Waterloo Regional Police Service Class Action

WRPS CLASS ACTION AT AN END

In this proposed class action, in July 2018, Justice Baltman dismissed the plaintiffs’ motion seeking certification and granted the defendants’ motions seeking to strike the claim on jurisdictional grounds. In April 2019, the plaintiffs’ appeal of Justice Baltman’s orders was dismissed by the Ontario Court of Appeal. In October 2019, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the plaintiffs’ application for leave to appeal. As a result, this proposed class action is at an end.

Overview Of Claim

A class action lawsuit has been issued against the Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) and the Waterloo Regional Police Association (WRPA) for systemic and institutional gender-based discrimination and harassment, sexual harassment and sexual assault. Representative plaintiffs Constable Angelina Rivers and Constable Sharon Zehr allege that they were subjected to routine harassment and abuse at the hands of their male colleagues and superiors. Any effort to address these issues internally were dismissed and resulted in additional ridicule, degradation and retaliation to the plaintiffs, pointing to a culture of misogyny that was tolerated and even promoted at the highest levels of the organization.