Status of Women Committee on March 26th, 2013

[Madam Cindy Viau]

Yes, that possibility is there. As soon as the policy has been developed, we offer the opportunity for training. Once again, it is at the employer's discretion. We have no authority to go into a workplace if people do not want us there. But we will certainly suggest training so that people can fully understand the policy.

[The Chair, NDP, Marie-Claude Morin]

You have one minute.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

You mentioned that your organization hosts café-rencontres, which are informal gatherings designed to bring the harassment victims together. What benefits do you see in doing that?

[Madam Cindy Viau]

The benefits are that it gives the women courage. I say women, because it is principally women who come to the café-rencontres. It gives them a lot of courage because they can see other women who have gone through a whistle-blowing process, or who have filed a formal complaint, and have come through it. They are doing well now and they still decide to come to the café-rencontres. So it gives them courage and breaks the isolation.

Sometimes, it is difficult for them to leave their homes, but they find the time to come to the centre to meet the caseworkers and speak with people who have experience in matters like this. Sometimes, at home, things can get difficult. People do not want to bore their spouses any more by talking about their situations. They do not want to talk about it any more. They are at their wit's end. So the centre is the place where they can deal with things. They are always welcome. In fact, when women who find it difficult to leave their homes come to meet with us, they tell us that it has done them good not to be alone.

[The Chair, NDP, Marie-Claude Morin]

Thank you, Madam Viau.

I now give the floor to Ms. Sgro, for seven minutes.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much to our witness for being here today.

I have a couple of questions. You have been around since 1980, not you in particular, I suspect, but your organization was established in 1980 and has been growing ever since. It was started as a result of the concerns about the amount of sexual harassment in the workplace.

A lot has changed since the formation of the organization. In comparison to previous years you've been dealing with this issue, is there more awareness now? Do you have opportunities to do some proactive work?

[Madam Cindy Viau]

Yes, I think that people are more sensitive to it, and, in general, they are a little more aware of what sexual harassment is. They may not know precisely what it means legally, but they understand that certain actions are unacceptable in the workplace. In my opinion, people are blowing the whistle on their harassers more often, given that more resources are available.

In the past, all women could do was to quit their jobs or, if they wanted to keep them, to put up with the harassment. Today, that is no longer the case. In that respect, I find it very good, but the fact that people are still coming to the centre shows that there is still work to be done. To our centre, I mean. People call us almost every day to tell us about a situation of workplace harassment.

There have been some advances in awareness, but, obviously, our mandate is not over, given that we have so many files to deal with and that so many people are calling us to talk about situations that they are experiencing in their workplace.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Do most of the people calling you come from provincial and federal jurisdictions, non-unionized? Do you have any idea how many people seek help from your organization?

[Madam Cindy Viau]

I have no figures about that, but I know that, in general, we are talking about provincial administrations and companies all over Quebec. More and more unionized people are calling us for assistance, too. Clearly, in cases like that, our involvement is different. We cannot bypass the unions and take over files in their place. Employees have to go through their unions. It is a requirement. They must follow the grievance process.

As a matter of fact, a lot of people call us to say that their situation has not been taken seriously and they do not understand why their union representatives do not seem concerned about their case. They call us, a little angry, and they tell us they are union members but that the union is doing nothing. They ask us to help them. But we cannot take their cases without working with the union.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

A big part of our study on sexual harassment in the federal workplace has to do with the RCMP. I don't know if you've been following the case or any of the recommendations that have been made from the RCMP to try to resolve some of the issues facing sexual harassment in the RCMP. Would you be able to comment on any of the recommendations that have been talked about in the media or discussed elsewhere?

[Madam Cindy Viau]

Yes, I am somewhat familiar with the matter. Our director general met with the committee charged with reviewing the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act in order to provide it with some recommendations. I would not be able to tell you about that as well as she could, but I believe it came down to awareness once again. We cannot ever repeat that enough. People must know what it is all about, the people involved at the RCMP must be aware, there must be mandatory training sessions, both for managers and employees, and problems must be taken seriously as soon as they are reported. That means that action must be taken quickly; people must not be neglected, or persuaded not to file a complaint. There must be clear policies that have zero tolerance for harassment in the workplace.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Thank you very much. That was very informative.

On average, in a month, how many people would seek out your services? Or, over the last year, how many people have sought out your organization for assistance?

[Madam Cindy Viau]

We dealt with 337 cases. Those are short-, medium- and long-term files. However, we received almost 6,000 calls. Those may have been people who called once to get a bit of information to determine whether what they are experiencing is workplace harassment. Those people will not call back.

So we get a lot of calls, but we have been working on 337 active cases.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

What's your staffing complement of your organization?

[Madam Cindy Viau]

We have six employees in the organization.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

I would suspect you must have a fair amount of volunteers.

[Madam Cindy Viau]

Actually, we do not have a lot of volunteers. The interns are really the ones who come and help us, sometimes once a week, sometimes three times a week. The clients get involved in various projects and help us out. But we do not currently have active volunteers who come in every week.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, NDP, Marie-Claude Morin]

Thank you.

We now move to Ms. James, for five minutes.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and welcome to our witness.

Continuing on the line of questions from Ms. Sgro, you were talking about your organization having only six employees. I believe you mentioned earlier in your opening remarks that your organization is open 24 hours a day, and I'm guessing that's seven days a week. I'm guessing the employees are paid, but you said the services are free. I'm wondering where you get the funding for this particular organization.

[Madam Cindy Viau]

We are funded by the Agence de la santé et des services sociaux de Montréal. So we receive government grants.

Let me clarify that our centre is not open around the clock, but we guarantee a call back within 24 hours. The centre is actually open Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The salary grants come from the government. We are paid to provide free services to the public. There is no way we can charge the clients who request our services, whether for answering a question or for representing an individual in court.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

You've said that you will intervene on behalf of the victim and you've said that there have been 337 actual cases. I'm trying to figure out how you determine who the victim is. You must come across cases where someone will come in, make a phone call, come in to see you, and it's deemed not necessarily to be an incident of sexual harassment in the general, widely accepted perspective.

You say you intervene. How do you make that determination whether someone is actually a legitimate victim or someone is just complaining for the sake of complaining?

[Madam Cindy Viau]

That is the responsibility of the support and information department. One way to assess the situation is to ask the person to write down their version of the facts. It is a kind of diary where they write down the where, when, what and how. A document like that gives us a good idea of what happened.

Of course, we will have to meet with the person a number of times to listen to them and to ask them questions. We will read all the documents related to the case before we determine whether we are dealing with workplace harassment or not.

People call us sometimes to tell us that they are experiencing frustration at work, but that is not harassment.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

You've said that you speak with them several times and present somewhat of a journal. Do you actually contact the individual that they're making the accusations against to see what their side of the situation may be?

Again, I'm wondering if you're looking at both sides or whether you're taking an individual who comes in and provides a journal as everything that they're stating is factual. I'm wondering if you look at the other side as well before you intervene and represent that person.

[Madam Cindy Viau]

Yes, we always look at it, but the centre does not directly communicate with the alleged harasser. We rely on the definition of harassment and the credibility of the person filing the complaint. If we at the centre believe that it is a case of harassment or that it may be a case of harassment, the complaint is submitted to the employer. Of course, the clients must agree to that. It is up to the employer to check the alleged harasser's version of the facts.