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The four types of high-harassment workplaces

Researchers have found there are four types of work environments where sexual and gender-based harassment is most common.

Workplaces where most of the workers are men

These are sometimes called “majority-male” workplaces or “male-dominant” workplaces. And there are a lot of them, especially in industries like science and technology, construction and the trades, transportation and warehousing, mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction, fisheries and forestry, and policing and the military. In these workplaces, the harassment is most likely to be what experts call “hostility based.” That means that some people think you don’t belong in their workplace or industry and are harassing you to force you out.

Workplaces where most of the clients or customers are men

This is true in much of the hospitality industry (bartending, serving, hosting). It’s true for sex work. It’s true for some kinds of health-care and personal support work (PSW, nanny, cleaner, personal assistant), and for many jobs in sales, consulting, and business services. In this kind of work, the harassment is most likely to be what experts call “desire based,” which means that some people feel like it’s okay for them to behave in sexual ways with you, even if you don’t want them to.

Workplaces where most people are white (if you’re not)

For racialized people, it can be hard to know whether you’re being harassed for reasons related to your sex or gender, or because of your race. Often it’s both. If you’re racialized, a majority-white workplace could be a high-harassment environment for you. This kind of harassment can be either hostility based or desire based, or a mix of both.

Workplaces where most people aren’t 2SLGBTQIA+ (if you are)

If you’re 2SLGBTQIA+, a high-harassment environment for you is any workplace where 2SLGBTQIA+ people make up just a tiny minority, or don’t seem present at all. This is especially true for you if you’re trans, and/or if people perceive you as anything other than male. This kind of harassment is usually hostility based. Some people are offended by your presence (or even your existence), and so they want to force you out, or force you to behave in a way they approve of.

What leads people to change their careers

If you’re being harassed at a workplace like the ones described above, and you’re trying to decide whether to change your whole career as a result, the first thing you need to know is that you’re not alone. What you’re experiencing is very, very common.

It’s pretty simple.

If someone’s getting harassed at work and can’t find a way to make it stop, they will usually consider quitting their job. If they think they’re just as likely to be harassed at their next job, that’s when people start considering a bigger change.

They want to be able to relax at work, rather than needing to always be on guard and suspicious.
They want to be physically and emotionally safe.
They want to be able to focus on their work, instead of being distracted by harassment.
They want to be around people they like and can be friendly with—or at least, to avoid people who are hostile or predatory.
They want to be treated with a basic level of respect.
They want their work to be judged on the basis of their actual performance.
They want normal opportunities to advance at work. To be praised, promoted, and make more money.
They want to be able to be themselves at work, rather than needing to hide or change parts of themselves to avoid harassment.

Here are some real-life stories of people who changed their careers to get away from harassment. Some of them we talked with ourselves, and some are from books or news articles. A lot of examples:

A female software engineer was sexually harassed for more than 10 years while working at big tech companies. She quit the industry and went to work in the non-profit sector.
A female welder was harassed on her first day on the job, and every day after that. After two years she quit, and now she makes glass art.
A nonbinary person held a bunch of different jobs for about a decade and was harassed at all of them. Today, they are self-employed and working alone, doing bicycle repair.
After she transitioned, an auditor at a big accounting firm started getting harassed a lot by her co-workers. She quit and took a job bookkeeping at a 2SLGBTQIA+ hotel.
A First Nation woman became a city councillor and then resigned because the job exposed her to so much racism and sexism. Today she’s an Indigenous advocate and artist.

How to decide if changing your career is right for you

It’s actually a pretty simple trade-off.

The research says that people who change their career to get out of high-harassment environments end up happier but poorer. It’s that simple.

They’re happier because they feel like they can be themselves at work, and they end up working with people they like a lot better than their previous co-workers.
They’re poorer because they often go through a period of being unemployed or underemployed, because sometimes they need to spend money to retrain for their new career, and because their new career pays less. (We explain more about that a little further down in this article.)

So it’s a pretty simple question. Can you afford to make less money in exchange for more happiness?

(Okay, it’s not actually 100% that simple. If you’re working in a low-paid job right now, it’s definitely possible to go back to school and get training and end up making more money in the end. That absolutely happens; it’s not even uncommon. But if you want more money and less harassment, that isn’t always easy to get.)

How to get started changing your career

The first and most important thing you need to know is don’t wait too long.

If you think you might want to change your career, get started early. It’s going to take a lot of planning and a lot of effort, and meanwhile every day you spend in a harassment-heavy industry is going to cost you—emotionally, and maybe even physically.

So you are going to want to start now.

Here are some things to think about:

Trust your own instincts

We want to encourage you to trust your own instincts. If you think it’s right to leave, you are correct. We’re saying this because other people—your friends, your family, professional contacts—may encourage you to stay. If they do, you can ignore them. They’re not in your shoes and they don’t know what you’re experiencing. We urge you to trust yourself. You are the expert on you.

High-harassment industries pay more than low-harassment ones.

This is an important piece of information that a lot of people don’t know. Economists call it a wage premium, and it’s why practically everyone who switches their career to get away from harassment ends up making less money. If you’re considering a change, you need to know this. You should try to save as much money as much as you can now, before you quit. It’s also a good idea to start cutting back your expenses.

Consider independent contractor or consultant work

This is something a lot of people do. But researchers say that, for many people, this turns out to just be a stage that they pass through. Most people, five or so years later, are doing something completely different than what they were doing when they first got harassed.

Unemployment or underemployment is normal

A lot of people, once they quit a high-harassment industry, stumble around for a while before they figure out what they really want to do. It’s normal for people to be unemployed or underemployed for a year or two, or even more. This could easily happen to you. It’s another argument for saving money and doing a lot of planning before you quit.

High-harassment industries have higher status

Here’s an uncomfortable truth: The kinds of careers in which you’re likely to be harassed have higher status than harassment-free environments. Ugh, but it’s true. You might want to think about how much you—and your family and friends—care about status. If you care a lot, that might make your decisions harder.

Wanting to work alone is common

When people leave a high-harassment environment, it’s normal for them to go through a period where they don’t want to work with other people at all. Wanting to work alone, experts say, is a pretty common part of the healing process, and will probably naturally come to an end. If you find yourself wanting to work alone for a while, that’s normal, and it’s nothing to worry about.

Retraining is worth considering

Lots of people end up retraining for a new field. It’s worth thinking about whether you want to go back to school. Is there a particular field that’s always interested you? If you got some new skills, would that qualify you for work you might enjoy? You might feel like you’re too old to go back to school, or it would be too expensive. But if it puts you in a position where you’ll enjoy your work more, it’s definitely worth considering.

You might be happiest working with people like you

Researchers say that the people who end up healthiest and happiest after a career change are often those who move into an industry or field where they can work with people more like themselves. (Like, a trans woman working with other trans people, or a First Nation woman working with other Indigenous people.) If this is something you’re considering, it’s a really good idea to start building your network of people like you. Find out where they work and what they do. Ask if they like it. Ask how they got into it. Ask if there are any job openings.

Canada has a lot of laws aiming at protecting people who experience workplace sexual harassment. To know which ones apply to you, you need to know whether you are a provincially regulated worker or a federally regulated worker.

The vast majority of workers in Canada—about 93%—are covered under provincial laws. Those people are protected by the employment laws and human rights laws of the province or territory where they work. Most people are provincially regulated because everybody is provincially regulated by default, unless their industry has been officially designated as federal.

About 7% of Canadians work in federally regulated industries. Those people are protected by the Canada Labour Code and the Canadian Human Rights Act. Some people think that the Canada Labour Code and the Canadian Human Rights Act cover everybody in the country, but that’s not true. They only cover people who work in federally regulated industries.

What are the federally regulated industries?

There are two categories of workplaces that are federally regulated—the private and public sectors.

Federally regulated private sectors are:

banks, including authorized foreign banks
airports, air transportation (for example, Air Canada, WestJet)
interprovincial/international transportation (for example, railways, trucking companies, marine shipping, interprovincial buses)
fisheries
telephone, cable systems, and telegraph companies
television and radio broadcasting
uranium mining and processing
grain elevators
First Nation band councils (including certain community services on reserves)
Crown corporations (for example, Canada Post, Royal Canadian Mint)
private-sector firms and municipalities in Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut

Federally regulated public sectors are:

the federal public service
Parliament (Senate, House of Commons)

If you work in one of these sectors, you’re most likely a federally regulated worker. If you’re not sure, you can contact the federal Labour Program.

What legislation applies to federally regulated workers?

The Canada Labour Code

The Canada Labour Code covers all federally regulated workplaces. It sets out federal labour laws, and defines the rights and responsibilities of workers and employers in federally regulated workplaces. Federal workplace laws apply to all employers and workplaces that are the responsibility of the federal government.

