Ann Piper says she was several years into her job as a Central Saanich police officer when she heard two senior male officers — also senior members of her union — debate using a seized rifle to penetrate her.
“You go very quiet,” said Piper.
Piper said she spent years being quiet about the systemic sexual harassment she endured until she found the ability to speak up. She said she reported the harassment to the mayor of Central Saanich, the police board and the deputy chief at the time.
When nothing changed, her mental health started to deteriorate.
Piper is technically still a police officer but has been on medical leave with post-traumatic stress disorder for the past three and a half years. She has suffered from anxiety and panic attacks that are sometimes triggered by seeing a police car, she said.
Piper is one of six B.C. women, all current and former police officers, who have filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against 13 B.C. municipalities alleging sexual assault, discrimination, harassment and bullying on the job.
Former Victoria police officer Lauren Phillips is also named as a representative plaintiff in the class action, as well as Helen Irvine, formerly of Delta police; Cary Ryan, formerly of the West Vancouver police; and Anja Bergler, a Vancouver police officer.
The name of the sixth officer, who also worked for the Vancouver Police Department, cannot be published because her identity is protected by a publication ban from the trial of a fellow officer who was convicted of sexually assaulting her.
The unnamed officer said she was subjected to further victimization during the trial, including the Vancouver Police Department authorizing officers to attend the trial to support the accused and to report her testimony to management, the lawsuit says.
“VPD’s attendance at the trial was intended to harass and intimidate,” the female officer said in the lawsuit.
The six officers allege they were subjected to behaviour that demeaned them and other female officers and limited their careers, according to the proposed class-action lawsuit, filed Thursday in B.C. Supreme Court.
The women said they experienced unwanted sexual touching and comments, graphic and misogynistic photographs and drawings of penises and routine “jokes” about oral sex, as well as being called “hot mama” or being told they had “child-bearing hips.” One said she was asked to wait on other officers and stock the cooler with alcoholic beverages, according to the claim.
As recently as this summer, Bergler said in the claim, her photo was included along with those of six other women and other officers in a parody of an official poster that hung in a Vancouver police forensic identification unit for 12 days in August.
The poster, referring to male officers but never female officers having to obtain penile swabs from sexual assault suspects, was tagged with the line “swabbing penises for over 100 years.”
The issues are built into police culture, Piper said. All six women have similar stories of harassment and of retaliation when they spoke up about it, she said.
Fellow officers ostracized Piper after she came forward, which put her safety in jeopardy, she said, because she didn’t know if officers would protect her in a dangerous situation on the job.
“It’s just very protected in the police departments. You do not talk about it. So we’re talking about it,” she said.
Central Saanich Police Service issued a statement Friday saying harassment, violence and discrimination by officers or staff is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
The police department encourages anyone who has experienced harassment or discrimination to come forward, the statement said, adding management is committed to supporting individuals and taking reports seriously.
The other municipalities named as defendants are Saanich, Esquimalt, Oak Bay, Abbotsford, Nelson, Port Moody and Surrey. Also named as defendants are the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, and B.C.’s attorney general and solicitor general.
Saanich police and the District of Saanich said in a joint statement they take seriously the responsibility for fostering a respectful workplace and are committed to creating and maintaining inclusive, respectful and safe environments for staff and the public.
Victoria police said they have a strong respectful workplace policy and take reports of inappropriate behaviour seriously.
Oak Bay Police Chief Mark Fisher said while the department is named in the lawsuit, he’s not aware of any of the plaintiffs ever working in Oak Bay.
The suit said the municipalities, the province, the attorney general and solicitor general owed a duty of care to the plaintiffs so they could work free from discrimination, sexualized violence, bullying or harassment and a “culture of pervasive privacy violation.”
The claim is asking the court to certify the action as a class proceeding and seeks unspecified damages for loss of past and future income, career-promotion opportunities, early retirement and pension amounts, as well as special, aggravated and punitive damages.
It says the defendants were negligent, breached their fiduciary duty and the class members’ Charter rights and their privacy, and were responsible for the “intentional infliction of mental suffering” and harassment of the members.
None of the allegations have been proven in court and the defendants have not filed responses.
