THUNDER BAY - Heli Kijanen, who has been fighting for justice in the face of gender discrimination from one of Canada’s top institutions will finally have closure.
“Thank you to the RCMP for acknowledging your wrongdoing,” Kijanen said Thursday.
“I can now close a chapter in my book that has been open and bleeding for many years.”
A settlement has been reached in a class-action lawsuit filed against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 2011 involving harassment, discrimination, bullying, and sexual abuse against female officers and civilian employees.
On Thursday, Kijanen and hundreds of other women who faced discrimination while working for the RCMP, watched as RCMP commissioner, Bob Paulson, publically apologized for the conduct of the national police force.
“To all the women who have been impacted by the force's failure to have protected your experience at work, and on behalf of every leader, supervisor or manager, every commissioner, I stand humbly before you today and solemnly offer our sincere apology,” Paulson said during a news conference in Ottawa.
Kijanen joined the RCMP in 2008 but said she was forced out two years later because of constant bullying and discrimination. Kijanen said she experienced physical and mental distress, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from her experiences.
Kijanen and Thunder Bay lawyer, Alexander Zaitzeff, started a class-action lawsuit with other women from across the country who also faced discrimination and abuse while working at the RCMP.
Six years later, that lawsuit has been settled and Kijanen, who was there at the beginning, said she is overjoyed to be watching the public apology at the end of a long six years.
“In the beginning, I just dreamt about it,” she said. “I never thought I would see it. About an hour ago I was actually watching it on video on my phone in private and I just felt such wonderful feeling and hope for the future, for Mounties, and females who want to join and work in a society where they are accepted and they don’t have to over-prove themselves, they don’t have to be dragged under the system because it’s a boys club.”
Thunder Bay lawyer, Christopher Watkins, who worked with Zaitzeff on the case, said details of the settlement cannot be discussed at this time because they are yet to be ratified by a federal court.
There are thousands of women who have worked with the RCMP as officers or civilian members dating back to 1974 who could qualify for compensation. The settlement could cost the RCMP more than $100 million.
“I think the RCMP took a brave step forward, as well as the government today, by starting to deal with this significant issue,” Watkins said.
“I think for the brave women of the RCMP who have faced gendered based discrimination this is a significant step forward for the history of policing in our country. We look at an evolution of change in our modern society and I think this will be known as a benchmark case for moving forward gender based discrimination based cases and gender rights, not only in our province but the country as well.”
While hearing the public apology from commissioner Paulson is a significant moment for Kijanen, she said that actions will speak louder than words.
“Time will tell how sincere they really are,” she said. “But at least now that they have been under the gun and under the microscope, people are watching. Ever since we came out six years, people started watching.”
For Kijanen, the proof of sincerity could lie within the RCMP’s willingness to take members back who have been pushed or left due to harassment.
“I would be one of those members that would be more than willing to go back into the force and make real change,” Kijanen said.
Kijanen said could not have made it through those six years of fighting without the support of her family and friends and she encourages anyone who has faced injustice to keep fighting.
“I want to tell everybody out there: if you fight for something long enough that you firmly believe in, if it’s right and it’s just, it will happen and to never give up,” she said. “I congratulate all the female Mounties out there.”