Part II of the Canada Labour Code, Occupational Health and Safety, talks about harassment and violence in the workplace. The code defines workplace harassment and violence as “any action, conduct or comment, including of a sexual nature, that can reasonably be expected to cause offence, humiliation or other physical or psychological injury or illness to an employee, including any prescribed action, conduct or comment.”

This definition includes sexual harassment, sexual violence, and domestic violence in the workplace.

The Canadian Human Rights Act

The Canadian Human Rights Act protects people who are employed or getting services in workplaces under federal power from discrimination. These workplaces are:

the federal government
First Nations governments
Federally regulated private sectors

Under the Canadian Human Rights Act, it’s against the law for a federal service provider or employer to discriminate on the grounds of:

race
national or ethnic origin
colour
religion
age
sex
sexual orientation
gender identity or expression
marital status
family status
genetic characteristics
disability
having been pardoned of a criminal conviction

We can’t say this enough. Seriously, we can’t.

You need to build a support network to help you get through this.

When people look back years later, they all say the same thing: their support network was the thing that helped them the most.

Talk with people you can trust to listen and support you

Why do this?

It will help you emotionally process what’s happening. Sexual harassment can seriously mess you up. It helps to talk with other people.

But here’s something that may surprise you. Experts say the best people to talk with aren’t necessarily the ones you’re closest with.

What you’re looking for is someone to listen to you and sympathize with you. Sometimes, the people you’re closest to can’t do that. They might get mad or be overprotective. They might tell you what to do, or insist they’re going to do something. They might have strong opinions, and they might be wrong.

Experts say it’s best to talk with people who will give you 100% sympathy and kindness, and let you make your own decisions.

Don’t talk with people at work (at least, not right away)

Why not?

People at your work can be an important source of sympathy and information. They can also act as witnesses, if you end up reporting.

But experts say it makes sense to wait a little before talking with your co-workers.

There are a couple of reasons why:

If you tell someone at work what’s happening to you, they might report it and trigger a formal investigation. Even a co-worker could do that. If you’re not sure you want an investigation, it makes sense to avoid triggering one by accident.
They may tell other people. That can lead to you being gossiped about and judged. You could end up getting labelled as “a problem” or “difficult to work with.”
They may side with the harasser and believe that you are misunderstanding or exaggerating what’s happening. Experts say that, before you risk talking with people who might react badly, it’s better to first spend some time thinking and talking with people you know will be sympathetic.

Find additional sources for support, even if your family and friends are pretty solid

You might be surprised to hear that experts say it’s a good idea to call a domestic violence hotline or a rape hotline or a mental health crisis line.

That may seem like a strange suggestion, because what you’re experiencing isn’t domestic violence or rape, and you may not feel like you’re in crisis. You may feel like reaching out to that kind of support is overkill, and you’d be taking up services from people who need them more than you do.

But the experts say it’s a good idea anyway. They say it makes sense for you to reach out to people who have been specially trained to provide support. To listen without judgment, to not gaslight or disbelieve you, and to connect you with other resources that might help.

Or, you could find somewhere online to talk with people.

There are lots of websites and online communities where people talk about their experiences of sexual harassment and get support from one another. For example, there are some pretty good forums on Reddit, like the sexual harassment subreddit, the subreddit offering support for survivors of sexual assault, and the rape subreddit. Just be aware that most people on Reddit are Americans, and so any legal or HR advice they give you might not be true for Canada.

Why should you seek out support from these places? Experts say that, if you look for advice and support only from your family and friends, that won’t necessarily go well for you. They can feel helpless and overwhelmed, and that can end up straining your relationship and adding more stress to your life.

It’s better, experts say, to get advice and support from people who are voluntarily offering it, and especially from people who have personal experience or professional expertise. That’s what will help you the most.

If you’re a federally regulated worker and you’re injured or become ill because of something that happened at work, you fall under the Government Employees Compensation Act.

How workers comp works if you’re a federally regulated worker

Applying for workers comp for federally regulated workers is a two-step process. Rather than having its own system, the government uses provincial workers compensation agencies—for example, in Ontario, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board—to provide services for its workers. So you first make your claim through the Labour Program’s Federal Workers’ Compensation Service at Employment and Social Development Canada. The ESDC office then sends your claim to the appropriate provincial authority.

Find out how to apply for workers comp in your province or territory

Important

This is not legal advice! What you are getting here is just general legal information. It is not a substitute for advice from an actual lawyer about your specific situation. If you need legal advice, we urge you to find a lawyer who can help you.

The first thing you need to know is that it’s incredibly common for people who complain about being sexually harassed to be punished for it, both by their employer and their co-workers. If you suspect you’re being punished because you complained, you’re almost certainly correct.

Let’s talk about why punishment happens, and what it looks like.

When you complain about being sexually harassed, you might expect that people would feel sorry for you and want to help you. But that’s not usually what happens. What’s more common, researchers say, is that you end up getting blamed.

This happens because people are misunderstanding the problem. The real problem, of course, is the harassment, which means the person to blame is the harasser. But when a complaint about harassment is made, people start to behave as though the problem is actually the complaint. Which leads them to blame you.

Why does that happen?

Supervisors are often uncomfortable handling sexual harassment complaints, because sexual harassment complaints are legally sensitive and…well, awkward. Lots of times, the person you tell will feel burdened by your report, because it means more work for them, and it’s work that’s unpleasant and difficult.
Sometimes your employer is afraid of the person who harassed you, or is friendly with them, or thinks that person is more valuable to the workplace than you are. If that’s the case, your employer may be mad at you for complaining.
People (especially men) will often sympathize with the harasser, and worry about the harasser’s reputation or ability to make a living. Those people may think it’s reckless or mean for you to complain.
The harasser will often argue that you misunderstood them, or are making a big deal out of nothing. If there are no witnesses (and there usually aren’t), it becomes a “he said, she said” situation. It’s common for people at work to pick sides and argue with each other about what happened. This can be really disruptive, and you may get blamed for that.
People may decide you’re a drama queen, a liar, or have a chip on your shoulder. This is especially likely if you’re racialized, Indigenous, 2SLGBTQIA+, young, or new to your workplace.
It’s pretty common for harassment complaints to result in everybody needing to take sexual harassment training. A lot of people think that’s a waste of time, and will blame you for having to do it.
The longer your complaint process drags on (even if its slowness has nothing to do with you), the likelier it is that people will decide you are impossible to satisfy.
If you are suffering, people may feel guilty about not helping you, and that may make them dislike you.

So what does punishment look like in practice?

Even if you don’t know what is being said about you, even if you don’t know who is saying what, you can feel what is being said in how people react to you, speak to you, address you, in sideways glances, how you are dropped, the invitations you stop receiving, how you are dropped from texts, how they stop referring to your work, how they turn away when you turn up.
Sara Ahmed, Complaint!

It takes many forms. Sometimes it’s really subtle, and sometimes it’s not. Here are some common ways that people get punished:

You get scheduled to work less often, or you get less-good shifts.
People stop doing you favours and treating you well.
You start getting frozen out socially by your co-workers.
People start withholding information from you that you need to do your job.
You start getting told you’re hard to work with.
You get a bad performance evaluation.
You get formally reprimanded or fired.

What to do if you’re being punished

It depends on who’s punishing you.

Punishments by your boss

If you’re being punished by your boss or someone in a position of authority at your workplace, that might legally be considered a reprisal.

A reprisal is a legal term used to describe an action, or threat, that’s meant to punish someone who is standing up for their rights. In the case of sexual harassment, it means that you have complained about the harassment and are being punished because of your complaint.

If you answer yes to any of these questions, you may be experiencing reprisals:

Have your job duties changed?
Were your performance reviews mostly positive before the harassment and now they’re mostly negative?
Has your rate of pay or hours of work decreased?
Have you been demoted?
Are you being disciplined more than before you complained?
Does your manager or supervisor behave differently toward you?
Are you being denied opportunities, like a promotion or training?
Has a person in authority made comments that made you feel they’re upset you reported?
Have you been disciplined or fired because of your complaint?

In Canada, reprisals are illegal. That’s why it’s important to understand whether you’re experiencing a reprisal or just an ordinary punishment. If your employer fires you because you’re always late, that’s not a reprisal and the law isn’t going to protect you. If an employer fires you because you complained about sexual harassment, that’s a reprisal. It’s illegal, and the law is on your side.

It’s not usually hard to prove that the reprisals happened. What’s hard is to prove that they happened because you complained. If you’re considering making a case that you’re experiencing reprisals, it’s important to gather as much evidence and documentation as you can, linking the punishment to your complaint.

Where to report reprisals

Human rights bodies take cases based on reprisals. So do labour boards and civil courts. If you are unionized and you have started a grievance, the reprisal can be added to the grievance and dealt with at the same time.

If you start experiencing reprisals after you’ve started a case, or even after the case has already been decided, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s too late to include them in your case. Talk with your lawyer, union rep, or union staff right away. They can help you add evidence about the reprisals so that everything gets handled together.

