What we can learn from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and their rape culture.

RCMP has a rape culture eerily similar to our Border Patrol. These are the lessons learned from their fight for justice and equality.

When I first began writing about my rape hazing into the US Border Patrol, it was the first Trump administration and Chief Carla Provost was then Chief of the entire agency. She would sometimes order agents to send me anonymous messages on what was then Twitter begging me to stop talking about my sexual assault. That was the Old Patrol (prior to 9/11), and the New Patrol was different they claimed. They have done everything they could do to shut me up, including having the Border Patrol Union filing a complaint with the FBI, CBP investigating me and my rape accusations though never interviewing me, CBP maintaining a constant investigation of me and Art del Cueto (vice president of the union) doing union podcasts where he calls me stupid, a liar, a terrible agent and claims I made up my rape.

What the agency and its union forgets is that I am a Fierce Five Percenter, the title given to those female agents who survive their sexual assault and harassment hazings and still serve in the agency. Former Chief Provost is a Fierce Five Percenter just as all female chiefs are, because they must coverup the sexual assaults of female agents if they want to be promoted. Provost and all female chiefs have done little to help women in the agency other than to say that they had it much harder when they came through. Women must “train to overcome,” which is the agency’s way of saying we must overcome our hazing to show how strong we are. As one high ranking union agent recently told me, “Overcoming your sexual assaults by fellow agents is how you prove that you bleed green."

Well, I don’t bleed green. I bleed red like all humans and it is time to stop allowing this agency to haze women into service like this.

While this may seem like an inopportune time to start this push with the current administration with the anti-woman, misogynistic rhetoric being spewed and our rights being taken away, I think it is an excellent time to begin the writings and research. We currently have Border Patrol agents being given no time for sexually assaulting their daughters. We have three chiefs removed for allegations of sexual misconduct and using their rank to force female agents to perform sex acts. Every week, more agents are being arrested for sexual crimes, and yet the media continues to ignore the bigger picture; this is a culture of rape, of sexual assault that has persisted since the first women entered the agency.

But I do not have to clear the trees and pave the road for this journey. It has already been completed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Although our legal system and government are not the same, they are similar enough to gain significant insight into what a class action lawsuit against the Border Patrol might look like. It also demonstrates the pitfalls and traps that many of the men in the agency will set for us as we work to expose their criminal sexual harassment and assaults against the women of the agency.

There were always rumblings about RCMP’s rape culture. Just like the Border Patrol, RCMP had a long history of women, primarily indigenous, coming forward to complain about sexual assault. Before women were allowed to join the RCMP in 1974, there were many allegations and reports written about the sexual violence of mounties just as there have been about Border Patrol agents and the migrants they arrest. Like the victims of the Border Patrol, RCMP’s victims were ignored and it would take a brave woman to come forward and detail her own abuse to get the ball rolling.

In 2011, that brave heart came forward to detail the rape culture of the RCMP. As a high-profile female mountie, Corporal Catherine Galliford came forward to file a complaint of sexual harassment and hazing that led to her PTSD and agoraphobia. This included a supervisor on a women’s task force exposing himself to her and years of harassment by other officers. Then other women came forward to back her statements. At the same time, RCMP had just promoted a veteran of 17 years with the force as commissioner of the agency. Commissioner Bob Paulson said an investigation would be conducted by the RCMP. "These allegations do not represent the force that I joined and this condition cannot stand," Mr Paulson said. (1)

Mistake #1: never let the accused run the investigation. As a veteran, Commissioner Paulson knew the culture and history of the RCMP. It was not as if he had a history of reporting such conduct. To say that this allegation was not representative of the agency he knew, was a tell, a flat out lie. Investigations of sexual misconduct cannot be performed by the agency or parent agencies or the government period as they have demonstrated for decades their willingness to coverup and ignore the sexual assaults of women in their employ.

