'You should be disgusted': Female police officers say harassment case underscores need for action

Helen Irvine is one of six former and current law enforcement officers who have spent the past 18 months trying to bring forward a class action lawsuit against British Columbia's municipal police forces.

They claim to have been harassed and bullied by male co-workers and subjected to sexual touching and wildly offensive slurs recast as "jokes." One was sexually assaulted by a co-worker.

They're all used to hitting brick walls.

Still, Irvine said she was shocked to hear a lawyer for B.C.'s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner refer to their efforts as proof of the need to address "toxic" workplace culture at a public hearing this month into sexual harassment allegations against a veteran VPD officer.

Especially because the OPCC  — the body tasked with overseeing disciplinary action in B.C.'s municipal police forces — is one of the bodies they're suing. And Irvine said the women are still fighting tooth and nail to be heard both in the workplace and in the courts.

"We were pleasantly surprised that our lawsuit was brought up in that hearing," Irvine, a former Delta Police officer, told the CBC.

"I think that is positive and shows we're doing the right thing. We're moving in the right direction."

The hearing into the actions of Sgt. Keiron McConnell has highlighted issues of sexual harassment and bullying in municipal policing.

McConnell — the VPD's most senior sergeant — admitted to sending inappropriate and unwelcome sexualized messages to five women. He is now waiting to hear if the retired judge overseeing the case will accept a proposed resolution that would see him demoted and suspended for 20 days.

A former leader in the VPD gang squad, the original complaints against McConnell involved seven women, including three co-workers and four students at two of the B.C. universities where he taught.

The deal saw him admit to harassing two of the officers and three students.

As Brian Smith, the counsel for the OPCC, outlined the need for discipline, he cited both the proposed class action brought by Irvine and others, and a similar lawsuit that saw female RCMP members and civilian employees awarded more than $125 million for harassment and discrimination.

"Sexual harassment is fundamentally contrary to the high ethical standards expected of all police officers, especially senior officers having supervisory responsibilities," Smith told the hearing.

"Concerns about sexual harassment and toxic cultures in police workplaces are widespread in the public domain."