If you haven’t yet started a sexual harassment case or if you told your employer about the harassment and then started being punished, the human rights body is a good place to start.

What else can you do?

If you belong to a union, you can ask it to bring a grievance against your employer.
If you’re not a union member, you can start a civil action against your employer saying you have experienced mental suffering, wrongful dismissal, or constructive dismissal. (Union members can’t start civil suits until after they have gone through the grievance and arbitration process.)
If you are a federally regulated worker the Canada Labour Code applies to your workplaces and reprisal complaints go to the Canadian Industrial Relations Board.
Otherwise, where and how you can appeal reprisals depends on where you live.

Most of these avenues are slow and expensive, and there is no guarantee of success.

Punishments by your co-workers

If you’re being punished by your co-workers, that might or might not be legally considered a reprisal. If a boss or another person with authority over you has some control over the situation, it’s a reprisal. If they don’t, it isn’t.

That doesn’t mean punishment by your co-workers isn’t damaging. It definitely can be. It just means it’s not legally considered a reprisal, which means your employer can’t be held accountable for it.

Here are some common ways in which co-workers punish people:

They leave you out of social gatherings.
They refuse to talk to you.
They talk about you negatively to other people.
They drop you from email or text exchanges.
They don’t help you with work tasks, or they set you up to fail at them.
They don’t help you if you’re in an unsafe situation.
They play abusive pranks on you or tell offensive “jokes” at your expense.
They use slurs to describe you.
They threaten or bully you, verbally or physically.
They damage your personal property.

If it’s bad enough, then your workplace might be what’s called “toxic.” That’s a legal term.

There is no single legal definition of a toxic work environment. But generally it’s considered to be a workplace where there is so much harassment and abuse that a reasonable person would find it intolerable to work there.

It can be hard to tell if your workplace is toxic. There are lots of bad workplaces, but not all of them are toxic.

It’s not necessarily a toxic workplace if:

People don’t like you.
People are rude to you.
People ignore you.
People play a lot of pranks and tell crass jokes.
People make it hard for you to do your job.

But it may be a toxic workplace, especially if:

You are being harassed all the time.
You feel unsafe or threatened.
Any reasonable person would find what’s happening to you intolerable.
Your employer knows about it and doesn’t do anything to stop it.

There’s an important distinction between a workplace that’s “toxic” versus one that’s “poisoned.” In a toxic workplace, you personally are being treated badly. In a poisoned workplace, sexual harassment is not just hurting one or two people but is creating a poisoned environment by sexualizing the workplace for everyone. Everyone is being affected. If you’re trying to prove that you’re experiencing reprisals because you complained about being sexually harassed, you can show evidence that it has become toxic for you or you can also show how it has poisoned the workplace for everyone. Or both.

If this all sounds complicated, it is! That’s why we advise you to get a lawyer if you can.

How and where to get help

Your employer has a legal obligation to provide you with a harassment-free environment. If your workplace is getting toxic to the point where it’s intolerable, there are places you can go for help.

First, you can report it to your employer or union, and remind them of their obligations. If they don’t address the problem, that may violate health and safety laws.
If you belong to a union, you can ask it to bring a grievance against your employer.
You can file a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal, saying that your employer failed to protect you against harassment, allowing your human rights to be violated. If you have already started a human rights complaint for compensation, you can add the impact of the reprisals to your complaint.
If you’re not a union member, you can start a civil action against your employer saying you have experienced constructive dismissal, because your employer’s failure to protect you against harassment amounts to a fundamental change to your employment agreement. If you are considering this, consult a lawyer first.

Your union represents you and other members by negotiating things like better working conditions with your employer, including freedom from harassment in the workplace. Its duties include helping you protect your rights in the workplace. One of the things it’s supposed to do is make sure that your employer takes steps to keep you safe from workers who have sexually harassed people.

What your union should do for you

Ideally, unions act to give employees more power in the workplace. You should be able to go to your union for help when you report workplace sexual harassment. If it agrees that harassment happened or may have happened, it should support you when dealing with your complaint to your employer.

Unions don’t always back you up, though. That’s because your union’s job is to represent both your interests, and the interests of its other members. When it comes to sexual harassment, those two things can come into conflict. The union is supposed to keep you safe, but also defend the harasser. And so, although your union should help you, you may find it isn’t as helpful as you’d hoped.

Unfortunately, in cases where there is a male-dominated union membership, often with an exclusively male executive, there can be a tendency to focus on representing the interests of a male harasser to the detriment of a female co-worker in the bargaining unit minority.
Susan Hart, associate professor, faculty of business administration, Memorial University.
“Women’s Rights and Labour Arbitration of Co-Worker Sexual Harassment Cases in Canada.”

The union’s main job is to make sure your employer is following the law and the collective agreement when it comes to handling your complaint properly.

The collective agreement will cover all areas of the work relationship. It explains the rights and obligations of your employer, the union, and the union members. Your collective agreement is specific to your union and employer, and may cover things like wages, hours, working conditions, and benefits. Collective agreements sometimes have specific references to harassment and discrimination, although the majority don’t. If yours does, it can give you more information about how your sexual harassment claim will be handled by your union and your employer.

If you don’t have a copy of the agreement, it should be available through a union representative or perhaps online at the union’s website. Sometimes the union and the employer don’t agree on what wording in the collective agreement means, and there may be other documents online that will help interpret it.

No matter what your agreement says, your employer has a legal duty to investigate if you report being harassed. If they refuse, or the investigation isn’t done properly, your union can file a grievance.

Important

The law says that every employer must follow human rights law and health and safety laws, whether the collective agreement says this or not.

How to talk to your union

It’s your union representative’s job to help you understand your collective agreement and what your rights are under it. This person, who may also be called a shop steward, a union steward, or a bargaining unit representative, is who you can ask for help when you are reporting sexual harassment. In general, discussions between you and the union representative are confidential. They should be able to give you information about your options under the collective agreement and what the union can do to help you.

Unfortunately, people who have experienced sexual harassment can feel disconnected from their union representatives and other staff members of the union. Many unions don’t have diverse representation among their staff, especially in leadership positions. As a result, you might find they don’t support you.

If you don’t feel comfortable talking to your union representative, you can contact your union’s office to see if there is someone else you can talk to. For example, there might also be a women’s caucus, a human rights division, or a labour relations officer who can help with issues like sexual harassment.

Before speaking to your union representative, document everything.

Think about what supports and outcomes you want so you make clear to your union representative what you would like to see happen.

How your union can help you

A good union can help you in a number of ways:

locating witnesses and persuading them to testify
providing evidence of previous incidents of harassment by the harasser
protecting you from retaliation, both from your employer and from other workers, who may be upset that you have complained about a colleague
providing moral support

Important

The union brings the grievance against the employer on your behalf. It is not a complaint against the harasser. Once a grievance is filed, the union may ask your opinion, but it decides whether it wants to settle the grievance, withdraw it, or change it.

What if I don’t want to pursue a grievance?

You might not want your union to launch a grievance. However, if you’re a unionized worker, you have limited legal options outside of the grievance procedure when it comes to making a sexual harassment complaint. Depending on the situation, your union might be able to help you with one or more claims for other legal supports and remedies, including making a workers’ compensation claim.

Other routes, like making a claim at a human rights body, may or may not be possible. Being a unionized worker makes it impossible to sue your employer in civil court. Workplace issues have to go through the collective agreement process and cannot be dealt with in court.

What if my union doesn’t help?

Your union has the legal responsibility to fairly represent you when it comes to issues in your workplace. It is also supposed to treat you in a way that is not discriminatory under human rights laws. In general, your union owes you what’s called a duty of fair representation. This means it isn’t supposed to treat you, or your sexual harassment case, in a way that is arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith.

Each word has a legal definition.

“Arbitrary” behaviour is actions that are “indifferent, unreliable, implausible, or unreasonable.” Unions themselves aren’t responsible for investigating a complaint; that is the employer’s job. But a union must investigate and pursue grievances if your employer fails to explore a harassment complaint or some other violation of a workplace harassment policy or program. If your union meets with your employer and believes the employer’s version of what happened and drops the grievance without giving you a chance to respond to your employer’s report, that would be an arbitrary decision.

“Discriminatory” behaviour involves your being discriminated against for things like your race, sex, gender, or sexual orientation. For example, it would be discriminatory if your union refused to launch a grievance because you are trans. Or if your union treated two similar sexual harassment complaints differently based on the race of the people involved, that would be discriminatory too.

“Bad faith” actions are driven by malice, ill will, dishonesty, and other kinds of improper motivations. If you and your shop steward have a bad relationship and so they don’t respond to your complaint, that’s bad faith.

