If there's anything the continuing onslaught of grievances against the RCMP can teach us, it's how easy it is for people with authority to dismiss what they don't want to see.
With each new allegation revealing more weak refusals to deal with destructive elements, we see age-old methods used to hide from accountability, often leading to
further victimization.
And we, as a society, often buy into it because it's easier, or maybe just more comfortable, to believe in authority.
Let's take the latest allegations plaguing the RCMP.
The organization faces increasing accusations of discrimination and sexual harassment from women all over the country who have been or still are members.
The ever-growing scorn from within is enough to show that the brass has been neglecting its female members. It also brings into question RCMP spokesperson Annie Linteau's claims that "...in those rare instances where [RCMP employees are not treated with respect in the workplace], the organization is committed to addressing it in a swift manner."
Rare? Perhaps.
Swift? Highly doubtful.
If that were the case, why are there nearly 100 women and counting coming forward from all over the country with allegations their complaints went
uninvestigated or unresolved?
In that neglect alone we see shades of the sexism that's being alleged -behaviour we all hoped was well behind us, and beneath us. That's apparently not the case.
Take the time-honoured tradition of calling women with allegations of abuse crazy.
Wasn't it just a handful of months ago that a lone woman came out with some of the same stories that are now being echoed across the country? And what is it that came out in the media when Cpl. Catherine Galliford told her story? Her mental health history, which was indeed sketchy.
She had a breakdown. She was dependent on alcohol. She was treated for addiction. She is afraid of RCMP buildings and is sometimes afraid to leave her home.
And weren't plenty among us willing to dismiss her complaints as coming from someone who is plainly unbalanced - even though she alleges it's the very treatment she endured by colleagues for more than a decade that landed her in the addiction and anxiety she so clearly struggles with.
Seems it's easier to call a woman crazy than to root out wrongdoing.
But that's nothing new - not by a long shot.
It's been stated many times that the term "hysteria" comes from the ancient premise that a woman's insanity is due to her uterus - rather than, say, a lifetime of being subjected to indignities.
Some women who lashed out would undergo hysterectomies in the belief that removing lady parts would stop her from becoming upset after, say, authorities ignored her pleas for help and returned her to her abuser.
So there's nothing new in the struggle we're seeing among some of the female RCMP members and in the dismissive reaction toward them. But it's sorely disappointing we haven't evolved further than this.
-- Prince George Citizen
