Helen Irvine is one of six former and current law enforcement officers who have spent the past 18 months trying to bring forward a class action lawsuit against British Columbia’s municipal police forces.
They claim to have been harassed and bullied by male co-workers and subjected to sexual touching and wildly offensive slurs recast as “jokes.” One was sexually assaulted by a co-worker.
They’re all used to hitting brick walls.
Still, Irvine said she was shocked to hear a lawyer for B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner refer to their efforts as proof of the need to address “toxic” workplace culture at a public hearing this month into sexual harassment allegations against a veteran VPD officer.
Especially because the OPCC — the body tasked with overseeing disciplinary action in B.C.’s municipal police forces — is one of the bodies they’re suing. And Irvine said the women are still fighting tooth and nail to be heard both in the workplace and in the courts.
“We were pleasantly surprised that our lawsuit was brought up in that hearing,” Irvine, a former Delta Police officer, told the CBC.
“I think that is positive and shows we’re doing the right thing. We’re moving in the right direction.”
Concerns ‘widespread in the public domain’
The hearing into the actions of Sgt. Keiron McConnell has highlighted issues of sexual harassment and bullying in municipal policing.
McConnell — the VPD’s most senior sergeant and a former leader in the force’s gang squad — admitted to sending inappropriate and unwelcome sexualized messages to five women. He is now waiting to hear if the retired judge overseeing the case will accept a proposed resolution that would see him demoted and suspended for 20 days.
The original complaints against McConnell involved seven women, including three co-workers and four students at two of the B.C. universities where he taught.
The deal saw him admit to harassing two of the officers and three students.
As Brian Smith, the counsel for the OPCC, outlined the need for discipline, he cited both the proposed class action brought by Irvine and others, and a similar lawsuit that saw female RCMP members and civilian employees awarded more than $125 million for harassment and discrimination.
“Sexual harassment is fundamentally contrary to the high ethical standards expected of all police officers, especially senior officers having supervisory responsibilities,” Smith told the hearing.
“Concerns about sexual harassment and toxic cultures in police workplaces are widespread in the public domain.”
‘Systemically discriminatory toward women’
But that stated concern stands in contrast to the experience of Irvine and her co-plaintiffs, who are paying keen attention to the McConnell proceedings.
They believe their lawsuit influenced the OPCC’s decision to call a public hearing so early in the process — a first under changes to the Police Act designed to heighten transparency.
But they doubt much will change, because they say the problem lies with the Police Act itself — legislation designed to govern police boards, police forces and police procedure but not to contemplate the culture of harassment that leads to cop-on-cop complaints.
One of the plaintiffs — a former VPD officer whose name is protected by a publication ban — was sexually assaulted by a fellow officer who was later sentenced to a year in jail.
Beyond disciplinary proceedings against the offending officer, the OPCC also oversaw a separate investigation into an officer found guilty of discreditable conduct for sharing text messages sent from the trial describing the victim as a “bad drunk.”
Aside from the trauma of the sexual assault, the woman told CBC she has experienced every angle of a system that demoralizes victims while protecting offenders: named a “witness” as opposed to a “victim” in her own sexual assault and left deeply unsatisfied by results.
At every stage, she said, the strictures of the Police Act have been thrust in her face as justification for decisions that have frozen her out of the process.
Just last month, the OPCC denied her request for a public hearing after the officer who shared texts from the trial was issued a written reprimand and ordered to take respectful workplace training — punishment she sees as a joke.
“While we recognize your concerns with respect to transparency and fairness, the Police Act in its current form does not allow for the attendance of complainants at discipline proceedings,” the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner wrote in a letter to the woman.
“I cannot speak enough to the fact that the Police Act was created as an oversight body for the public and it is barely even that,” she told CBC News.
“What it is, is it’s a scheme and in its own creation and execution, it is systemically discriminatory toward women who work in the career and are victims of anything.”
‘Whose problem is this?’
The proposed class action names 13 cities and townships, their respective police boards, the OPCC, the Attorney General, the Solicitor General and the province as defendants.
A certification hearing was set for October 2026, but will likely be delayed as the defendants have argued the women must take their complaints to B.C.’s Workplace Compensation Appeal Tribunal before the courts can get involved.
Earlier this month, a judge struck down the existing claims against the OPCC, but gave Irvine and the others time to amend the part of the lawsuit pertaining to the Police Complaints Commissioner.
The OPCC claimed the Police Act gives the commissioner immunity to legal action related to any decisions that were not taken in “bad faith.”
The judge agreed but left the women two possible avenues to change their claims, by either providing material facts of “bad faith” or asking for a type of order involving a declaration their rights were breached.
According to the notice of civil claim, Irvine said she complained to superiors about “unwanted touching and comments in the workplace” but was subject to “retaliatory abuse.” She was ultimately diagnosed with major depressive disorder.
After the initial flood of publicity that came with the filing of the lawsuit in 2023, Irvine said the women heard from dozens of potential claimants.
They’ve become accustomed to delay and the slow grind of the legal process.
“I don’t know how anyone could stand up and say we don’t have a problem with bullying and harassment or sexual harassment with policewomen,” Irvine said.
“That’s not what’s being argued right now. What’s being argued ism how are we dealing with this? Who’s dealing with this? Whose problem is this?”
‘There would be consequences for her’
Although the proposed resolution of the McConnell case was put forward as a joint submission by the hearing counsel, the OPCC’s lawyer and McConnell himself, acceptance is not guaranteed.
Former Provincial Court Chief Judge Carol Baird Ellan can reject the deal if she finds it goes against the public interest.
The proposal would see McConnell acknowledge discreditable conduct toward two of the three female officers who ultimately accused him of harassment.
But the proposal does not address the allegation made by the co-worker who first approached the VPD’s professional standards section — meaning the complaint that triggered the investigation that led to the public hearing could be dismissed.
According to OPCC documents, the female officer stepped forward after becoming aware of a social media post calling McConnell a “sexual predator” with a “history of sexually assaulting his students” at Victoria’s Royal Roads University.
The officer gave the VPD’s professional standards section her own series of Facebook exchanges with McConnell.
The OPCC notice of hearing says she claimed McConnell’s Facebook messages “began as friendly but progressed to what she felt were inappropriate and sexual.”
“She felt she could not report Sergeant McConnell’s conduct due to his rank and status within the VPD and believed there would be consequences for her at the VPD if she did,” the notice reads.
‘An inside view into what goes on’
Counsel for the public hearing told Baird Ellan the complainant’s lawyer had been given a copy of the proposal. Her response remains to be seen.
The other two officers — who were considered “affected” persons as opposed to “complainants” in the language of the Police Act — were given hard copies of the proposed resolution on the morning of the hearing.
Demotion is considered the harshest penalty under the Police Act after dismissal. If Baird Ellan accepts the deal, McConnell will be able to apply to become a sergeant again after a year back as a first class constable.
The same change in legislation that enabled the OPCC to call the McConnell hearing also provides a means for the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner to proactively investigate systemic issues in municipal policing.
But OPCC oversight operations director Cameron Loveless told the CBC the agency is still “developing the frameworks to conduct those and at this time there hasn’t been any decisions made on launching any specific systemic investigations.”
Regardless, the class action plaintiff whose name is protected by a publication ban said she thinks the public hearing brought transparency to the discipline process — but perhaps not in the way intended.
“To finally have something in the public eye and to hear the average person aghast at went on and then what the proposed punishment is,” she said.
“Now you know. The public hearing just allowed the public one instance. They finally got an inside view into what goes on in municipal policing. And you should be disgusted because that man might show up at your house when you’re phoning them for help.”
