STEPHANIE IP
Vancouver Sun
VANCOUVER — A Campbell River RCMP officer has been docked pay after it was found that she made inappropriate sexual comments toward a male colleague.
Const. Valerie Little will forfeit 20 days of pay, 10 days of annual leave, and her promotion eligibility for two years, according to a disciplinary hearing decision posted recently. She was also ordered to work under close supervision for a year.
The sexual misconduct involved two incidents that took place in 2009 and 2010 while the officers were working at the Vernon detachment. Both are contrary to the RCMP’s Code of Conduct.
After the incidents, A.F. sought support from a retired senior member of the RCMP, but she “did not take his complaint as a male victim of sexual assault seriously as she ‘chuckled’ when informed,” said the report, authored by Josée Thibault.
A.F. left the Vernon detachment in March 2011 and did not report the incidents officially until the spring of 2017 when he ran into Little in Nanaimo, where he was working and where Little said she would be transferring.
Little was posted to Campbell River in June 2015 and has been living in Nanaimo, where the male officer works, since September 2016, the decision said.
Little denied both incidents.
The conduct board ruled against her, noting that it was more likely than not that the events occurred, considering it would have been easier for A.F. not to file the report due to embarrassment and stress.
“Members of the RCMP are held to a higher standard of behaviour than the general public, both on- and off-duty,” the report said. “I find that a reasonable person in society, with knowledge of all the relevant circumstances . . . would view Constable Little’s actions as likely to bring discredit to the force.”
