By Bryan Eneas

Sexual harassment predominant in Sask: researchers

Nov 3, 2017 | 2:00 PM

In light of recent Hollywood claims, a market research company set out to find out how many Canadian women experience sexual harassment.

Abacus Data said Saskatchewan and Manitoba together have the highest numbers of women who’ve experienced sexual harassment in the workplace at 63 per cent, where 56 percent of women polled nationally experienced the same harrassment. The poll also showed 70 percent of respondents thought harassers faced few consequences.

Bruce Anderson, the chairman of Abacus Data, said people are likely to debate the numbers. 

“One thing is clear in these results – millions of Canadian men and women say they witness this problem and say there are rarely sanctions to punish inappropriate behaviour,” Anderson said. “If we as a society are tempted to believe that this sort of behaviour is a relic of the past, these results make it clear that this is not the case.”

Nationally, 12 percent of respondents said sexual harassment happens frequently in the work place, or 15 per cent in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Forty-one percent of respondents said they’ve experienced “occasional” sexual harassment, while seven percent said they’ve “often” experienced sexual harassment. Five percent of respondents said they “very often” experienced sexual harassment.  

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Women between the age of 30 to 44 were found to be the most likely to encounter sexual harassment in the work place, and 22 percent of participants in that age range said it was a common occurrence.  

Larry Hubich, from the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, said sexual harassment in the workplace can happen from more than just co-workers. He said workers in the service, hospitality and retail industries among others can experience harassment from people they interact with on a daily basis.

Hubich said the federation has made calls to try and improve the sexual harassment situation for workers in different industries.

“We’ve called for late-night retail premises to be monitored and workers that work in the sale of alcoholic beverages are protected from customers who may, by virtue of intoxication, may do things they wouldn’t do when they’re not intoxicated,” Hubich said.

Hubich admitted unions have had to address their share of sexual harassment issues, but the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour along with many organizations in the province operate with zero tolerance policies. Many unions have the framework in place to deal with issues as they arise.

For Sandra Cohen-Rose, the president of the National Council of Women of Canada, sexual harassment has been prevalent for a long time. Recent allegations coming from Hollywood are just now bringing the issue to light.

“It’s brought to our attention something that’s been around for a long time, and [the harassment] should have been reported,” Cohen-Rose said.

She said the national council felt the earlier sexual harassment education starts with both boys and girls, the better society will be.

“We really have to teach young men and women from a very early age to respect each other, so they don’t think this is something that is common, it’s not common. It’s something that should be very rare,” Cohen-Rose said. “It’s not acceptable in our society.”

The Abacus Data poll found men are almost as likely to experience sexual harassment at work, which Cohen-Rose addressed.

“That’s why we feel both sexes have to learn to respect each other – men have to respect men and women have to respect women, and it goes right across the line, in all directions,” Cohen-Rose said.

Despite the data, Cohen-Rose said she feels the attitudes around sexual harassment are changing in Canada.

“They can’t get much worse. I think they’re going to change because when we’re aware of something, we’re going to do something about it,” she said. “The awareness should help a great deal.”

Bryan.Eneas@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @BryanEneas