Workplace sexual harassment goes beyond Vaughan Di Biase complaint: report

YorkRegion.com
May 23, 2017
Lisa Queen

The former female assistant to Vaughan’s disgraced ex-deputy mayor Michael Di Biase, who complained she was a victim of sexual harassment, is far from alone, city integrity commissioner Suzanne Craig said.

Such conduct is a concern at workplaces far and wide, she said.

“As noted by the Honourable Marie Deschamps (former Supreme Court justice) in her external report on sexual harassment in the Canadian Armed Forces, numerous organizations are struggling to address the prevalence of inappropriate sexual conduct,” Craig said in her report, saying the time is right to tackle the issue.

Craig’s efforts to shed light on the broader problem of sexual harassment in the workplace is being applauded by York Region women’s shelters.

“Sexual violence (including harassment) in the workplace is like any form of violence against women. It’s gender-based violence and women experience it on a daily basis,” Lorris Herenda, executive director of Yellow Brick House, said.

“When you think of the prevalence of stats, that one in four women experience violence in their lives, you know that it is happening in workplaces as well.”

Victims, especially single parents, are often reluctant to report workplace sexual harassment for fear of losing their jobs, said Herenda, adding there are also male victims.

“It’s putting somebody in a horrifying position,” she said.

While sexual harassment in the workplace has been an issue for years, more victims are coming forward in light of legislation such as Bill 168, a 2010 amendment to Ontario's Occupational Health and Safety Act, aimed at better protecting workers, Herenda said.

Workplaces and society need to put policies and laws in effect that properly support victims in coming forward and reporting harassment, Jehan Chaudhry, executive director of Sandgate Women’s Shelter, said.

“There is harassment out there, sexual harassment, and everybody needs to find ways to make it easier for people who have experienced that to be able to talk about it and there not be reprisals,” she said.

Victims often struggle with feeling of fear, anger, denial, frustration, pain and even post-traumatic stress disorder, Chaudhry said.

She applauded York Regional Police, which works with Sandgate to address issues such as sexual harassment.