‘Blue code of silence’ cited by city officer at tribunal
A “blue code of silence” exists in the Windsor police department and it repeatedly blocked her path to reach the administrative ranks of the upper echelon, a female officer with 31 years of experience testified during a Human Rights Tribunal on Tuesday.
“It’s to never speak about blocking of female advancement,” said Staff Sgt. Christine Bissonnette. “This code is real. This is the reality I experienced in the organization. Female members are held back and male members are advanced.”
Bissonnette triggered the tribunal hearing following a series of workplace-related human rights complaints that date back to 2015 and allege gender bias, discrimination and harassment within the police department.
At the time she filed her initial human rights complaint, there were no female officers above the rank of staff sergeant. The force now includes a female inspector and deputy chief. Much of what Bissonnette presented Tuesday to Bruce Best, vice-chairman of the tribunal, featured evidence from her own emails, submissions to her superiors and eventually to the police services board.
Her submissions to Best provided a trail of her concerns and objections to being overlooked for promotion to inspector in 2015. She scored last among candidates — all males — following an interview process, despite “having more experience, qualifications and no issues” regarding her work performance during her previous 28 years in the police department at the time she applied. After being overlooked the first time in 2015, the staff sergeant sought answers and appealed the decision to her superiors, in accordance with department policy, she said.
When Bissonnette didn’t like the response of the department’s deputy chief, whom she felt abruptly dismissed her appeal, and feeling fed up after years of women within the local police department facing a “glass ceiling,” she filed her initial human rights complaint.
After obtaining documents related to the oral and written interview process, she alleged that scores by the three-member interview team for the various candidates on various pages were either fixed to be the same, missing or changed afterwards. When another job posting for inspector came up the following year in 2016, Bissonnette alleges she was punished during the process and scored last, something she linked to her tribunal complaint. By then, it had become commonplace for coworkers and superiors to leave her feeling “isolated and ostracized,” while at times leaving her out of important communications within her department in a manner “that was meant to demean me in the organization,” she told the tribunal.
“I felt a sense of being undermined in the workplace with no place to turn,” said Bissonnette, who is currently on leave from her job.
“I was labelled a problem person. I felt humiliation and embarrassment. It contributed to a downward spiral of well-being for me”
Both Mayor Drew Dilkens, chair of the Windsor Police Services Board, and police Chief Al Frederick were in attendance for much of the proceedings on Tuesday.
The tribunal hearing is scheduled to continue on Wednesday, then will break with several more dates scheduled into 2019 before its conclusion.