Thank you very much.
Unfortunately, I wasn't here for your presentation, but I read it last night. I could actually relate to it, having worked in a workplace where I was sexually harassed.
I worked for probation and parole services, and I remember when the mandate came in for harassment training and everybody had to take it. I remember going to this one institution for that training and someone walked in and said, “I'm not sitting beside that person,” and took their chair and moved it away. I know how it feels and how that other person must have felt. Here we were in a harassment training course. It was already there and that poisoned environment just continued to build.
We know that it's not just the employees who need to take this training. Supervisors, managers, and everyone in the workplace should take these courses. Regardless of whether someone has taken a course or not, we continue to see these events take place.
With the recent story that broke involving Staff Sergeant Caroline O'Farrell, we see it's the same thing again. You and she had repeatedly mentioned this to your superiors and very little action was taken, or if action was taken, the victim was actually victimized again.
Many experts have agreed that one of the first barriers to reporting sexual harassment in the workplace is the fear of retaliation, which you have talked about, as has the staff sergeant. In the RCMP, have you seen the existence of a mechanism, effective or not, that aims to avoid and prevent reprisals? I am wondering if you have seen something like that.