Montreal Gazette

Female Mounties to be allowed to wear pants

Dress uniform rule changes to give them an option

- DENE MOORE THE CANADIAN PRESS

VANCOUVER — Amid allegation­s of discrimina­tion and sexual harassment, the RCMP brass have recently made at least one change that will please female officers: the force is now allowing women to wear pants and boots with all their formal uniforms.

It’s been almost a decade since an unnamed female officer filed a grievance because she was denied boots and pants instead of a skirt and leather pumps.

In January 2003, she submitted a requisitio­n for a pair of boots for the dress uniform that members of the force can wear to social functions. The following month, her request was denied with an explanatio­n that boots and spurs were not an approved order of dress for women, whose Walking Out Order includes a long blue skirt and black leather pumps.

“She felt that the dress policy was discrimina­tory since it differenti­ated between male and female members. In her view, the policy was outdated and needed to be modernized. Moreover, she added that wearing skirts was not part of her lifestyle,” says the review committee summary.

Her complaint was twice denied on the ground that she was aware upon her graduation from RCMP training of the uniform requiremen­ts and should have filed her grievance then.

The External Review Committee disagreed with that, but found her case still did not constitute discrimina­tion under the law.

However, the report signed by committee chairperso­n Catherine Ebbs said the grievance raises a reasonable question.

“Why does the force not permit female members to choose between the male and female walking out orders?” she asked in the report dated Feb. 9, 2011.

The commission­er has not made a decision in the case, and while the official uniform regulation­s still require a skirt for female officers in Walking Out Order, a spokespers­on for the force said woman can now get pants and boots on request.

Staff-sgt. Maj. Sylvain L’heureux said among the problems was that the pants and boots are expensive, difficult to source and available only in men’s sizes.

But the grievance prompted a discussion of the issue, and the decision was taken recently that women who request the pants should be accommodat­ed.

“Where we stand is that it was recommende­d that we should approve that for females,” said L’heureux, who is responsibl­e for dress and deportment for the RCMP in Quebec.

While the first female officers were sworn in on Sept. 16, 1974, it wasn’t until 1990 that they were officially allowed to wear pants and boots with their red serge dress uniforms.

“There has been over the years a number of appeals to the RCMP from women who would like to have the dress pants for the Walking Out, rather than the skirt,” said Bonnie Reilly Schmidt, a former RCMP officer and historian who is completing a doctoral degree at Simon Fraser University on the history of women in the RCMP.

There are women who prefer the skirt, she said, but most would like to have the choice.

“Of course, the RCMP is a very masculine organizati­on and there’s quite a few theories as to why the skirt is still in place. Some of these things are very slow to change in the RCMP.”

The force is facing at least one class-action and several other individual lawsuits from current and former female members alleging discrimina­tion and sexual harassment.

The rash of allegation­s prompted the force to announce this year that it would train 100 officers to investigat­e complaints of sexual harassment, and elicited a pledge from Commission­er Bob Paulson to root out “dark-hearted behaviour” among the ranks.

Reilly Schmidt, who served from 1977 to 1987 said she experience­d some harassment, yet “I had a very positive experience.”

The grievance cases referred to the RCMP external review committee offer a glimpse into the range of issues faced by female Mounties, from earning less than men to harassment complaints that were dismissed or downplayed.

“Changing a skirt, of course, isn’t going to change the culture. It’s an embedded issue and it’s tied up with ideas of masculinit­y and femininity in Canadian culture and I think the RCMP mirrors a lot of other industries,” Schmidt said.

 ?? JANA CHYTILOVA/ POSTMEDIA NEWS ?? At ceremonial and formal occasions in future, female RCMP members will be able to choose to wear pants and boots, rather than skirts and pumps prescribed in long-standing orders.
JANA CHYTILOVA/ POSTMEDIA NEWS At ceremonial and formal occasions in future, female RCMP members will be able to choose to wear pants and boots, rather than skirts and pumps prescribed in long-standing orders.

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