The complication here is that often the harasser is a co-worker, so the union owes the same duty to that person. Throughout the process, the union must take steps to make sure it isn’t in a conflict of interest while it’s representing both you and the harasser. This means:

The union staff who are helping you shouldn’t have a personal connection to the person who harassed you.
The same union staff shouldn’t be helping both you and the harasser.
The information you give to the union shouldn’t be given to the staff who are helping the harasser, or vice versa.
The union can’t refuse to listen to your problems with your employer’s workplace investigation or refuse to deal with reprisals against you.

But this dual duty of fair representation can be bad news for you because it’s well documented that in grievance processes the interests of harassers often win out over those of people who are being harassed.

Unions have a mixed record when it comes to fighting sexual harassment, especially in cases that involve harassment by union members. Union responses to sexual harassment have been shaped by their position in labor markets that remain highly segmented by gender and race, with male-dominated unions playing a passive role vis-à-vis female targets of sexual harassment, and too often siding with male harassers.
Ana Avendaño, vice-president for labor engagement, United Way Worldwide.
“Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Where Were the Unions?”

If you believe that you have a breach of duty of fair representation case against your union, a provincial labour relations body may be able to help you, or you may need to hire a lawyer. You may be able to make a claim against your union to a human rights tribunal.

The grievance process

Filing a grievance is normally the first step in the formal grievance process. Your collective agreement may have more information about what to expect. We suggest you look up what the agreement says about how your union’s process works.

Your harasser can’t directly be held responsible for the harassment through the grievance process. This means your union can’t make your employer discipline or fire your harasser. Your union can, however, make the employer responsible for doing a proper investigation into your sexual harassment complaint. Your harasser could be disciplined or fired based on the findings of that investigation.

Your union can’t force you to participate in the grievance process. But it can refuse to deal with your grievance if you don’t participate.

Who’s who

Parties

Each side is called a party. Your union and employer are the parties in the arbitration process.

Grievor

You are the grievor, or the employee the union is representing.

Mediator

The mediator’s job is to try to help your union and your employer reach a settlement, though your union will consult with you and consider the outcome you want from the process.

Arbitrator

The arbitrator is the final decision-maker. They are a neutral third party hired to listen to legal arguments and evidence from the union and the employer at the arbitration stage. During the hearing, the arbitrator may ask the union representative questions and take notes. They’ll be considering all of the evidence, legislation, case law, and arguments that both sides present.

Possible outcomes

The arbitrator may be able to order awards such as:

an alteration in your work location or shift time
a flexible work schedule or a change to your workload. This might be so that you can attend medical and/or legal appointments, take time off, or take a temporary leave of absence. You might also get enhanced security at work, like a security guard walking you to your car
an apology from your employer
certain actions by your employer, like requiring training on understanding and preventing sexual harassment, and learning about equity and anti-oppression in the workplace
an appropriate investigation into your workplace sexual harassment complaint that could involve interviewing you, the harasser, and any witnesses
a revised workplace policy that will prevent the same or similar discriminatory practices from happening again in the future.

The grievance process step-by-step

The process for filing a grievance looks different from union to union. Usually, it starts with you filling out your union’s grievance forms and submitting them to the union representative in charge of receiving grievances. You’ll want to read your collective agreement and speak to your union representative to figure out exactly what steps you need to take and any important deadlines.

What happens after a grievance is filed

Once a grievance is filed, your employer will review it and try to get more information about the facts of the complaint. This may be either an informal or formal process. If the issue is that the employer failed to investigate a sexual harassment complaint, the filing of a grievance may prompt them to carry out an investigation. If the complaint is that the investigation they did do was unreasonable, insufficient, or came to the incorrect conclusion, they may speak to the people who led the investigation. This is because, if they don’t carry out a thorough investigation, any decisions they make as a result may be found to be unfair if challenged by the union in arbitration. As a part of their investigation, they may meet with you and ask questions. Alternatively, they may put questions directly to the union.

Typically, employers are required to provide a “reply” to the grievance, indicating whether they accept or deny it. Denying means they take the position that it did not violate the collective agreement. Acceptance means that they recognize that they have not met their obligations to you and will provide the remedy requested by the union. After the employer’s response is received, it could take weeks or even months before your grievance is dealt with, depending on the size of your workplace and union.

Ideally, the grievance is resolved at this stage. If a resolution doesn’t occur, the grievance might be referred to arbitration, mediation, or some other type of dispute resolution allowed by your collective agreement.

How long does the grievance process take?

The length of time of the grievance process can vary. In general, it might take weeks. While it’s very unlikely you would end up in arbitration, that process could take months or longer. Your collective agreement may provide expected timelines. It’s up to your union to decide how it wants to proceed, including if it wants to mediate at all. Your union will consult with you and consider your views, but it will decide what witnesses will be heard, what evidence will be given and what legal positions will be argued if the process reaches that stage.

Filing a grievance shouldn’t cost you anything. If a grievance is complex, your union may pay a lawyer to handle it.

Mediation

Your collective agreement may say if your grievance can be referred to mediation. Grievance mediation is a confidential and informal way for the union and the employer to try to resolve your issue. The mediator will listen to the union and employer and try to find an agreement that works for both. This is called a settlement.

Unless otherwise noted in your collective agreement, mediation is voluntary—there’s no obligation for either your union or employer to participate or accept any proposed settlement that comes out of the mediation. However, it’s extremely uncommon for sexual harassment cases to go to arbitration.

Your union and employer are the parties to the mediation. You aren’t a party to the mediation and there are no witnesses.

The mediator isn’t making a final decision. Instead, they’re trying to find an agreement that works for both your union and your employer.

Settlement

You might be unhappy with the final settlement. Unfortunately, most settlement agreements contain a clause that says that this will be the only decision and that you will not make any legal claims on the same facts in any other legal forum, like at a human rights tribunal. If you don’t believe your union followed the law in dealing with your case, depending on your situation, you might be able to make a duty of fair representation application or human rights complaint against the union.

Mediation settlements are usually confidential and there’s no public hearing or declaration of wrongdoing. Any settlement will be between your union and employer. Your union might sign a non-disclosure agreement. NDAs or confidentiality agreements are standard in settlement agreements. If there’s a confidentiality clause in the settlement or if your union signs a NDA, it won’t apply to you unless you also agree to sign.

Your employer and union might tell you that you have to sign off on the terms of settlement. Technically, you don’t have to, but you won’t get whatever benefits are included in the settlement unless you do. Also, if you don’t sign, your employer might refuse to settle your grievance. Same thing for your union.

Your union monitors the settlement. It wants to make sure that the employer is sticking to the agreement and that the workplace is now safer for you and for other union members. If any of the settlement terms are not being met, you can report that to your union representative.

Grievance arbitration

While in theory your case could escalate to grievance arbitration, it’s very unlikely that this would happen. The vast majority of cases that reach arbitration involve harassers who have been suspended, fired, or otherwise disciplined by employers. So the employer is the party defending the affected person’s rights while the union is supporting the harasser, to whom it owes a duty of fair representation, in a highly adversarial environment. More than half the time, the harasser wins.

In the limited number of grievance arbitration cases where a sexually harassed person is the grievor, their union is also representing the harasser. The people who have been harassed generally find the situation extremely stressful, as they are aggressively questioned and their integrity doubted.

Let’s start with sexual assault.

Sexual assault is a crime under the Criminal Code of Canada. It’s any type of sexual contact that happens without your consent. It also includes situations in which a person has threatened you to convince you to have sexual contact with them.

There are three degrees of sexual assault

Level 1: Touching, kissing, intercourse, penetration and any other sexual activity that is done without the consent of the other person.
Level 2: When the accused has a weapon, or threatens to use a weapon, when the accused threatens to cause physical harm, causes physical harm, or if the affected person has been sexually assaulted by more than one person in the same incident.
Level 3: Also known as aggravated sexual assault, this occurs when the person who has been sexually assaulted is wounded, maimed, or their life has been endangered. It is also a Level 3 sexual assault if the accused has a gun and threatens to use it.

So it’s sexual assault if:

A co-worker kisses you without your permission.
You get drunk at an office party and wake up realizing someone you work with has had sex with you when you were too intoxicated to consent.
A customer at the restaurant where you work slaps your ass.

But it’s not sexual assault if:

Someone insults you or calls you names.
Someone leers at you, catcalls you, or propositions you.
Someone hugs you or touches you non-sexually.
Someone yells at you or chases you.

It’s important to know that, even if someone’s behaviour meets the legal definition of sexual assault, that doesn’t necessarily mean the police will take it seriously. The police are likely to take action if they think what happened to you was serious. If they think it was trivial or unimportant, they may not.

Should you go to the police if you’ve been sexually assaulted?

Most people don’t. Only about 5% of people who were sexually assaulted go to the police.

Why? Many people believe the police won’t take them seriously. Some are afraid of being judged. Some feel ashamed or guilty, as if what happened was their fault. If they know the assaulter, they may be afraid of retaliation. And some—especially Indigenous, racialized and 2SLGBTQIA+ people—just don’t trust the police at all.

