Lawsuit alleges RCMP applicants faced ‘unfair and invasive’ medical exams for years
Warning: This article describes allegations of sexual harassment.
More than a thousand former and current RCMP employees allege new hires applying for jobs were subjected to “inappropriate and invasive” breast, genital and rectal examinations during mandatory medical examinations, CBC News has learned.
Class-action lawyers say 1,000 RCMP recruits and staff have come forward to complain about doctors performing “inappropriate and unnecessary” exams, “many of which amounted to sexual harassment, assault or battery.”
Megan McPhee, the plaintiffs’ lead lawyer, says the lawsuit, initiated in 2019 and certified in 2021, originally focused on allegations of sexual assault by two RCMP doctors.
But after the story made headlines, hundreds of men and women filed complaints about the 26 doctors hired by the RCMP.
During the court proceedings, the RCMP also had to create an internal form they gave to doctors that mandated a checklist examination as a final step before all candidates were hired.
“Many of us were surprised by some of the things on the form,” McPhee told CBC News. “Pressing the applicant’s breasts to see if there is discharge. Looking at the genital system. Checking the male to see if he is circumcised.”
“It doesn’t examine occupational health,” she said. “I find it very difficult to imagine… that whether or not a man is circumcised has any bearing on his ability to perform his role as a police officer.”
The case will be sent to Toronto’s Federal Court on January 19, where McAfee will seek compensation and a summary judgment to settle the multimillion-dollar case without a full trial.
The RCMP declined CBC’s request for an interview, but in its court filings, it has denied claims of “systemic negligence.”
in one Additional statement to CBC News, The RCMP expressed concern for anyone who may feel victimized and said it was opposing the motion “not because the charges are frivolous, but because the legal and factual issues in this case require a full hearing.”
“RCMP This does not diminish the seriousness of the allegations involving the former physicians,” wrote media relations officer Camille Boilly-Lavoie.
‘He was not undergoing medical examination’
The class action was launched in 2019 after several women accused two doctors of sexual harassment and indecency – one in Toronto and the other in Halifax. CBC is not naming them because no one has been criminally charged.
Sylvie Corriveau, representing plaintiff in the civil suit, says she was attacked in 1989 when she was 27 and moved to Toronto from northern Ontario to apply to become an RCMP civilian 911 dispatcher. The final step was a medical examination. She says she was nervous as the doctor began massaging her legs and examining her vagina and rectum.
“He was rubbing, he was massaging. He was not doing any medical tests,” Corriveau said in a recent interview with CBC News. “He spread my legs, and he didn’t have any gloves on this time. He didn’t wash his hands.”
Corriveau says this was completely inappropriate and that she believes the therapist was acting for his own sexual gratification.
Sylvie Corriveau, representing plaintiff in a civil lawsuit against RCMP doctors, says she was attacked in 1989 when she was 27 and says she was frightened as the doctor began massaging her legs and examining her vagina and rectum.
“He keeps telling me he’s got the final order, so I have to go ahead with it, so I was just going through the motions. But as soon as I walked away from that office, I couldn’t believe what had happened to me.”
Corriveau and other women at the time complained to the RCMP, Toronto police and College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario Each of whom were investigated, but ultimately no charges were filed.
Corriveau retired in 2020 after serving in the Army for 36 years. To this day he wonders why the Mounties needed such an aggressive test in the first place.
Corriveau said, “Was it necessary for the job I was going to do as a 911 operator? Absolutely not.”
Lawyer says RCMP liable for ‘systemic negligence’
McPhee, his lawyers, argue over R.C.The MP is liable for “systemic negligence”.
They claim the force ignored numerous complaints about the examinations and ignored recommendations for better supervision and the suggestion that if gynecological examinations were needed, they should be carried out by specialists.
“All of these things put together put RCMP applicants in a very vulnerable and very dangerous position indeed,” McPhee said. “Really it’s a lack of oversight. It’s a lack of policies. It’s a lack of procedures. It’s a lack of safeguards.”
Court documents contain a 2018 review of the force’s medical examination policies conducted by Dr. Josie Pilon of the RCMP’s occupational health and safety branch. It concludes that medical examinations performed on recruits between the 1980s and 2000s “were conducted in accordance with the policy and standard of care in effect at the time.”
But the same review notes that mandatory inspection of the genitals, breasts and rectum was eventually dropped as a requirement in 2006.
“As medical standards evolved, the RCMP adapted its practices, including expanding eligibility to women, strengthening privacy and administrative safeguards and, between 2006 and 2018, reducing or making optional some sensitive examinations in line with modern occupational health expectations,” the RCMP said in its statement to CBC.
The RCMP also emphasized that many employees did not have provincial health coverage prior to 2013, so RCMP doctors conducted these medical examinations as part of general health care – not just for the purpose of screening new recruits.
Prostate test for men and women
Many of the complainants are men who were given prostate exams as part of job screening. But some women say that they have also undergone rectal examination.
a servinG RCMP member, whom CBC is not identifying because they fear they will face adverse consequences for their work, says he was shocked when he met A.P.When he joined the police in his early 20s, he was given a prostate exam, with no explanation as to why or how it was related to his work.
“I’m baffled as to why this procedure was done, I feel like I was, for lack of a better phrase, a lab rat,” he told CBC News.
He was angry after learning from other coworkers that not all new recruits went through the same invasive procedure.
He is upset that he did not receive answers from the RCMP about what the medical purpose of the prostate exam was.
In 2020, a retired Supreme Court judge recommended that Canada compensate recruits who were abused by RCMP doctors.
Michelle Bastarche, leading a separate class action on behalf of female RCMP employees, said in her final report that several women came forward but could not receive compensation because the alleged misconduct occurred before they were officially hired.
“The stories I was told about sexual abuse of female applicants at the hands of RCMP doctors were shocking,” Bastarache wrote.
“The worst part was that it appeared that the behavior of these doctors was known to others in the RCMP,” he wrote.
“In my view, it is unjust to compensate some victims but not all. I therefore recommend that steps be taken by Canada to compensate those who were not eligible under this process.”
