Final October, six feminine cops in B.C. filed a proposed class-action lawsuit for discrimination and harassment based mostly on gender.
Their go well with names 13 cities with municipal police businesses together with the Workplace of the Police Criticism Commissioner and B.C.’s solicitor normal and public security minister.
Now these defendants have filed statements of protection.
The statements of protection are all very comparable. In every one among them, the allegations are denied and there are jurisdictional challenges.
“I imply we’re dissatisfied, however we’re not stunned,” former Delta police officer Helen Irvine advised World Information.
“These are the responses that we had been anticipating to get. people who have denied the discrimination are counting on technical defenses.”
Nicole Chang, a lawyer who just isn’t concerned within the lawsuit however has dealt with different proposed class actions, advised World Information there will probably be challenges.
The circumstances can take years to resolve, and accumulating proof could be cumbersome, she stated.
“From going to those completely different entities, gathering up the data, the emails exchanged any form of communication, to discovering the related witnesses, individuals who had been there at the moment — usually folks might have left their employment, handed away or simply merely can not discover them,” she stated.
Legal professionals for the feminine officers should reply to the authorized filings by the tip of the month.
A choice on certification of the proposed class motion lawsuit isn’t anticipated for a number of months.
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