have not been proven in a court of law.
The statement said the service’s lawyers will challenge the “complete lack of jurisdiction” to bring the claim “and, if necessary, will be defending these allegations and challenging the certification of the class action.”
The service said it takes the position that the class action is inappropriate. It said the allegations should have been dealt with by the grievance and arbitration system that is provided by the Police Service Act and is governed by the officers’ collective agreement.
The allegations have not been proven in court. Police were served with the suit on Wednesday.
The complainants are being represented by Toronto law firm Cambridge LLP, and Scarfone Hawkins of Hamilton.
In the statement of claim, Waterloo Regional Police is described as a “workplace poisoned by a discriminatory and sexualized culture.”
The claim says the service is “plagued with pervasive and permeating misogyny from the high-ranking management to the low-ranking police officers.”
The claim states that sexualized jokes were part of the police culture and an “everyday experience.” Female police officers were called “lesbians” or “crazy,” the claim states.
The complainants said male officers routinely spoke about the female officers and debated which ones were attractive or ugly and which ones they would have sex with.
The claim states complaints resulted in “light punishment, if any, for the male perpetrators, and retaliation for the female complainant.”
The claim suggests officers who were investigated for discrimination were often promoted. In one case, an officer gave out a “homo of the year” award within the emergency response unit for an officer who performed his duties in a “feminine or gay fashion.”
That officer was promoted to a high-ranking position.
Rivers said she “dreamed” of being a police officer as a teenager. In 2006, she joined the Waterloo Regional Police when she 28.
“I couldn’t have been more proud,” said Rivers, who was assigned to the Cambridge detachment.
Rivers said the sexual harassment began shortly after she joined the police ranks. She was propositioned by a sergeant who sent her sexualized BBM messages telling her he was “naked and drunk” and asked her to send him naked pictures of herself. He also sent her a photo of his penis, according to the claim.
“I was devastated that he thought of me as sexual prey,” Rivers said at the media conference.
Rivers said she avoided his advances and “suffered in silence” because she was told making a complaint would make it worse.
She later complained to her staff sergeant and said she was “punished” for speaking out. She said her peers in the platoon isolated her. She said male officers on her platoon refused to provide her with backup when she was dispatched to dangerous situations.
“Here I was in uniform, a police officer standing up for what I believe,” said the 38year-old Guelph woman. “I was worthless to the WRPS.”
In 2015, Rivers said she was promoted to work as detective and assigned to work for a manager who had propositioned her when she was patrol constable.
Rivers said the sergeant “sabotaged” her career. His boss, the staff sergeant, sided with the sergeant, she said.
“With no one to turn to, I was sent further into mental anguish,” said Rivers, who was demoted back to patrol.
She went on sick leave in August of 2015, and launched an internal complaint with the police. She has never received the results of the investigation despite repeated requests.
Rivers filed a complaint with Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario last year.
She has been diagnosed with a major depressive disorder and PTSD.
“My career has been destroyed,” she said. “I refuse to stand by and allow this happen to another female at WRPS.”
Sharon Zehr said on her first day on the job she was harassed by two male officers. She joined the service in 1988 and quit 2 ½ years later.
Zehr said they told her they didn’t want female officers and it was up to them “to get women out.”
In another instance, Zehr said an officer asked her for oral sex. She reported him but he wasn’t disciplined. The officer later asked her what her favourite sexual positions were.
Zehr said while working at the Cambridge detachment she was ridiculed and mocked. According to the statement of claim, then constable Stephen Beckett, now the assistant deputy minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, rear-ended her cruiser and smiled and waved at her. He did not stop.
Zehr said she didn’t report the harassment and instead asked for a transfer to the Kitchener detachment.
There, the harassment continued, the claim states. During a briefing, a constable licked her earlobe and in another instance, she was grabbed by five officers and dragged into the men’s change room but was freed when the staff sergeant told the men to stop.
Zehr said she complained to her association but was told by her union representative “it would be too costly” to take action, the claim states. She quit in 1991.
Zehr said despite not working for the police, she continued to be harassed by Waterloo Regional Police officers when she worked as a special constable at Wilfrid Laurier University.
In 2010, Zehr stopped working and she and her husband moved to the Toronto area in 2016.
“I’m here to end systemic discriminatory practices that keep women in subordinate positions or force them out of policing,” she said.
Barry Zehr said he is part of the classaction suit because he wants to represent the families affected.
“Our family continues to deal with the trauma inflicted by the WRPS. It needs to end and it needs to end now,” he said.
Zehr said he hopes all senior officers will “look inside. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.”
“My career was pretty good overall because I was privileged,” Barry Zehr said. “I’m a man.”
Zehr said he raised many concerns with high-ranking officials, including former police chief Matt Torigian and current Chief Bryan Larkin, but they were ignored.
Zehr said he was “handcuffed” from getting help for female officers.
“It’s a major human rights issue that had flown under the radar for far too long,” he said.
Zehr, 51, who retired in April after 30 years, said he didn’t want to leave policing.
“I felt I had to. There was nothing more that I can do within the service,” he said. “It’s time now to make it right and to end systemic discrimination of women within the Waterloo Regional Police Service.”
“You find yourself behaving in a way that contradicts your beliefs and values,” said Zehr in an interview.
Lead counsel Doug Elliott criticized Waterloo Regional Police for having only two women in high-ranking police positions.
Elliott said Larkin has encouraged more women be recruited, but this doesn’t solve the problem.
“Encouraging more women to enter a toxic work environment will not solve the problem of gender discrimination,” said Elliott, who’s father and grandfather were police officers.
“It is shocking to me the kind of behaviour that has been tolerated at Waterloo Regional Police,” he said.
“How can any senior manager think it’s OK to send subordinates a picture of his penis?” he said.
“If the Waterloo Regional Police Service won’t clean up their own house, we are going to force them to do it,” he said.
A website — Waterloowomenpolice.com — has been created to allow for other women to come forward, Elliott said