Former
RCMP officer Krista Carle took her own life earlier this week. Carle
and several other officers sued the RCMP in 2003, alleging sexual
harassment on the force. (CHAD HIPOLITO / THE CANADIAN PRESS)Former B.C. Mountie who fought harassment in the force dies by suicide
Former B.C. Mountie, Krista Carle, was an agent for change within a ‘toxic’ force.
Catherine Galliford, who was one of the first Mounties to speak out about her experiences at the hands of fellow officers, said she was devastated to learn that Krista Carle, with whom she graduated from Depot division in Regina, had taken her own life.
A photo shows Galliford, Carle and seven other female graduates wearing red serge on the day they graduated in 1991, years before several of them would be leaving their jobs because of sexual harassment or sexual assault.
“I had a breakdown a couple of nights ago and kept on saying to my partner, ‘I was right here, I was right here. Why didn’t she phone me?’ ” Galliford said Tuesday. “We were like sisters. We lived together for six months in Depot. We both went through harassment and I don’t know what happened.”
Carle worked for the RCMP for 19 years but took medical discharge in 2009 following sexual harassment on the job in Alberta, before she moved to British Columbia.
Galliford said she received a call from Carle’s sister last Friday saying that the former Mountie killed herself on Vancouver Island, leaving behind two teenagers who were being raised by their father because of her post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I was going to call her the day before and I didn’t. And I’m wondering if I could have made a difference.”
Related: Women’s sex-harassment suit against RCMP certified as class action
Related: Teary RCMP commissioner apologizes, announces harassment suit settlement
Carle is being remembered by other former RCMP officers who filed lawsuits against the force as an outspoken advocate for a cultural shift within an organization they say seems to have its own rules for conduct that should not be tolerated.
Galliford, who settled a lawsuit with the RCMP last year, said the force operates within a “rape culture” that must be fixed. She said she and others are upset about Commissioner Brenda Lucki’s recent comments that she doesn’t think things are necessarily broken.
Lucki was not immediately available for comment.
Galliford said that while it’s impossible to know what pushed Carle over the edge, Lucki’s statement would not have been helpful to someone who’d worked so hard to have the force address serious issues.
“I don’t know, but I was very good friends with Krista and I had no indication,” Galliford said about the friend who seemed to be doing well. “But (the commissioner) made that statement, and we’ve been trying to say for a decade, ‘No, it’s broken.”
Galliford said Carle apparently lost her will to live against the “PTSD demons” after daily harassment that went on for years, starting with graphic pornography left among her belongings, lewd questions about her personal life and forcible kissing.
She still struggles with her own PTSD symptoms, Galliford said, adding she’s terrified of RCMP buildings.
“I don’t think anybody has any concept of how bad the harassment is in there. When you are being harassed or thrown up against a wall and having your crotch grabbed, who do you go to?”
No comments:
Post a Comment