LEAF is not proposing a particular model, obviously. We're just identifying the issues that are there. But the positive things that could come out of it would be that the moment you remove that barrier to reporting, which is the “my career is over” barrier.... Many people make a complaint knowing that they're making that decision. They say, “I can't stand this and my health is ruined anyway, so I'm going to finally come clear with this.”
So having a mechanism, a third-party neutral model—not necessarily an adjudicative model but adjudication is usually the end of the line and certainly in formal processes—that can be accessed early, before so much damage has been done to an individual's health and career, that's going to be better. If there is such a process, there will be more awareness generally. There will be education. The climate will change and the climate has to change. The RCMP obviously is a huge example of that. I think that when you're on the front page of the paper over and over again, the climate will change.
I was heartened by the law society's comments in the statistics, if you read the brief, about male lawyers reporting other male lawyers' misconduct. That's in keeping with the comments I was making about the occupational health and safety requirement, where it's everybody's obligation to have a safe and harassment-free workplace. When women become free to speak out, to call people on the harassing behaviour, and when male colleagues are calling other male colleagues on the harassing behaviour, all of that, with some third-party independent place where the women can go in the first place to talk about their issues, is going to elevate the tone of everything. It's not going to allow these poisoned workplaces to go on year after year.
When we're talking about the 25-year history of the individual you were referring to before, that's a lot of people who were aware of the problem and didn't say anything. The more access to talking about it, the more education, and the more everybody is educated that this is not acceptable, that's what is going to change things.