Status of Women committee  I don't think I have anything further to add, other than to say that your suggestions are certainly valid.

Status of Women committee  That's correct, but I will tell you this: those provisions are already there in the policy. They were already in the old policy. I'm sure you will find those provisions that require early intervention and early informal resolution in virtually every government harassment policy.

Status of Women committee  I absolutely agree with that. In fact, where I've found that there's been—“failing” is probably too strong a word—a lack of adequate action on the part of a manager, it's usually because they have not intervened promptly at the outset. I agree that is a training issue. I think that managers need to be trained in this area and understand that early intervention will generally be effective.

Status of Women committee  At least.

Status of Women committee  Yes, I tend to agree with you. At the risk of reducing my own workload, I will tell you that investigations are an unhappy and unsatisfactory process. They're usually, and they ought to be, the last resort. I think you can probably accomplish a lot by involving the parties at an early stage where, let's say, if you're speaking about women, they feel comfortable enough to come forward and know that it could be resolved informally, perhaps.

Status of Women committee  Certainly. I've got some very general recommendations in the material that I've provided to you already, but perhaps Mr. Rootham and I can coordinate our efforts. I'd be happy to discuss it with him.

Status of Women committee  It is essentially a human resources issue. The policy, as it's currently drafted, speaks in generalities, as did the old policy, with regard to what should happen after an investigation is completed. In my experience, from what I have found out after speaking with HR managers after an investigation is completed, very often very little is done.

Status of Women committee  I'm going to pass this over to my colleague and see if he has some information.

Status of Women committee  I'll start by saying that I agree with you. I think training is very important. I don't believe mandatory instruction is currently available or that employees are compelled to take mandatory training to understand harassment in the workplace. I'm not sure that the solution is that it be made mandatory, but I think it certainly should be strongly encouraged.

Status of Women committee  I don't think so. I would simply echo my colleague's comments and say that there are certain things you try to do when you have very serious allegations, whether it's sexual harassment or another type of harassment, one of which is separating the parties. If that's feasible, that's usually a good idea, and that doesn't always happen.

Status of Women committee  It would be a little difficult to do, but I would say that often when you have a hierarchical system where there are more men at the top of the chain rather than women, you can have that kind of thing exist. In one case that I handled, there were a number of senior women in the office, but the most senior person was a male, and he was the manager who was accused of not dealing appropriately with allegations against a colleague.

Status of Women committee  That's probably true. I will tell you this, though. For whatever reason, perhaps even in the majority of cases that I've investigated that involve harassment, there have been allegations of one woman making a harassment complaint against another. It's really just through anecdotal experience that I can tell you that.

Status of Women committee  I can give you a quick example of a case that I'm working on right now, actually, where I offered up mediation to the parties. It's not a sexual harassment case; it's simply allegations of harassment. One of the responses you often get from the respondent is that they want to be vindicated.

Status of Women committee  In my experience as a mediator, informal resolution is often very effective. It depends on the nature of the complaints. I know that on the surface it sounds as though all sexual harassment complaints are the same. That's not the case. There are degrees and there are different cases.

Status of Women committee  It's difficult to see how that can happen until we as a society become better educated. For example, we can see organizations and companies taking more of a progressive stand in trying to prevent harassment in the workplace. I've seen that. However, we cannot compel the private sector to put on, for example, mandatory sessions to train them as to what does or does not constitute harassment.