An extraordinary political eruption at the B.C. legislature last week is one reason the institution needs to move faster on getting a harassment policy, according to MLAs from two parties.
And despite delays, the institution is getting closer to having an independent officer adjudicate harassment complaints, joining other legislatures which have policies that govern how MLAs treat legislative staff and each other.
"We need a procedure that is non-political," said Sonia Furstenau, the Green Party House Leader. "That would have helped to get that situation navigated without it becoming the crisis it became."
Last week, opposition leaders sounded the alarm about the copying of hard drives by the office of Speaker Darryl Plecas, who said he was trying to protect the data on those computers in anticipation they would be used in ongoing investigations into the conduct of high-ranking legislature staff.
The BC Liberals claimed that during a follow-up meeting on the hard drives, the acting Clerk was mistreated and left the room in tears. The acting Clerk hasn’t made any public statements about the incident.
But those moments became part of a series of statements by most Liberal MLAs condemning the Speaker, before many left the chambers entirely.
"I have become aware of behaviour and conduct undertaken by the Speaker with respect to senior officers and employers of this legislative assembly that I believe to be improper and compromises the ability of those officers to independently perform their duties," the statement read in part.
A legislature committee had been considering a harassment policy, driven mostly by concerns about other examples of harassment that had occurred in legislatures across the country.
Federally, about five years ago, two Liberal MPs were turfed from caucus after accusations of harassing two NDP MPs. In Alberta, two MLAs were accused of sexual misconduct in 2015. In Newfoundland, two MLAs were cleared of allegations they were bullying and isolating a colleague last year.
The federal government, and seven provinces and territories have implemented some policy that governs MLA behaviour. Three, including B.C., have policies in the works.
In B.C., there are policies governing caucuses, but no overarching policy that covers MLAs and legislature staff, said NDP Caucus Chair Jagrup Brar.
"We need to implement it so the things that happened last week, there’s a proper process if someone feels that someone is being harassed," he said.
"This will probably include an independent office that will come in and look at the situation without being involved with anyone in the legislature."
A draft policy was awaiting feedback from all parties in May. The BC Liberals missed a caucus meeting, and missed the deadline for feedback by a few weeks, said BC Liberal House Leader Mary Polak.
But she said the policy is important and the party plans to follow through. She said she had been harassed in the early 2000s by a staff member who she did not identify beyond saying he was more junior to her.
"For me, I reported it because my worry was, what if this person is doing it to other people? For me, he was beneath me in seniority. You have all these young women, and they wouldn’t be senior to this person," she said.
She reported what happened to then-premier Gordon Campbell, and it was dealt with very quickly, she said.
MLAs shouldn’t wait to implement the harassment policy, she said.
"I think it should be in place by the fall," said Polak. "At a certain point we should be doing it just because it should be there.”"