This isn’t unjustified. The police have a really lousy record of handling sexual assault cases. To begin with, they refuse to believe 10% of the people who report assault, and classify their cases as “unfounded.” They’re more likely to believe you if you’re white, if you were injured, if the person who assaulted you was a stranger, if they used a weapon, if you fought back hard, and if you were sober.

A police investigation itself can be traumatizing. Some people have described their experience with the police as so bad it was like a “second rape.” Officers can be rude, abrupt, and judgmental, and some believe outdated rape myths and stereotypes.

Common rape myths:

~~If it didn’t end in sex, it’s not really rape.~~
~~Women “ask for it” by the way they dress or behave.~~
~~If someone is drunk or high, it’s their fault.~~
~~Women lie about being raped because they regret having sex.~~
~~If someone didn’t scream and fight, it wasn’t really rape.~~
~~Men don’t get raped.~~

Even though many people have bad experiences with the police, people who work at sexual assault crisis centres say they would never advise someone not to go the police. They believe it’s important for the person who was assaulted to make their own decision about what to do.

Some people who have been assaulted say publicly seeking justice is a way for them to regain control. Some say that, even though they were pretty sure that the perpetrator wouldn’t be punished, going to the police still made them feel better.

Calgary Communities Against Sexual Abuse (CCASA) has created this list of questions to ask yourself when you’re deciding what to do:

What’s my motivation for reporting to the police?
What will it be like to share detailed information about a traumatic event?
How will I feel if the person who hurt me is not found guilty?
Am I willing to wait for one to two years for the process to be over?
Do I know how to access support if and when I need it?
How will I feel if I don’t report?
How will reporting impact my relationships with my family and friends?

If you go to the police

If you’ve been assaulted and go to the police, you might decide to undergo a medical exam to collect evidence from your body and your clothing. This is called a rape kit, and it has different formal names. It could be a sexual assault evidence kit (SAEK), or sexual assault nurse examination (SANE). The results and any clothing you were wearing could be essential evidence for a later prosecution.

If you decide to go through with a rape kit procedure, experts say you should try to do it within 72 hours of the assault, and you shouldn’t shower first.

The procedure is done at a hospital, and the people there won’t report what happened to the police. You can have the evidence gathered and decide later what you want to do. In some places, you can contact a local sexual assault centre and they will send someone to be with you during the process. You can call 211 to see if there’s a centre close to you.

CCASA has produced a document called Navigating the Criminal Legal System that includes a clear, straightforward guide about what to expect if you go to the police. The details may be different depending on where you live, but overall you can expect the process to be pretty similar to what CCASA describes.

Important

If you go to the police, you don’t have any control over what happens afterward. You don’t get to make the decisions about whether there’s an investigation or prosecution. Those decisions are made by the police and by prosecutors. If the case goes to court, you’ll just be a witness.

If the police decide there’s enough evidence to charge the person who assaulted you, this may eventually lead to a trial, but it could be months or even years before your case comes up.

Court is an adversarial process, and the accused’s lawyer will do what they can to make you seem unreliable and untrustworthy. That could be retraumatizing. It’s important to know that court outcomes are totally discouraging too: Only about one in 10 results in a conviction.

What other types of sexual harassment might break criminal laws

There are other things that harassers do that are illegal under Canadian criminal law and that you might decide to report to the police. Or you might want to tell your HR department, your boss, or your union rep, if you have one. Even if what’s happening isn’t serious enough for you to want to go to the police, your employer may be willing to take steps to protect you. It’s possible to go to the police and raise the issue within your workplace. Doing one doesn’t mean you can’t also do the other.

If you’re considering reporting any of these behaviours, you should collect and save as much evidence as you can. Don’t delete texts or emails. Keep recordings, if you have any. Take screenshots. Take pictures.

It’s a crime in Canada to share sexual images of someone without their consent. Under the Criminal Code, this is called “non-consensual distribution of intimate images.”

If someone at work shares sexual pictures or videos of you with other people, they are breaking the law. It doesn’t matter how they got the images, or how they share them.

Indecent communications

It’s a crime for someone to send you sexual images of themselves or other people, including commercial pornography. The Criminal Code prohibits what it calls “indecent communications,” which includes sending sexual communications “with the intent to alarm or annoy.”

Defamation

If someone lies about you in a way that hurts your reputation, exposing you to hatred, contempt, or ridicule, in Canada that can break both civil and criminal laws.

Defamation can be verbal, or it can happen in other ways such as text messages, emails, or social media posts. If someone falsely tells your co-workers you are a pedophile or a drug addict or an abusive parent, that’s defamation.

If someone falsely tells your boss you lied on your job application or you’re stealing from the company, that’s defamation.

But, it’s not defamation to express an opinion. So if a co-worker says you’re lazy or ugly or bad at your job, that’s probably not defamation. If somebody calls you a slur, that may or may not be defamation.

Stalking

In Canada, stalking is against the law. It’s called criminal harassment.

If someone from your work repeatedly shows up at your home uninvited, or if a former partner repeatedly shows up at your workplace, that’s stalking. If a co-worker or customer repeatedly texts you, emails you, or phones you, that can be stalking. If someone watches you and tracks where you go, or follows you around, that’s stalking, too.

The Department of Justice has a really good online pamphlet on stalking, Stalking Is a Crime Called Criminal Harassment.

Doxxing and swatting

Doxxing is when someone publishes personal information about you online, like your home address or your phone number. Usually it’s done to encourage or enable other people to harass you. Swatting is when people deliberately trick the police or other emergency services into going to your house or workplace, by pretending there’s an emergency. The purpose of swatting is to annoy, frighten, or endanger you.

Under Canadian law, both doxxing and swatting are considered forms of criminal harassment.

Voyeurism

A voyeur is someone who records, photographs, or watches you when you think you’re in a private space. Voyeurism is illegal.

Most workplace voyeurism occurs in places where people may be nude or partly nude, like washrooms, changerooms, or dressing rooms. If somebody sets up a secret camera in a washroom at work, that’s voyeurism. If your employer puts a camera in a changeroom, that could be voyeurism. If somebody secretly watches or records you with their phone when you think you’re alone, or secretly takes invasive pictures of you (like aiming their camera up your skirt), that may be voyeurism.

Voyeurism can happen to anyone, but you might be especially at risk if your workplace is also where you live, if your job requires you to change clothes at work, or if you are breastfeeding or pumping milk at work.

Uttering threats

Under the law, “uttering threats” means that someone is threatening you, your property, or your animals.

The threat doesn’t have to be spoken—it can be emailed, texted, or posted on social media. The threat also doesn’t need to be sent directly to you: If someone tells other people they are going to hurt or kill you, including on social media, they are breaking the law.

Hate speech

In Canada it’s a crime to publicly incite hatred against an identifiable group, which means a group distinguishable by “colour, race, religion, national or ethnic origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or mental or physical disability.”

So let’s say someone at your work is posting on social media expressing hostility, intolerance, or violent feelings toward women, or trans people, or Muslim people, or some other group. That person may be committing a crime.

So, should you go to the police?

Only you can answer that.

If you go to the police, they may not take you seriously. Or they may start an investigatory and legal process that’s long, painful for you, and doesn’t lead to justice.

Even so, experts say there’s no one right answer. The right answer is what’s right for you. It’s a totally personal decision.

What are the alternatives? Many sexual assault centres have group therapy programs and some offer individual counselling also. Attending to your mental health is vital. It’s possible finding support in the community or with a therapist is the right thing for you instead.

Women and other sexual abuse complainants couldn’t get a fair hearing through institutions, including corporate structures, so they used a new tool, the internet. This has been very effective and has been seen as a massive wake-up call.
Michael Hobbes, journalist and podcast host, You’re Wrong About: “Cancel Culture,” June 7, 2021.

It used to be that people who got sexually harassed told practically no one. But then #MeToo happened.

The #MeToo movement started in late 2017, when American actress Alyssa Milano sent out a tweet asking people to share their stories of sexual harassment and abuse. Millions of people did it, using the hashtag #MeToo.

Seeing all those stories helped people to realize that harassment and abuse are really common, which helped them feel less shame and guilt about their own experiences. That’s why today people are much more likely to share their stories publicly. They do it themselves, usually on social media, or sometimes through the news media, by talking with a journalist.

Here are some real-world stories of people who’ve gone public about being harassed.

