Jian Ghomeshi’s public firing may have encouraged more City of Toronto employees to report sexual harassment, according to a report from the City’s Human Rights Office.
Data from the Office has shown a steady overall increase in the number of formal complaints made to the office about sexual harassment since 2001.
Between 2013 and 2014, complaints increased by 132 per cent, up to 58 from 25, the highest amount of complaints the office has seen. Ghomeshi was fired in the fall of 2014.
Data from 2015 has not been compiled yet, said Jackie DeSouza, director of communications for the City of Toronto.
“With the Jian Ghomeshi case, the interest goes up and the awareness goes up, and people feel that there’s a better or more conducive environment to complain,” she said.
The case has brought much public discussion on instances of sexual harassment in the workplace. A verdict for Ghomeshi will be announced next week.
The document above is from the Human Right Office’s Annual Report from 2014.
More than a quarter of Canadians are sexually harassed at work, according to an Angus Reid online survey conducted in November 2014.
According to a 2012 presentation by the Ontario Human Rights Commission, sexual harassment in the workplace is underreported, and key data is not being collected.
The commission stated the last time data was collected was 1993 by Statistics Canada. The report indicated about 400,000 women was being harassed at work each year.
A steady increase in City of Toronto employees reporting may be the result of more awareness and knowledge of the organization’s process in handling sexual harassment along with media attention, DeSouza said.
The numbers may indicate that workers feel more comfortable reporting, said Simon Lapierre, a professor of social work at the University of Ottawa.
“There is something much bigger than Ghomeshi happening,” he said. “Over the last two years, we’ve seen with traditional media, with social media, people are starting to talk about sexual violence and taking it seriously.”
“They feel they can report and have enough trust in the office or the system,” he added.
Lapierre was a member of the University of Ottawa’s 2015 Task Force on Respect and Equality that addressed sexual violence issues at the school.
Most incidents of sexual violence remain unreported, with less than 10 per cent coming forward, Lapierre said.
“The issue of trust is a central issue,” he added. “Survivors have to trust the institution or organization that they will get an appropriate response if they report.”
The document above is from the Human Right Office’s Annual Report from 2014.
New legislation titled Bill 132, passed on March 8 of this year, makes major amendments to Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act, to deal specifically with sexual harassment in the workplace.
The law emphasizes that all employers must investigate all sexual harassment complaints and must review annually their harassment policy to create an environment that supports those who report.
Bill 132 was passed just months after being drafted, which is considered to be incredibly fast, said Cynthia Ingram, lawyer at Rudner Macdonald LLP.
“The government focus really came in as a response to the Jian Ghomeshi matter,” she said.
Ingram said she isn’t surprised the City of Toronto has seen increased reports of sexual harassment and those rates may continue to spike.
“You’re going to see an increase in the number of formal investigations now because it’s mandated by law,” she said. “You’re going to see an increased focus and attention put on this by employers. It will be interesting to see what impact that has on reducing this trend.”