WHAT A DAMNING INDICTMENT OF MALES IN AUTHORITY

Prior to the rest of this post criticizing males in charge of historically male dominated institutions such as the military, RCMP, police, firemen, and even municipal public works departments, let me be very clear. The few women who have managed to advance to positions of authority, whether in these just listed male dominated institutions or even in politics which certainly used to be the sole domain of males; they have not done much either to advance the careers of their female colleagues nor to advance the cause of women in general as being more ethical, caring, or honourable when they are in positions of authority. My observations have been that most of the women who do advance in male dominated institutions do so by mimicking the behaviour of the males around them. This is not a compliment to either gender. They tend to adopt "circle the wagons" and "the blue wall" type of attitudes as well as promoting of the status quo even when doing business as usual has been proven to be counter productive to the credibility, reputation, and integrity of the organization.

Two articles appeared in today's Waterloo Region Record which may illustrate why I believe this to be so. The first is titled "Deal reached in harassment lawsuit against RCMP". The RCMP have been front and centre for many years now for both their alleged and proven unfair and unequal treatment of many women in their ranks. The second article while shocking may be less an indictment of male power and privilege or not as it concerns CSIS, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. I suspect that they too are male dominated in the top leadership positions but I admit I don't know that for a fact. Also the article concerning them titled "Group says spies went too far" is not about their treatment of women in their workplace but about how those in charge have strayed so far from their mandate, whether they admit it or not. This includes allegations by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) that CSIS have spied on Canadian environmental groups as well as upon certain aboriginal groups.

All of this is of course in the light of both historic and ongoing workplace harassment including many years ago of the City of Waterloo Public Works department. I am advised that there has been incredible discrimination against females attempting to do research or teaching at the university level. Apparently universities were very male dominated institution historically although university educated males are at least bright enough to recognize how stupid and unsustainable that behaviour is nowadays and are addressing those wrongs. Again here in Waterloo Region we the residents and citizens have been subjected to the shining of light upon our very own local police force and it has not been pleasant. There is a lawsuit initiated by four former Waterloo Region police officers (3 female, 1 male) that has been attempting to be certified as a class action lawsuit. Of course we the taxpayers are paying legal costs to the WRPS and the civilian board as well as to the Police Association in order to block these legal attempts to redress gender discrimination. That misallocation of taxpayer funds in order to buy legal protection from doing the right and proper things are routinely practiced by police forces, school boards, Mounties, politicians and other non accountable institutions. Another local, former police officer, Kelly Donovan, has also been facing taxpayer funded legal harassment by the Waterloo Region Police Service and their cronies on the civilian police board and in the police association which appears to be firmly in bed with the old boys club.