In Edmonton in 2017, a man who co-owned a bar repeatedly groped one of the staff. She reported it to management, but nothing was really done about it and he continued to behave badly. Eight months later, she quit her job and made a public Facebook post explaining why. As a result, some of her co-workers also quit, some bands that had been scheduled to play at the bar cancelled, the media covered the story, and the bar ended up shutting down permanently.
In Toronto in 2018, a woman was fired from her job at a tech start-up after she complained to HR about being sexually harassed by one of the company’s executives. In 2019, she tweeted anonymously about what happened to her, the company investigated, and the executive left. She wrote an anonymous essay about what happened and published it on Medium, which led to media coverage, and two months later the company shut down. In 2020, the woman told her entire story to a Global News reporter, who wrote a long article about it using her real name with her permission.
In Montreal in 2020, a woman shared on Instagram her story of being sexually assaulted, which led to dozens of other women sharing similar stories. Some did this under their own accounts, and others were anonymous. Some people named lost their jobs, others apologized publicly, and others threatened to sue for defamation. Afterwards, the Quebec justice minister assembled a group of experts to come up with ways to make it easier for victims of sexual assault to navigate the Quebec justice system.

People go public for lots of reasons. Here are some of the most common:

They want to warn people, so people know to avoid the harasser and/or the harasser’s employer.
They want to publicly shame the harasser, or make sure the harasser understands what they did was wrong and harmful.
They want to publicly shame their employer for not stopping the harassment.
They want to raise awareness of how common harassment is.
They want to build community with other people who’ve had similar experiences.
They want support, catharsis, or healing.

Those are all good reasons to go public—and, in fact, there are no bad reasons. If you want to go public, your reasons are valid, whatever they are.

But going public can have some negative consequences. Here are the most common, and how you can protect yourself against them.

If you go public, you might get sued for defamation

If you say bad things about the harasser or your employer, they might sue you for defamation. “Defamation” is a legal term. It’s when someone publicly says something about somebody else that isn’t true and that hurts the other person’s reputation. It can be something written, which is often called “libel,” or something spoken—in some parts of the country, this is called “slander.”

Defamation is a civil complaint, not a criminal one, which means the police aren’t involved.

Anybody can file a defamation case. They don’t have to have a good case; they just need enough money to pay a lawyer.

In many ways, a defamation lawsuit is the perfect tool for men accused of sexual violence. Filing a lawsuit allows men accused of sexual violence to re-cast the narrative about responsibility and blame, and to present themselves as victims of false allegations. It is then up to the defendant to prove that the statements about sexual violence are true.
Mandi Gray, post-doctoral researcher, University of Calgary.
“Cease and Desist/Cease or Resist? Civil Suits and Sexual Violence.”

Here are some examples of situations in which people have been sued for defamation after going public.

In 2018, a Calgary woman wrote an anonymous blog post about being sexually assaulted by a reporter when she had worked at a TV network. While investigating her allegations, the network divulged her name. The accused reporter sued her and the network for $7.5 million.
About five years ago, “Laura” was sexually harassed and assaulted by her boss while on a work trip. She was fired an hour after reporting his behaviour. Her open letter about the assault that she posted on social media resulted in a defamation suit from the organization she’d worked for. The suit wasn’t pursued but she lost her housing as a result of being unemployed.
In 2020, people accused of sexual harassment and assault on a Regina-based woman’s Instagram account threatened to sue her for defamation. As a result, she shut down the account. The woman was never sued, but one man filed a lawsuit against Facebook, which owns Instagram, seeking $1 million in damages.

It’s impossible to know how likely it is that you’ll be sued for defamation. Your odds of getting sued are higher if you name the harasser (or if it’s obvious who they are, even if you don’t name them), if your story gets a lot of attention, if the harasser is well known, if they have a lot of money to hire lawyers, and if they’ve ever sued anyone before.

You can get sued even if what you say is true, and even if you can prove it’s true. Sometimes a harasser will start a defamation lawsuit they know they can’t win to try to get you to change your story or take it down.

If you end up getting sued for defamation, you’ll need to hire a lawyer, and the whole process will be expensive and slow—it’s not unusual for cases to take more than two or more years. A case can fall into “legal limbo,” and can’t be withdrawn for five years. So, if you’re considering going public, and especially if you plan to name the harasser, it’s a good idea to talk with a lawyer first. See How to find and work with a lawyer.

If you go public, strangers might attack and abuse you

Here’s a Japanese journalist describing what happened to her in 2017, after she spoke at a press conference saying she had been raped two years earlier by a colleague:

“The backlash hit me hard. I was vilified on social media and received hate messages and emails and calls from unknown numbers. I was called a ‘slut’ and ‘prostitute’ and told I should ‘be dead.’ There were arguments over my nationality, because a true Japanese woman wouldn’t speak about such ‘shameful’ things. Fake stories popped up online about my private life with photos of my family. I received messages from women criticizing me for failing to protect myself.”

What happened to her is really common. Not everyone who goes public gets attacked and abused, but lots do. Usually this means things like people yelling at you or calling you names online, but sometimes it’s worse than that, with people sending you rape or death threats; publishing your private information and encouraging others to harass you; harassing your family and friends; or reaching out to your employer to try to get you fired.

If you want to go public, but reduce the chances you’ll be harassed for doing it, here are some things you could consider:

You could publish your story anonymously, instead of using your real name.
You could try to keep the name of your current employer secret.
You could tighten up your digital security before you publish. (Like, remove your private information from the internet, and restrict who can see what you publish on social media.) There are some good resources for that here, here, and here.
You could tell your friends before you publish, and ask them to be ready to help you if you end up facing harassment or abuse.

If you go public, you might lose your job or have a hard time getting a new one

This is a real risk. Lots of people have described how their careers tanked after they went public. Companies don’t want to hire people who’ve complained publicly about sexual harassment, because they’re worried they’ll do it again. And, in general, it’s pretty common for people to harshly judge people who complain about harassment.

If you’re concerned about your work reputation, that concern is probably valid. If you want to go public anyway, here are some things you can do to try to protect yourself:

Don’t name your employer.
Don’t attach your real name to your story.
When you tell your story, try to keep it factual and understated.
Make it clear that, apart from the harassment, you like your employer and enjoy your work.
Make it clear that you regret having to go public, and wish you didn’t have to do it.
Make it clear that you are trying to help your company do a better job of handling harassment, rather than being motivated by anger or a desire for revenge.

If you go public, you might mess up any legal case you’re pursuing or settlement you’ve received

If you’re involved with any kind of formal complaint process or legal action, going public could mess it up. Here are some ways that might happen:

It could give the harasser or your employer a heads-up on what’s coming, giving them time to change their story or destroy evidence.
What you say could be used against you in court, with the other side claiming you’ve lied, or tried to influence other witnesses, or using what you say to attack your character or motivation.
If people attack you online, then people who might have been willing to support you (for example by being a witness) may change their minds.
If you’ve signed a non-disclosure agreement, going public could break it. You might be required to pay back any settlement money you got, and your employer might decide to sue you for breach of contract.

If you’re involved in a formal legal process, it’s a good idea to get advice from your lawyer before going public.

By now, you probably have a pretty good idea about whether going public is right for you.

If you choose to do it, your first big question is whether to try to get a journalist to tell your story or whether to do it yourself.

The main reason to talk with a journalist is that it makes your story more credible, because most people will assume that what a journalist writes is pretty likely to be true.

But there are downsides to doing this. You lose control of what exactly gets said, and where, and when. A journalist may push you to give them embarrassing details that you don’t want to share publicly. It’s possible a journalist may make a deal with you (like, to keep your name confidential, or to not tell some parts of your story) and then end up breaking that deal. If you don’t want to be quoted when you’re being interviewed, you have to say that what you’re telling them is confidential before you start to talk, not afterward.

But for most people, a journalist isn’t an option anyway. A journalist might be interested in your story if what happened to you was especially scandalous, or if you or the harasser (or your employer) are famous. But otherwise it’s usually pretty hard to get a journalist interested, because sexual harassment happens every day, and so it’s not really “news.”

That means that if you go public, you’ll probably end up doing it alone, on social media.

We’ll leave you now with some last things to consider.

A checklist of things to think about before you go public

Are there important people in your life who you want to tell ahead of time?
Are there people in your life who you don’t want to know about what happened to you, who may learn about it once you go public?
Are you comfortable with your story possibly being public forever?
If you have a lawyer, have you talked with them about your plan?
Have you done what you can to make it less likely you’ll be sued for defamation?
If you do get sued, are you confident you can defend yourself?
Are you involved with any current complaints or legal process that might get messed up when you go public?
Have you signed any legal agreements that might limit what you can say publicly? See How to decide whether to take legal action (and what to expect if you do).
Have you done what you can to tighten up your digital privacy and security?
Have you lined up supports to help protect your well-being and safety after you go public? See Build a support network.

You’ve decided you need legal advice. But you may not be sure how to get it. We’re here to help.

The first thing you have to do is find a lawyer

All lawyers specialize in a particular area of the law, and the first thing you need to figure out is what area of specialization you need.

In the case of workplace sexual harassment, you are probably looking for an employment or labour lawyer, and ideally one with experience in harassment or discrimination. If you’re planning to file a claim with a human rights commission, you may want a lawyer who specializes in human rights. But there aren’t a lot of lawyers who do that, and if you can’t find one, an employment or labour lawyer is probably your best bet.

