Female Mountie passed over for promotion takes force to court | 24CA News
A veteran member of the RCMP has utilized to the Federal Court for a judicial overview difficult a promotion choice made by her superiors. Sgt. Jill Swann informed Global News the courtroom problem follows years of harassment.
“It impacts people around you, your home life, your activities, your occupied thoughts, your energy,” she stated.
In 2017 Swann filed a civil go well with alleging the RCMP failed to supply a secure office.
Alleged harassment towards her included a supervisor sending her condoms after the delivery of her baby, calling her “meth face” and commenting about her weight.
In the settlement of her civil declare and a parallel human rights criticism, the RCMP agreed to provide Swann precedence entitlement to a promotion to a sergeant rank in a non-general responsibility place on Vancouver Island, say the statements of truth filed by each events in Federal Court.
But when she utilized for sergeant place with the Federal Serious and Organized Crime (FSOC) unit, she didn’t get the job regardless of assembly the necessities, in accordance with her lawyer Sebastien Anderson.
“Sex discrimination in the RCMP has not been eradicated,” Anderson informed Global News. “Swann was denied a promotional opportunity that she should have had by applying criteria that the decision-maker just made up. They were not in the job description, and she should have had priority entitlement to the position in accordance with the settlement.”
In paperwork filed in Federal Court in response to Swann’s declare, the federal authorities and RCMP declare the promotion choice was neutral and based mostly on advantage.
“Cpl. Swann did not have any experience with national or international organized crime investigations, including leadership or oversight of such projects,” the federal government’s courtroom filings state, citing the rationale of the officer who made the hiring choice.
The authorities’s authorized response additional argues that the case ought to be dismissed as a result of the courtroom doesn’t have jurisdiction to listen to the matter, which it stated ought to have been addressed as a grievance beneath the RCMP’s collective settlement.
Swann informed Global News that in her 26 years with the RCMP she has skilled with the FBI, labored as a disaster negotiator and an arson investigator.
Now, even after years of harassment, she says she nonetheless loves the job.
“You really get to help people and you get to help people in a time of need and you get to make a difference,” she stated.
As for Sgt. Swann’s courtroom problem, Federal Court Justice Elizabeth Walker has reserved her choice.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
