RCMP applicants endured ‘improper and invasive’ medical exams for years, lawsuit alleges
CBC
WARNING: This article describes allegations of sexual assault.
One thousand RCMP employees, past and present, allege that as new recruits applying for jobs they were subjected to “improper and invasive” breast, genital and rectal exams during mandatory medical screening, CBC News has learned.
Class-action lawyers say 1,000 RCMP recruits and employees have come forward complaining about doctors performing “inappropriate and unnecessary” exams “many of which arose to the level of sexual assault, assault or battery."
Megan McPhee, the plaintiff’s lead lawyer, says the lawsuit, launched in 2019 and certified in 2021, originally focused on allegations of sexual assault by two RCMP doctors.
But after the story made headlines, hundreds of men and women levelled complaints about 26 doctors hired by the RCMP.
During court proceedings, the RCMP has also had to produce an internal form they gave doctors mandating a checklist exam for all candidates as a final step before they were hired.
“Many of us were surprised by some of the things on the form,” McPhee told CBC News. “Squeezing an applicant's breasts to see if there's discharge. Looking at genitourinary systems. Checking for a male to see if they're circumcised.”
“It doesn't screen for occupational health,” she said. “I have an incredibly hard time imagining … whether a male is circumcised or not has any application to the ability to perform the role as a police officer.”
The case is headed to Federal Court in Toronto on Jan. 19, where McPhee will ask for compensation and a summary judgement to settle the multi-million dollar case without a full trial.
The RCMP declined CBC’s request for an interview, but in its court filings, it has denied claims of “systemic negligence.”
In an additional statement to CBC News, the RCMP expressed concern for anyone who felt victimized and said it was opposing the motion “not because the allegations are trivial, but because the legal and factual issues in this matter require a full trial.”
“The RCMP does not minimize the seriousness of the allegations involving former physicians,” wrote media relations officer Camille Boily-Lavoie.
The class action was launched in 2019 after a number of women came forward alleging sexual assault and impropriety by two doctors — one in Toronto and another in Halifax. CBC is not naming them as neither has been charged criminally.
Sylvie Corriveau, the representative plaintiff in the civil suit, says her assault happened in 1989 when she was 27 and had just moved from northern Ontario to Toronto to apply to become an RCMP civilian 911 dispatcher. The final step was a medical exam. She says she was terrified as the doctor began massaging her legs and conducted a vaginal and rectal exam.
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