Important

You may think you can get a lawyer for free through legal aid, but you probably can’t. All provinces and territories in Canada do offer legal aid services, but many don’t help with employment or human rights issues. Also, legal aid is only normally available for people who make about $25,000 a year or less.

Here are the best ways to find a lawyer:

Word of mouth: Many people find their lawyer through recommendations from friends and acquaintances. If you’re lucky enough to know somebody who had an issue similar to yours and was happy with the lawyer they used, that is great and you should consider that lawyer. If someone you know is close to a lawyer who doesn’t specialize in the area of law you need, you could call that lawyer and ask for a referral. It’s normal for lawyers to make referrals, and they will probably be happy to do it.
All provinces and territories except Saskatchewan and New Brunswick operate lawyer referral services that connect people with participating lawyers. Usually, those lawyers offer a 30-minute meeting for free or a small fee. After that, you can choose to hire the lawyer—or not. If you don’t think the lawyer you’ve been referred to is a good fit, you can ask for another referral.
The Canadian Bar Association offers a Find-A-Lawyer search tool where you can look up lawyers near you who specialize in the type of law you need. Usually, the lawyer will agree to give you a 30-minute meeting for free.
Google is your friend! A lot of people find lawyers just by searching online. Some lawyers blog or write columns or appear in the media, and that can give you a great sense of who they are and what they’re like. Searching online can also help you find a lawyer or firm that specializes in supporting people like you. For example, if you are Indigenous, 2SLGBTQIA+, or an immigrant to Canada, you may be able to find a firm with special expertise that’s relevant to you and your case.
If your income is too high to qualify for legal aid but too low to afford regular legal fees, you might qualify for JusticeNet. It’s a national not-for-profit directory of lawyers and paralegals who offer services at a reduced fee for people who are experiencing financial difficulties and who have a net family income under $90,000.

Tip

If you know you can’t afford a lawyer and you live in Ontario, you might be able to seek help from a paralegal instead. Paralegals can’t do everything a lawyer can do (for example, they can’t represent you in civil court) and they don’t have as much legal education. But there are lots of things they can do, and they charge about half of what a lawyer does.

How to decide who to hire

Obviously cost is a factor, and we’ll talk about that in a moment. But it’s also important to choose someone you’ll be comfortable with. Do you like this person? Do you find them easy to understand? Do you feel safe talking with them?

Tip

Some lawyers offer trauma-informed services. This is a commitment to engage with clients who have experienced trauma in ways that are safe, empowering, and collaborative.

Tip

If you’re considering hiring a particular lawyer, it’s worth looking them up on Google Maps or Yelp to see if anybody has reviewed them there. You can also check the Better Business Bureau for reviews and complaints. You can also see what cases they’ve handled by checking CanLII, a free database for legal decisions in Canada.

When you and the lawyer first meet, here are some questions you might want to ask:

How many cases like mine have you handled?
Do you have any reported cases?
How did they turn out?
How long do you expect my case to take?
What are the legal options available to me?
How does the law apply to my case?
What will be the next steps?
What should I do or not do as my case goes forward?
What expectations can I have about the outcome?

What it will cost

Lawyers structure their fees in different ways.

Some operate on a contingency basis, which means they don’t charge you at the beginning but will keep a percentage of any money they win for you, like maybe 30% or more of the total award. The Law Society of Ontario offers good information and advice about contingency fees here.

But most lawyers charge by the hour.

A lawyer’s hourly rate depends on a number of things:

how experienced they are
what size firm they work for—smaller firms are often cheaper
where in the country you are—rates in smaller places can be cheaper than in big towns

Most lawyers’ hourly rates start around $400. Sometimes your lawyer will also work with a less-experienced lawyer or a paralegal, who they supervise and whose hourly rate is lower. Your lawyer will also charge you for expenses (officially called disbursements), which are things like photocopying fees and court filing fees. But the majority of the cost of a lawyer is usually their hourly rate.

The most effective way to keep your costs low is to limit what you’re asking them to do. If you want to start a complicated legal action that might end up in court, with lots of phone calls and preparation, that will be expensive. If you just want the lawyer to write a letter or file a document, that will be much cheaper.

Tip

When you meet with a lawyer and describe what you want them to do, unless it’s very simple, they won’t be able to tell you exactly what it will cost. That’s normal and it doesn’t mean they’re untrustworthy. They just don’t know how complex the work will turn out to be, so they don’t know how much time it will take.

If you hire a lawyer who charges by the hour, you may be asked for a retainer, which is an amount of money up front—say, $2,000—before they start work on your case. When that’s used up, they will ask you for more.

Some lawyers charge a block rate. This means you pay one fee for the whole job. A block rate is a good way to cap your costs, because whatever you’re quoted at the beginning will be the maximum you will pay for the job, unless the case unexpectedly becomes way more complicated. This allows people to avoid a situation where they get halfway through a legal case and then run out of money.

Normally your lawyer will make a contract for your work together (sometimes called an engagement letter) that includes a fee agreement outlining how you will be billed. They should regularly send you statements showing you how much they have charged you, and for what.

Tip

It’s totally okay to ask questions about fees, and how you can keep them low! Lawyers know they are expensive, and they know it’s not an expense that people have budgeted for. They are usually very comfortable talking about how to minimize your costs.

Working with your lawyer

You are the boss. Your lawyer won’t do anything you don’t ask them to do and won’t do anything without your approval. They will present you with options, and you will decide what to do. That doesn’t mean they won’t advise you; they will. But you will get to make the final decision.

Review with them what they can and cannot do for you, and what your role will be when you are working together. Having a clear idea about what you can expect can help avoid misunderstandings.

Your lawyer will need information from you. This is where your documentation comes in. See Document Everything. You can keep your legal costs low by providing documentation that’s clear and well organized, and by being focused and brief when you talk with your lawyer. You will normally be paying for every minute they spend with you, even for short phone calls and email exchanges.

What a lawyer can’t do for you

Important

It’s very common for people to go to a lawyer because they want the legal system to validate them and give them justice. But it’s your lawyer’s job to tell you what’s realistically possible, and the truth can be very disappointing. It’s worth trying to be realistic about what the legal system can and cannot give you, so you don’t end up feeling let down.

If you are lucky, your lawyer will be empathetic and kind.

But your lawyer is not a therapist, and they can’t be your source for mental health support. They aren’t trained to do it, and they are too expensive. It’s a good idea to get support to help you process the trauma you’ve experienced, but you should seek it from someone who is not your lawyer.

Your lawyer is also not your friend. They need to have a professional relationship with you, so they can be objective about your situation and give you realistic advice. It’s a good idea to surround yourself with warmth and emotional support, but you shouldn’t be seeking it from your lawyer.

Your lawyer is also not your career coach. They can’t advise you about how a particular decision might affect your career, and you shouldn’t expect them to. You should seek that kind of advice from people in your work networks.

Confidentiality, privilege, and honesty

Anything you say to your lawyer and anything they learn about you from working on your case, no matter where it comes from, is confidential. Your lawyer cannot repeat what they know about you to anyone outside of their firm without your permission. This means that, if you end up in court, for example, what you’ve said to them will be private. Lawyers are normally very good at maintaining confidentiality and you shouldn’t need to worry that they won’t.

Any communication between you and your lawyer about the legal advice they are giving you is privileged, including emails, texts, and letters. These are private and cannot be shared with anyone outside of their firm unless you agree. Lawyers are good at this, too.

It’s common for people to not tell their lawyer things that make them look bad, because they’re embarrassed, or because they think their lawyer will work harder if they like and respect them. But you should always be honest with your lawyer. It’s unlikely you will shock them, and they need to know the truth, so they can construct a case that helps you.

If things go badly

Important

Lawyers do not control the outcome of your case, and they cannot guarantee that you’ll get what you want. If a lawyer guarantees you success, they might not be a very good lawyer.

Here are some signs suggesting you might have a bad lawyer:

They promise they can get you the exact outcome you want.
Their fee structure isn’t clear, or they didn’t give it to you in writing.
When they explain things to you, you don’t understand what they’re saying.
They often seem distracted, stressed, or overwhelmed.
They don’t remember who you are, or forget details of your case.
They are cold or rude.
They don’t return your calls or emails.
They are regularly late.
They make important decisions about your case without discussing them with you first.
They make mistakes, like missing deadlines or filing paperwork incorrectly.
Other legal professionals (like court clerks, judges, and opposing counsel) don’t seem to respect them.

Tip

One of the most common complaints about lawyers is a lack of communication. Sometimes, lawyers who are great at their jobs have a difficult time dealing with clients and communicating effectively. You may find a lawyer who is very good at what they do, but you will still have a poor relationship because of their bad communication skills.

