Halifax fire chief issues apology for systemic gender discrimination

City apologizes to ex-firefighter Municipal officials in Halifax offered an apology to a former firefighter for gender discrimination. CTV’s Laura Brown reports.

Halifax's fire chief apologized to all female firefighters who suffered systemic gender discrimination in the city, during a formal, negotiated apology to one former firefighter who won a settlement after a 12-year battle.

Fire Chief Ken Stuebing said he wanted to acknowledge a part of the service's history that "we are not proud of," noting that firefighting has historically been a male-dominated profession.

"In Halifax and in fact in many other fire services across our nation this has led to systemic discrimination based on gender. For this I extend an apology to Liane Tessier and any other female firefighter who has experienced discrimination within this organization," he said.

The apology to Tessier came after years of her complaints about abusive and disrespectful behaviour from her male counterparts.

Stuebing said Monday firefighting is difficult enough without having to deal with a disrespectful workplace.

"Our firefighters put themselves on the line to protect lives and property and they all deserve support and respect," Stuebing said. "More should have been done to ensure our female firefighters were given that same support and respect."

Tessier, a former volunteer firefighter who first complained in 2005 about gender discrimination at the Herring Cove fire station, said the apology was far too long in coming.

"I want to believe that they are going to do the best they can to make women's lives better," she told reporters.

Tessier said she has been contacted by women from across the country in the days since word of the settlement was made public.

"There's a sense of hope for them," she said. "They want to keep fighting ... hopefully I can be an agent for change."

Tessier was accompanied by former Halifax firefighters Kathy Symington and Barbara Sawatsky, who talked about their own experiences dealing with gender discrimination.

Symington, who worked with the service from 1997 to 2014, said she was harassed on the job, and like Tessier was attacked by management when she spoke out about it and sought help.

She said no one was ever held accountable and she felt isolated until she finally heard about Tessier's case via news reports. Symington she had thought "it was just me."

"That's how quiet things get kept. That's how they keep it (discrimination) going," said Symington.

Sawatsky, an 18-year volunteer who was also a volunteer chief for eight years, said she was witness to what management did to Tessier.

"I was told to stay away from Liane, she was trouble ... she was a trouble maker and a few more choice words," she said.

Sawatsky said she was also the subject of a staff complaint that ended up before the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission -- a process that didn't go well. She said she was eventually terminated by the fire service.

Details of the settlement were not released on Monday, although Tessier has previously said it includes financial compensation and a commitment from the Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency service to implement eight policy changes that she suggested.

Those include keeping hiring statistics and making the workplace safer for women to speak out.

In a 26-page statement Tessier sent to The Canadian Press last week, she alleges she was "ostracized" and was subjected to "malicious gossip" after she spoke out. The statement and its allegations are not part of the settlement and haven't been proven in court.

After a formal complaint to management and a human relations consultant failed to address her complaints, Tessier turned to the provincial rights commission in 2007, but she said it languished in the investigation phase for almost five years before it was dismissed.

Tessier then filed for a judicial review and in 2014 the Nova Scotia Supreme Court ordered that the complaint be re-examined by the rights commission.

The case was to have come before a public board of inquiry in October of this year.

Commission lawyer Kymberly Franklin also offered Tessier an apology on Monday.

"This process should have never have been this long and I commend her for dealing with it, sticking with it and fighting. What she has done will make things better for all female firefighters."

Stuebing, who was hired as chief last fall after serving as the fire paramedic chief in Chatham-Kent, Ont., said the Halifax fire service has been making progress in recent years -- it has implemented mandatory harassment and diversity training and now reviews all complaints through a conflict resolution specialist.

Still, he said more needs to be done.

"I'm confident that I have the fortitude to make the stand on what's important for the organization to evolve," said Stuebing. "But it's a group effort including individuals coming forward."