It only took eight months before the RCMP and Commissioner Paulson showed their true colors and started attacking the women. The first line of this article read: “How quickly they close ranks.” And that is exactly what they did. Commissioner Paulson argued that his investigation found that there was not a sexual harassment or rape culture problem in the RCMP but a “bullying problem.” He chose to blame the entire agency for not keeping “pace with society in general.” As if sexual assault was ever somehow acceptable. Then three months after making these statements, he denied Corporal Galliford’s complaint and publicly portrayed her as an alcoholic to question her honesty. This incensed the other female mounties who had suffered the same and they began to come forward.(2)

At this point, Mountie Janet Merlo filed a class action suit on behalf of female mounties. From the start, 150 female mounties signed on. The RCMP decided to take a different route and Superintendent Maria Nickel was brought out to quell the anger of her female colleagues and proclaim that women who wanted to be mounties needed "inner strength" to deal with harassment. "You can either let yourself be a victim of it, if you will, or can rely on that inner strength.” All which is to say, put up or shut up.(3)

Mistake #2: they will put female officers forward to support the rape culture. Women who support this culture often engage in harassment of fellow female officers. Claiming that women must be tough enough when their male colleagues do not endure the same sexual hazing is more victim blaming and not equality in the work force. Trying to make the problem seem like an overall conduct problem is a strategy used to devalue and question the victims’ testimony. This is further degradation and harassment of women who are the victims in this culture.

In 2013, the RCMP released a 37-point plan on how to hire more women. Commissioner Paulson did not do this of his own accord; he was forced to by the Canadian government. Paulson then ordered the agency to complete a report to discover just how pervasive the rape culture was three years after women had started coming forward. At the time, RCMP stated 20% of its employees were women. This likely includes administrative assistants and other administrative positions. The report found that from February 2005 to November 2012, there were 1,091 harassment complaints from 671 different complainants.(4)

In 2022, after years of my writing and proving the Border Patrol rape culture exists, then Commissioner of CBP (Border Patrol’s parent agency) Chris Magnus created CBP’s 30x30 Initiative. This program promised that at least 30% of CBP and Border Patrol’s force would be women by 2030. By combining CBP with Border Patrol, this allows Border Patrol to still maintain its Fierce Five Percent women and require CBP to make up the difference. I expect CBP to follow the RCMP and add administrators who are not law enforcement to their total to get to that 30%. That is if they even try.

Mistake #3: Do not allow agency to conduct their own investigations. This causes a clear conflict of interest when the accused is being investigated by coworkers and friends.

Mistake #4: Hiring more women before the agency even begins to acknowledge the problem does not work. The problem is with the male officers who believe they are entitled to do whatever they want because there is no accountability in these paramilitary police organizations for rape culture. Adding more women to a rape culture just makes more victims.

Months later in 2013, several Canadian senators wrote an opinion piece demanding that the RCMP address its rape culture after more women began coming forward. These senators were from a standing committee on national security that viewed the sexual harassment and assault culture of the RCMP as a threat to national security. While the RCMP continued to claim this was not a systemic issue and was really more about bullying, the senators began their own investigation and recognized that unresolved conflicts and lack of accountability created a toxic work environment for mounties who were women. The committee made 15 recommendations which included an ombudsman outside of the chain of command, better tracking of complaints, discipline that equals the offense, criminal violations must be dealt with by outside authorities, promotions must consider past complaints, transfers of perpetrators or victims cannot be allowed as a resolution and confidentiality must be maintained and when it is not, addressed. By this time, 300 women had joined the Merlo class action suit.(5)

Several years later in 2015, Canada was still going through politicians claiming they were going to create the independent ombudsmen and other recommendations while the RCMP continued to deny they had a rape culture problem.

In 2016, more women continued to come forward. The RCMP was investigating 2 separate incidents of instructors harassing/abusing female cadets at the academy. The Merlo class action was up to 400 complainants in February of 2016. Victims reported their complaints had been ignored by management who spent much of their time trying to fire the victims and disparage their service and character. This led to female mounties suffering silently with PTSD, depression and suicidal ideations.(6)

By the end of 2016, Commissioner Paulson had finally given up and offered an apology to the women of the RCMP. He admitted to the rampant sexual abuse and harassment of women within the agency and offered a $100 million settlement with no cap on payouts. The Merlo class action was joined by another class action called the Tiller suit. Over 500 women were now on board.(7)

In 2019, Global News reported that Canada finally got a civilian advisory board a decade after the RCMP’s culture was labeled as toxic and misogynistic. The board was made up of 13 appointed people and cost around $2 million a year to run. Commissioner Paulson was gone, and female mountie Brandi Lucki was put in his place. However, the Canadian government allowed the RCMP to continue managing the investigations into complaints. The advisory board had only recommendation authorities meaning the RCMP command did not have to obey or enforce said recommendations. Every article written during this time notes the advisory board was of no use because it had no teeth.(8)

Mistake #5: Allowing RCMP to continue investigation accusations of sexual harassment and abuse. Placing a female mountie in charge as if high-ranking women in paramilitary agencies do not embody the rape culture themselves shows a complete ignorance of the problem and the culture. The agency will always try to attack the victims and protect the predators.

