Fire Service sexism: justice at last

It takes special qualities to be one of society’s first responders — like police, paramedics and firefighters. We rely on them to be quick, professional, clear-eyed, compassionate and courageous in crisis situations. They rely on each other to have one another’s backs when trust and teamwork are crucial to saving others’ lives and safeguarding their own.

So it’s particularly sad that Halifax’s fire service couldn’t muster those same qualities to fairly respond to former firefighter Liane Tessier when she first complained of abusive and disrespectful behaviour from her male colleagues in 2005.

Instead, Ms. Tessier was branded a troublemaker. She spent 12 years pursuing her complaint through the bureaucracy, an ineffective Human Rights Commission and, ultimately, the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. Only the court’s order for a board of inquiry led to a negotiated settlement, a recognition of systemic gender discrimination and a formal apology Monday by Halifax Fire Chief Ken Stuebing “to Liane Tessier and any other female firefighter who has experienced discrimination within this organization.”

A pledge by Chief Stuebing (who joined the service last year) to make a strong stand on confronting gender discrimination is welcome. But the apology and response took shamefully far too long. The long denial of justice only compounded the betrayal of professional standards, equality rights and workplace respect that took place when Ms. Tessier was mistreated by fellow firefighters she needed, and should have been able, to count on.

As a result, she unfairly lost years of work she loved. The public lost a fine firefighter. The harassment continued and hurt other female firefighters, as two of them related this week. It was only because of Ms. Tessier’s extraordinary tenacity that a scourge of ugly and damaging sexist behaviour was recognized and repudiated in such a public way. For not giving up her fight and for getting the fire service to adopt new anti-discrimination policies, she deserves our admiration and thanks. Like fighting fires, fighting injustice requires Liane Tessier’s kind of grit and courage.