{"id":135827,"date":"2017-12-03T20:46:01","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T01:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=135827"},"modified":"2017-12-03T20:46:01","modified_gmt":"2017-12-04T01:46:01","slug":"quebecs-female-legislature-members-say-theyve-experienced-sexual-misconduct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/12\/03\/quebecs-female-legislature-members-say-theyve-experienced-sexual-misconduct\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec’s female legislature members say they’ve experienced sexual misconduct"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Liberal<\/a>
Liberal MNA Karine Vallieres, who agreed to publicly discuss her experience, recalled being assaulted by a man dressed in a mascot costume during a public event in her riding. (Photo: assnat.qc.ca<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

QUEBEC \u2014 \u00a0Powerful women who rise to the top level of Quebec provincial politics are not spared from sexual misconduct and harassment, The Canadian Press has learned.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the #MeToo movement that is raising awareness of sexual harassment, the 37 female members of the\u00a0national<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0assembly were asked to discuss their own experiences.<\/p>\n

Of the 24 women who agreed to participate through surveys or interviews, most said they’d lived through some form of misconduct.<\/p>\n

Almost two-thirds (63 per cent) said they’d experienced one or more forms of sexual misconduct as they carried out their duties as politicians.<\/p>\n

Forty-two per cent of respondents said they had been victims of sexual harassment before entering politics, while two women said they had been sexually assaulted.<\/p>\n

The six cabinet ministers and 18 backbenchers reported numerous forms of misconduct that included groping, derogatory remarks of a sexual nature, comments on their physical appearance, intimidation, exhibitionism, inappropriate gestures and assault.<\/p>\n

Liberal MNA Karine Vallieres, who agreed to publicly discuss her experience, recalled being assaulted by a man dressed in a mascot costume during a public event in her riding.<\/p>\n

Vallieres said that when she agreed to pose for a photo with the man he made a rude gesture, grabbed her buttock and whispered in her ear, \u201cwould you come help me take off my costume.\u201d<\/p>\n

While one might expect the formal setting of the legislature to inspire exemplary behaviour, some of the survey respondents noted that wasn’t the case.<\/p>\n

Several of them reported having received comments on their physical appearance while exercising their parliamentary functions.<\/p>\n

Those include Vallieres, who said a speaker who came to present a brief during a legislature committee on the study of a bill once commented on her body and said she had a pretty face.<\/p>\n

The majority of respondents, at 67 per cent, said the legislature is neither better nor worse than other workplaces when it comes to sexual misconduct.<\/p>\n

Quebec solidaire’s Manon Masse believes that, in the legislature like elsewhere, many women decide not to denounce their aggressors out of fear of hurting their own careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou shut your mouth because you want to work until the end of your days,\u201d said Masse, who also agreed to be identified for the story.<\/p>\n

The survey included 30 questions that focused on sexual harassment and on women’s place in politics.<\/p>\n

The aim was to learn to what extent sexual misconduct has permeated Quebec politics, from the point of view of those who participate in it.<\/p>\n

The process was conducted anonymously and the results were confidential, with the exception of the two women who agreed to interviewed on the record.<\/p>\n

Overall, the most common forms of misconduct identified by respondents were \u201cinappropriate remarks of a sexual nature\u201d (58 per cent), sexual comments shared on social media (54 per cent), inappropriate gestures (21 per cent), or embarrassing texts (8 per cent).<\/p>\n

One legislature member reported having received \u201cthousands\u201d of degrading messages on Facebook that commented on her physical appearance, as well as a number of sexual \u201cinvitations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two women said they were sexually harassed while exercising their functions, and one said she experienced \u201cintimidation with physical force\u201d from a member of another political party.<\/p>\n

Twelve per cent of the respondents identified a colleague or legislature member from their own party as the source of the misconduct, while 17 per cent pointed the finger at the member of an opposing party.<\/p>\n

But most said the aggressor came from outside the political realm.<\/p>\n

The women were more divided on the issue of whether Quebec society as a whole tends to trivialize sexual misconduct and place the blame on victims.<\/p>\n

While almost half agreed that so-called \u201crape culture\u201d is prevalent in Quebec, 38 per cent of those surveyed believed no such culture exists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

QUEBEC \u2014 \u00a0Powerful women who rise to the top level of Quebec provincial politics are not spared from sexual misconduct …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":135833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[36782,36781,32306],"class_list":["post-135827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-liberal-mna-karine-vallieres","tag-quebecs-female-legislature-members","tag-sexual-misconduct","mauthors-jocelyne-richer","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}