[Canadian Press - Sunday, November 28, 2004]
Dean Beeby
OTTAWA (CP) - Women and other disadvantaged groups face an "alarming" level of harassment and intimidation in the male-dominated culture of the federal Fisheries Department, says Canada's human-rights watchdog.
"The compliance officer found acts of discrimination, harassment and intimidation, although subtle, take place at an alarming rate," says an audit by the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
"The compliance officer found acts of discrimination, harassment and intimidation, although subtle, take place at an alarming rate," says an audit by the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
"In many cases, the department ranked higher than the rest of the public service in harassment and discrimination issues."
Women are especially affected, being badly under-represented among ships' crews and among scientists - old-boy bastions that have long been identified as hostile to female workers.
In a response to the findings, the department says its managers are primarily to blame. "The majority of the instances of inappropriate behaviour . . . are linked to perceived or reported poor leadership and supervisory skills resulting in abuse of power harassment situations," says a Sept. 10 internal review. "This form of harassment can usually affect everyone in the workplace, however, it tends to more adversely affect those who perceive themselves as vulnerable." Documents related to the investigation were obtained under the Access to Information Act and through an informal request.
A spokesman for the department called the language of the human-rights audit "excessive," but acknowledged the problems it cites are legitimate. "These are workplaces that were dominated by guys for a long time, and these are workplaces which are traditionally male," Scott Streiner, director-general of human resources, said in an interview.
"I don't think that the concern is misplaced."
The department's own review found a shortage of 150 women in the scientific and professional category, and a shortage of 213 women among coast guard ships' crews, based on the general availability of qualified female workers.
"The perception of a significant proportion of women in the science and technical communities is that the corporate culture is male dominated, largely resulting from the predominantly male management cadre. . . .
"The barriers put up by these so-called 'boys clubs' are said to be a factor in causing some . . . women scientists to leave the department for workplaces that have a more open organizational structure."
The review also found visible minorities were under-represented by 182 people across the department, mostly in the science and professional category. There were far fewer problems with the numbers of aboriginals and disabled employees. The department has designed a recruitment plan, to be presented to the human rights commission by Dec. 12, that will see 98 more women and 74 more visible minority representatives added to total numbers by 2007. Even with this aggressive recruiting, however, the two groups will remain significantly under-represented.