By 2020, victims were receiving settlements and the Merlo-Davidson class action suit report was released. The report found the RCMP culture in general to be toxic, homophobic and misogynistic. The culture was not the result of a few bad apples but of a barrel that was totally rotten inside and out. Abuse was documented from the lowest of cadets to the highest ranks with higher ranks protecting the lower ones. The report pointed out that the testimony from victims was consistent over the years and that the amount of violence and sexual assaults sustained by female mounties was astonishing and shocking to investigators.

In general, the report found that the RCMP culture encouraged and did not hold to account mounties who constantly made sexual jokes and innuendos, those who were found to commit unwelcome touching or make discriminatory comments or comments that women were less than men in their abilities and that they often made threats not providing backup to female mounties who refused their advances. These are all the same accounts we see in the Border Patrol.

The Merlo-Davidson report pointed out that the women joined to serve their country just as the men had joined. They were young and bright, some educated. Then the toxic environment eventually wore them down, hurting their confidence and self-esteem. They could not trust their fellow officers, because the RCMP failed to provide a safe workplace. Their union failed to represent them while they represented the men who were assaulting and harassing them, just as the Border Patrol union does to us female agents. Attorneys and legal advice in these cases is robustly provided by the unions that we pay for, but they do not represent us like they do our abusers.

Many of the women were diagnosed with serious mental health issues after their exposure to the RCMP. Eating disorders, alcoholism, drugs, PTSD, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, suicidal ideation, attempts at suicide, etc. abound within the female ranks of these agencies. “RCMP employees appear to blame the 'bad apples' without recognizing the systemic and internal origins of this conduct.”

The RCMP has the same low hiring standards as Border Patrol does and the same high turnover rate. The report noted that the agency does not even screen applicants for their views on women and racism. Similar to the Border Patrol, they found that a lot of sexual abuse occurs at the academies. Probationary training often results in sexual assaults because of the power dynamic. Some refused to train women which put barriers in place for women to advance. All claimants said they had been denied positions or training because they refused to have sex with a supervisor.

The report noted the systemic problems with the grievance system set up by the RCMP. There was a “perception of bias and unfairness” which is the report’s way of saying they don't want to name names. Retaliation for complaining was common, and there was rarely any consequences for those accused. Similar to the Border Patrol, victims cannot seek psychological help without it hurting their careers as this is seen as being weak.

Victims stated that they were prepared for the traumatic things they would see as cops, but not for the constant sexual harassment, constant need to protect oneself from fellow workers. Promotions were based on “friends and family” just like the Border Patrol. The network of men and some women who uphold this culture are the ones who decide who gets what training and promotions. Tactical teams had the worse incidents of abuse. The report stated that change would require dedication from leadership and take at least a decade.

Today, the culture is the same. The Tiller class action lawsuit resulted in another $100 million settlement. And although the agency has had to hand over a ton of money to victims, complaints continue to come in, the RCMP continues to investigate itself, the civilian advisory committee still has no teeth, politicians continue to claim they want to stop it, academics have studied the culture and still the abusers continue to be protected. To date, the known victims who have come forward number over 3,000.

Mistake #6: Thinking normal responses of committees and advisory panels would eliminate the culture. Without independent oversight free from the RCMP’s grasp, without holding the union responsible for discrimination, little will change.

Notes:

(1) - "Canadian Mounties face sexual harassment allegations.” BBC, November 16, 2011.

(2) - Goar, Carole. “Mounties trying to turn the tables on women.” Guelph Mercury, July 26, 2012. (pg. 9)

(3) - Ibid.

(4) - Cohen, Tobi. "RCMP plan to bridge gender gap shows some early progress.” The Vancouver Sun, February 14, 2014.

(5) - Lang, Daniel and Dallaire, Romeo. “RCMP must do more to prevent harassment.” Calgary Herald, June 19, 2013. (pg. 15)

(6) - Tasker, John Paul. "RCMP's recent history of harassment, abuse and discrimination.” CBC, February 18, 2016.

(7) - Conger, Christen. "Female Canadian Mounties Receive An Apology After Decades Of Sexual Harassment.” Refinery 29, October 8, 2016.

(8) - Gerster, Jane. "Resistance to reform: Is civilian oversight the magic bullet the Mounties need?” Global News, January 24, 2019.