Status of Women Committee on March 26th, 2013

[D/Chief Michael Federico]

We have regular contact with the RCMP. Our chief and the commissioner talk regularly, weekly, and I know that the development of safety and security in the workplace is always a topic between them. I'm not part of a formal program with the RCMP, but I can speak confidently that the RCMP and Toronto do work closely together on all areas of policing, from combatting crime to improving workplace safety.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Yes. One of the things that we've struggled with, however, including in recent legislation like Bill C-42 is that in the general references to workplace safety, when there is no direct reference to sexual harassment, it gets lost in the mix. We believe there should be specific discussions around how organizations like your own, with very similar realities, work to put an end to sexual harassment, which is obviously a concern in the RCMP as well.

Just to go back on the question of training, Deputy Chief, obviously there's the recruitment process, but do you do training every so often to bring people up to speed in today's world around sexual harassment?

[D/Chief Michael Federico]

Every 12 months every police officer has to take mandatory training. Included in that training is workplace safety, which includes issues around harassment and workplace violence. That happens every year, once a year, for every police officer. For the civilian members, it often is part of regular staff development.

I can safely say that virtually every year, every member of the service receives some further reinforcement, training, or refinement in the knowledge that they have, particularly around workplace safety and violence.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Just quickly, is that done in person or online?

[D/Chief Michael Federico]

For every police officer, it's done in person. They have to physically attend the police college. It's part of their annual re-qualification. They get it directly, person to person, but we do have distance learning. We take advantage of what we call e-learning for the sharing of knowledge as a supplement to the direct training.

[The Chair, NDP, Marie-Claude Morin]

Thank you, Ms. Ashton.

This concludes today's meeting.

Thank you, Mr. Federico. It was very interesting. Thank you for accepting our invitation to appear.

I would like to use this opportunity to wish my colleagues two good weeks in their respective ridings. Since there will be no meeting next Thursday, we will meet again on April 16.

Thank you and have a nice day.

The meeting is adjourned.