I rise today to speak to the inquiry launched by our colleague Senator McPhedran calling attention to our shared responsibility to review our practices and procedures and to ensure that the Senate has the strongest, most effective policies and mechanisms possible to respond to complaints against senators of sexual and/or other forms of harassment.

Senator McPhedran reminded us, when she launched this inquiry, that those who hold positions of public power and privilege must be held to the highest possible standard of trust, including zero tolerance for sexual exploitation.

There have been many discussions and debates this past year, in public, in the media — especially in social media — and in private about how we can best work together to uphold the integrity of the Senate and the public trust that has been placed in this institution. The public outrage that certain cases have rightly generated requires us to learn from these abuses of power and privilege and to ensure that the Senate responds with support to those who have witnessed or experienced harassment and other forms of abuse.

However, gearing our responses to a few highly publicized cases is not sufficient. Not when we know how easy it is for abuses of power and privilege to be denied and perpetrators to act with impunity. There are too many cases of #MeToo — harassment that is never reported and therefore never dealt with, as it never comes to light.

As Senator Bernard reminded us in her speech on this inquiry, Senate employees too often do not report harassment because they do not feel safe in their positions. Indeed, women who spoke to The Hill Times about harassment on Parliament Hill this past spring:

. . . agreed that sexual harassment was something parliamentary staff, particularly young women or members of the LGBTQ [2S] community, simply had to accept as part of the job, or they could risk losing theirs.

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This reality is quite simply unacceptable.

As the Internal Economy Committee’s Advisory Working Group on Human Resources begins its work reviewing the Senate’s Workplace Harassment Policy, it is clear that an effective response to sexual and other forms of harassment cannot begin only when a complainant comes forward. We must work to create mechanisms so that those who have experienced harassment are protected from any chance of revictimization and to protect them from the power dynamics that can too easily allow harassment, exploitation and abuse of power and privilege to go unchecked.

We must develop fair complaint mechanisms that also respect the privacy of the complainants.

It is clear that we must, more fundamentally, work to create a culture of support in which new employees, particularly young women, are made aware of their rights, as well as the nature of appropriate and professional relationships between employees and employers. A key part of this cultural shift requires us to confront misogynist stereotypes, which operate on a systemic level and which are part of our Parliament’s historic legacy. Nancy Peckford, Executive Director of Equal Voice, recently reminded us that the other place and this chamber remain:

. . . male-dominated institutions where, historically, inappropriate behaviour was not only not addressed but was tacitly accepted or seemingly condoned.

The systemic nature of misogyny in our institutions is being acknowledged more fully and frankly than it once was. As the Prime Minister recently recognized:

Violence against women and girls is prevalent in all facets of life, from the studios of Hollywood to the digital public squares, to our own halls of Parliament.

It should now be clear that harassment is not the work of “a few bad apples” and that the legitimacy of institutions will be enhanced, not weakened, by an approach of accountability and transparency, one that acknowledges systemic biases, misogynist stereotypes and power imbalances, as well as the harm that they may cause, while also encouraging diligent and strenuous work to fight against them.

A key part of this response must be increasing awareness and understanding of the dynamics surrounding harassment. There is much we can learn in this respect from the experiences of Canada’s courts. Bill C-337 was drafted in response to a legacy of shameful treatment and failure to do justice for those who had experienced sexual assault and abuse. The principle at the heart of both this bill and the need for a culture shift in the Senate in response to sexual harassment is that those occupying positions of power and privilege in our society must not lose sight of the realities lived by those contending with a history of misogynist behaviour and stereotypes in circumstances where biased and unbalanced environments have been normalized.

The gaps in understanding concerning the gendered nature of sexual and other forms of harassment have been made clear by social justice advocate Julie Lalonde, who has assessed the harassment training offered here in the Senate and in the other place, particularly in the other place, as failing on many fronts. Although Canada is outperforming most other countries simply by having codes of conduct and training programs regarding harassment in place for legislators, more must be done to address this problem effectively. We must move beyond optional, video-based training and away from messages in the training that emphasize the need for individuals to resolve problems of harassment themselves or set appropriate boundaries in a way that unrealistically and completely ignores the power dynamics. We must acknowledge the dynamics of young women staff dealing with older men, some of whom are their bosses, all of whom start with much more privilege.

Our experience with Bill C-337 has also shown that, when setting ourselves against systemic power imbalances and misogyny, we must be aware of intersectionality, the way in which, for example, the colonial legacy of the justice and political systems compound inequalities to further fail racialized women, particularly indigenous women and women of colour. In the context of the court system, Bill C-337 arose in response to horrific treatment of indigenous women who had experienced sexual assault. Deputy Minister for Status of Women, Gina Wilson, and others, have worked to raise awareness that indigenous peoples and indigenous women are significantly under-represented in upper management positions in the civil service while overrepresented in the lowest salary ranges.

We must keep these realities in mind and pay particular attention to the barriers encountered by indigenous women and all racialized women on Parliament Hill as we review the Senate’s Workplace Harassment Policy.

I will close by mentioning that, earlier this month, I had the pleasure, along with other leaders, including Senator McPhedran and the Honourable Landon Pearson, a former senator here, of hosting young women from local high schools at the Senate, at a Women Political Leaders Global Forum Girl2Leader event. The event celebrated girls and was intended to encourage women’s involvement in public life. It was inspiring to witness the young women sitting here in these desks, discussing with conviction and confidence the political changes important to them and necessary to make our society more just and fair for women and for all.

I was saddened, however, by how much of our discussion was devoted to the barriers that the young women — leaders all of them — face when fighting to be heard.

The focus of their concerns was on school dress codes that apply to young women and girls alone. Young women are sexualized and tasked to dress in certain ways so as not to distract or make uncomfortable male teachers or students. They rightly express frustration and outrage that they are blamed for the lecherous leering and sometimes far worse behaviour of their peers and persons in positions of authority over them. I was appalled to hear that these young women were even advised how to wear their hair. It is outrageous, and we should all be horrified that girls and young women are being advised that their ponytails make them targets for attackers.

Worst of all, young women are exposed to the stereotypes and the power dynamics that make harassment possible. They are essentially told that they are responsible for controlling the behaviour that others, usually men, and often men in positions of power, choose to inflict on them. They hear they are at fault when men do not control themselves.

This message has real consequences for women’s decisions to report harassment, for women’s involvement in politics and for women’s safety and well-being.

The young women who met here in the chamber have the courage, the intelligence and the commitment to call out the injustices and inequalities that they are witnessing. But we, dear colleagues, have an urgent responsibility to ensure that this is not a burden that young women leaders or our staff, public servants, members of Parliament or senators ever have to shoulder on their own.

Honourable colleagues, I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I do not wish to debate, nor should we still have to debate, these myths and stereotypes. I wish for no more #MeToo for further generations.

As senators, we have a responsibility to carry out our legislative duties to uphold the Charter and guard against inequalities in Canada’s laws. We must lead by example. We must review our Workplace Harassment Policy. We must stand together for a culture change and against misogynist, colonial legacies that expose colleagues, employees, volunteers and visitors to the risk of re-victimization and victimization. We must reaffirm our commitment that, for women looking to use their talents, skills and voices to make Canada a better place, the Senate is somewhere to go, not to experience injustice but to prevent it, and that, when we fail, because sometimes we do, that we do everything possible to remedy it.