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For immediate release: May 29, 2007 On June 2nd 1996, Theresa Vince was shot to death by her Sears Canada supervisor who then killed himself. She had been enduring sexual harassment from him for years, and was planning to retire a couple of weeks later.
A subsequent inquest into the murder-suicide tabled a number of recommendations for changes to prevent similar deaths in the future and to address workplace sexual harassment. Now a women’s campaign to end violence against women wants to know why even a Liberal MPP’s one-line Bill to declare the first week of June Sexual Harassment Awareness Week—a Bill promoted by the Vince family and women’s rape crisis centres—has been buried in the agenda of the Standing Committee on Justice Policy for almost a year now without further action. The Step it Up! Campaign, a coalition of women’s and community groups, provincial networks working on violence against women, labour representatives and equity-seeking groups has been campaigning on 10 Steps to End Violence Against Women for the upcoming Ontario election in October. Bill 110 was introduced by Liberal MPP Pat Hoy last year, 10 years after Theresa Vince was murdered. The one line text of the Bill is: “The first week in June in each year is proclaimed as Sexual Harassment Awareness Week.” At second reading last June, Pat Hoy said: “If Bill 110 becomes law, Ontario will become a leader in this much overdue step to protect women against sexual harassment.” “We want to know why Ontario isn’t taking this overdue step to raise awareness of sexual harassment,” said Jacqueline Benn-John of the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC), a member of the Step it Up Campaign. “Women who experience different forms of harassment at work experience physical and emotional harm as well as job loss, loss of references for future work and disrupted work experience. It has serious impacts on all parts of their lives and livelihood,” she said. The Coalition worked to focus the issue in June of 2004 by itself declaring the week instead of waiting for the government to lead the way but the newly elected Liberals didn’t take the hint. “To have a one-line Bill declaring an awareness week sitting for a year on a committee agenda is pretty discouraging when most women will experience sexual harassment at some point in their lives and almost half will have it interfere with their jobs at work,” said Benn-John. A new NDP Bill introduced in 2005 by MPP Andrea Horwath hopes to go beyond awareness and symbolism. It proposes action on holding workplace harassers accountable and providing support for victims of harassment at work. The Bill has been through first reading. Bill 45 proposes to amend the Occupational Health and Safety Act to provide workplace protection and remedies for workers harassed as a result of “sexual harassment and harassment because of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sexual orientation, age, record of offences, marital status, same-sex partnership status, family status or disability.” “We need both awareness and accountability mechanisms within workplace legislation to stop all kinds of harassment,” said Julie White, Director of Women’s Programs for the Canadian Auto Workers and a member of the Campaign. The Step it Up Campaign is calling on the Liberals to: - pass both Bill 110 and Bill 45 before the Legislature closes for the summer
- launch a province-wide education campaign on sexual harassment
- include violence in the workplace regulations in the Occupational Health and Safety Act
- include coverage of physical and emotional health impacts of harassment in the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, and
- provide additional funding to women’s services that work with women experiencing harassment for intervention and public education
“It shouldn’t take 10 years after Theresa Vince’s murder to table government sponsored legislation on this in Ontario, much less a one-line private member’s Bill,” said White. “That’s not action. We need at least a week each year dedicated to education and awareness, however late in the day, and we need much more. We need concrete legislated mechanisms to support women who experience harassment at work all over the Province. And we need them now.” For more information contact: Jacqueline Benn-John, Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres 905-825-3622 Julie White, Canadian Auto Workers 519-649-2552 Ext. 2489, or Toll free 1-800-265-1891 Ext. 2489 Visit the Step it Up! Campaign website at www.stepitupontario.ca -30- |
