Female police officers met secretly with city councillor over toxic workplace allegations

A city councillor held dozens of private meetings this year with female officers who alleged they were bullied and harassed within the ranks of the Calgary police, but were too afraid to make a formal complaint.

"The issues and matters that this group of women have raised are absolutely unacceptable in today's human resource practices. This tarnishes the Calgary Police Service (CPS) and as a result of that, it tarnishes the City of Calgary," Ward 13 Diane Colley-Urquhart told the Calgary Eyeopener.

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The Ward 13 councillor said "it was very disappointing to hear a lot of the issues they were raising" — from shunning to being told their careers would stall if they went on maternity leave.

"Their careers being put on hold in the parking lot if they were going to go off and have kids. The shunning that occurs in the workplace and lack of advancement," said Colley-Urquhart, who also serves as a police commissioner.

Colley-Urquhart said the women approached her in confidence because they were frustrated that the CPS had not acted on a damning internal workplace review that came out three years ago.

"The [police] commission was briefed in camera in 2014 after this report came out. And of course, this area was Deputy Chief Chaffin's area of human resource. And so the implementation plan never, from what I understand, got put into play."

Colley-Urquhart says she brought forward the female officers' concerns in April, during a three-hour meeting with Roger Chaffin — who now serves as the chief of the Calgary police.

"I didn't mention any of the women's names because there was a significant feeling of retribution and fear. And that actually has happened to a couple of them since this unfolded with bringing these matters forward," she said.

'Significant amount of work done': chief

Chaffin told CBC Calgary News at 6 that most of the recommendations in the workplace review report have been acted on by the police force.

"There's been a significant amount of work done that's occurred since the authoring of that report," said Chaffin.

"The bigger work to do is actually ... is a culture issue. How do we become a much more trusted place? And that work is underway."

Chaffin said he needs to hear formal complaints about officer misconduct within the service before he can act on them.

"Without hearing from people it's really difficult to take meaningful steps, although I'd say those people who have engaged the programs, the people who are with us, are finding a way through this with us."

Calgary Eyeopener9:14Diane Colley-Urquhart on harassment and intimidation within CPS

The councillor for Ward 13 and the city’s police commissioner talks about the private meetings she held with female police officers concerned about their treatment within the Calgary Police Service.

According to a gender and sexual equity consultant, the CPS has been taking a proactive approach to changing its workplace culture.

Rebecca Sullivan says there have been improvements since the service partnered with the University of Calgary a couple years ago.

"There's been better recruitment of women, there's been better promotion of women, the office of inclusion has been created, they're putting in the systems, they're doing the learning strategies," she said.

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Sullivan says the CPS has worked hard on its internal systems for reporting and supporting its members.

But true cultural reform takes time, and it starts at the top, she said.

"If that is how the leadership is being perceived down the road, if there's people in the lower ranks thinking it's okay to behave this way, it's up to the leaders to make it very clear that it is not," she said.

Earlier this week, the police chief acknowledged that the onus is on him and senior staff to ensure officers feel that they are in a "trusted environment" where they can reach out for help if they need it.