The past couple of weeks have been a wild ride in the national conversation on harassment and sexual harassment. First there was the shocking Jian Ghomeshi debacle. Then there were allegations from the House of Commons of two Liberal MPs acting inappropriately toward two NDP MPs, which got them rousted from caucus by Liberal leader Justin Trudeau.
As more and more accusers came forward in the Ghomeshi case, it emboldened others to go on the record and brought out a litany of further allegations that he was just kind of a bully all round.
The Parliament Hill case triggered a litany of seemingly impromptu confessions from the likes of CBC Power Panelist Ian Capstick who said on the afternoon show that he was sexually harassed by male MPs and Sheila Copps who disclosed she had been sexually assaulted and raped, in one case when she was an Ontario MPP.
Through all of it, I may have become even less sure what to do about the conundrum that is harassment and sexual harassment.
On one hand, I understand people not wanted to come forward. I know people who have tried to fight the ingrained unfairness of the system that puts victims at risk of retaliation, public humiliation. I have seen it go on for years and the perpetrators walk away with virtually no consequences. I have been personally affected by it.
On the other hand, I am a great believer in due process and the rule of law. An accused person has the right to face their accuser and to a fair defence.
We are told we have to respect the needs of victims to remain anonymous and not make formal complaints, but we also must do something about the bullies.
I am not entirely sure the rights of plaintiff and defendant are reconcilable.
There has been much talk on the Hill of establishing a harassment policy and implementing a confidential procedure for dealing with such alleged misconduct.
That they don't already have one is shocking although I am not entirely sure it would make any difference. These kinds of policies and procedures exist almost everywhere these days it goes on everywhere and all the time.
Yes, right here in Yorkton, in the biggest cities and the tiniest villages, in large corporations and mom and pops, in the private sector and public bodies, in schools and not-for-profits and private homes and sports teams.
We like to think we live in enlightened times in an enlightened country because we have awareness of the problem and policies and procedures to combat it. But there is something so deeply embedded in our culture-heck, it may even be biological-that prevents us from making meaningful change, or at least makes change happen at such a slow pace it is barely discernable.
Perhaps it is time to take choice out of the equation. This is effectively what Trudeau has done.
In fact, it is how the legal system has evolved. It used to be entirely up to the victim in most types of crimes whether or not to press charges and even to mete out the justice for that matter. The problem with that is so transparent, it is hard to imagine how even our ancient forebears could not see it. Now, even in the case of domestic abuse, the police and the Crown can proceed anyway.
As I said before, I don't really know what to do about it, but at least the conversation is afoot. Let's just hope we don't stop talking about it.