If you have a complaint

If you believe your lawyer is doing a bad job, you can complain to the management of their firm, who may be able to fix the problem. If that doesn’t work, then another place to take your complaint is the provincial law society. Some law societies will take complaints about lawyers’ fees, and all law societies are responsible for disciplining members who have violated standards of conduct.

Important

This is just general information, not legal advice. If you need legal advice about your specific situation, we urge you to find a lawyer who can help you.

We’re going to tell you an important secret. Something that CEOs, HR people, and lawyers already know, but you probably don’t.

If you’ve been badly treated at your workplace to the point where you feel you need to quit your job, you may be able to get your employer to give you money by sending them what’s called a demand letter.

A demand letter is not guaranteed to get you money. Some employers will ignore it, or just tell you no. But it works often enough to make it worth trying.

How demand letters work

A demand letter is just an ordinary letter or email that you or your lawyer sends to your employer. It describes the bad treatment you experienced at work, and asks your employer to give you money in exchange for you agreeing to not sue them.

The idea is that you have been harassed to the point where it’s impossible for you to do your job, which means you need to quit, and the whole thing is your employer’s fault for not making the harassment stop.

You send a demand letter when you’re planning to quit—or, in some cases, after you’ve been fired. If you’re staying at work, you might send a demand letter if, for example, a co-worker has harassed you, causing a psychological injury. You could send a demand letter asking your employer to reimburse you for the money you’ve spent on counselling.

Here’s what usually happens:

You’re badly treated at work, and your employer doesn’t fix the problem. Maybe you complain, and they punish you.
You decide you need to quit. Or, you get fired.
You send a demand letter to your employer.
Your employer might ignore the letter, but usually they’ll reply. They may agree to give you everything you asked for, or some of it, or they may reject your entire request.
You accept what they’ve offered, or push for more. You might go back and forth for a while, negotiating.
Eventually one of two things happens. Either you accept an offer, in which case you then sign a release letter, agreeing you will not take them to court. This is called a settlement. Or, you reject their offer (or there is no offer), in which case you need to decide whether to proceed with a lawsuit.

Why demand letters are great

Going to court is slow and expensive. Lots of people never even talk with a lawyer, because they know they can’t afford to pay for a legal dispute that might last years.

That’s where the demand letter comes in. A demand letter is essentially a threat. You are saying (or implying) that if your demands aren’t met, you will take legal action.

But the important part is you don’t have to actually go to court. If you send a demand letter that gets ignored or rejected, you can stop right there and that’s the end of it.

This means that a demand letter is a pretty cheap, pretty easy way to see if you can get your employer to give you some money. If you can, great. If you can’t, there’s no real harm done.

The one major cost of a demand letter is the lawyer who writes it for you. You can write a demand letter yourself, but if you can afford it, it’s better to have a lawyer do it. Lawyers know how to phrase things in a way that will make it as likely as possible that your employer will pay up.

Usually a lawyer will charge a flat fee to write the letter. Between $200 and $500 is common, but a lawyer might charge more if your matter is complicated.

We couldn’t find any Canadian statistics on how well demand letters work. But one U.S. survey found that almost 60% of people who sent a demand letter received a settlement, compared with only 36% of people who didn’t.

Why your employer might agree to give you money

In theory, your employer would only give you money if they thought you had a strong legal case. But in practice, there are lots of other reasons employers might do it:

They just don’t want to go to court.
They would rather pay a smaller amount of money now, instead of what might be a bigger amount later (if you win a lawsuit).
They don’t want to be embarrassed in public by whatever gets said in a court case.
They don’t want their other employees to be mad at them for how they treated you.
They don’t want potential new employees to hear they’re a bad employer.
They don’t want you personally to be mad at them.
They feel bad about what happened to you, and they want to make it right.

Here are some things that might mean you’re more likely to win a settlement:

Your employer thinks you’re good at your job.
You’ve worked there longer than two years.
Other employees, or customers/clients, like and respect you.
There’s someone in management who knows you personally and likes you.
Your employer feels bad about how you’ve been treated.
If what happened to you became public, people might be angry with your employer.
You’re female, racialized, 2SLGBTQIA+, or disabled.

What a demand letter usually looks like

They are usually a maximum of four pages.

Salutation

It’s important to direct the letter to the right person. Usually the more senior, the better—like the head of HR, the CEO, or maybe the general counsel.

Statement that you are leaving, why, and when

Here you explain a little about yourself, like what your job is at the company, when you started working there, and how long you have worked there. If you have gotten good feedback on your work, you’ll want to say that too.

It’s important to be very clear that you are leaving your job. You should say when your last day of work will be. Usually that’s right away (“my resignation is effective immediately”), though sometimes it’s one or two weeks in the future.

Your lawyer can help you explain exactly why you’re leaving. Normally it’s because your employer has not resolved the harassment problem and so your workplace is unsafe. Sometimes it’s also because your employer has retaliated against you for complaining about being harassed. See Getting punished for complaining and how to protect yourself.

Factual statement of what happened and how it hurt you

Here the letter will describe the harassment you’ve experienced and your efforts to report it. Sometimes this part will be just a few sentences, and sometimes it’ll be several pages.

You’ll also describe here how the harassment has hurt you: how it has cost you money and/or caused you pain and suffering. You should write about any physical or mental health symptoms you’ve experienced, any medical diagnoses you’ve received (for example, anxiety or depression), any medications you’ve been prescribed, and any other harms you’ve suffered. If you feel you have been punished for complaining, you should describe that too.

Description of what you want

In this part of the letter, you’ll describe exactly what you want. This almost always includes money. Generally, you should ask for more money than you really expect to get. Some people say you should figure out the minimum amount you want, and ask for double.

You can also ask for other things, like a positive reference letter. Sometimes people ask to be allowed to describe their departure as a resignation rather than a dismissal. Sometimes they want to write the announcement that will go out saying they are leaving. You might ask to keep company property, like a laptop or cellphone. Usually it’s pretty easy to get your employer to agree to your non-money asks.

Any practical information about company property

Because you’re resigning, you need to tell your employer what company property you have, and how and when you plan to return it. It’s normal for your employer to expect you to return any company property, usually within a week or so of your last working day. Some employers will insist that you return their property, and in that case you definitely need to do it.

Date by which you would like a reply

It’s important to include a reply-by date, so that, if your employer plans to ignore your letter, you will know. Usually the date is about a week in the future, but sometimes it’s as short as a few days, or as long as two to three weeks.

More about demand letters

What is the right tone?

The letter should be factual and polite. It shouldn’t sound angry. It should be written in a more formal way if it’s signed by your lawyer, and it can be less formal if it’s signed by you. If your relationship with your employer is hostile, the letter should still be courteous. If your relationship has been mostly positive, the letter can be friendly.

Remember that sending a demand letter is not actually a hostile act. What you’re saying in the letter is that, even though you have a legal claim, you are willing to resolve it in a friendly fashion, rather than by going to court.

Usually it’s better to keep your options open rather than committing to a specific course of action. But sometimes (especially if your employer is hostile) it might save time to say exactly what you will do if your demands aren’t met. Your lawyer can help you figure this out.

What should my letter ask for?

Usually the letter should give a specific amount. This saves time, because your employer doesn’t have to guess what you want.

It’s also normal to ask for things like a positive reference letter. It’s normal to ask to keep company property. (Although employers sometimes say no.) You could also ask for an apology from your employer or from the harasser. You could ask that the harasser be required to attend sexual harassment training.

If I send a demand letter and I don’t get any money, does that mean I need to go to court?

No. Nothing about sending a demand letter commits you to actually going ahead with a lawsuit. But your letter is more likely to be successful if your employer believes you might go to court.

How should I deliver a demand letter?

You can send it by registered mail if you want to be able to prove it was received, but it’s not necessary. You could also hand deliver a copy.

It’s increasingly common to send a demand letter by email. If you do this, you should send it from your personal account, not your work account, and ask your employer to confirm they have received it. If they don’t confirm it, you will want to then deliver the letter in some other way.

If I send a demand letter and it’s ignored or rejected, what should I do?

You might decide to write a follow-up letter that restates what you want, and what you’ll do if you don’t get it. You might decide to start a legal case. Or you could decide to do nothing. It’s entirely up to you.

If I send a demand letter, what’s the worst thing that could happen?

Your employer might talk negatively about you to other people. They might refuse to give you a good reference. The worst-case outcome is probably that they are permanently angry with you, and you have burned a bridge and will never have a good relationship with them again.

Here are some examples of demand letters.

Important

A civil lawsuit is expensive and time consuming, and some people find it traumatizing. If you’re thinking of doing it, we urge you to consult a lawyer first.

First, let’s define what we mean by taking legal action.

For the purposes of this article, we’re not talking about filing a human rights complaint, filing a grievance through your union, or making a formal report to your employer.

What we’re talking about here is filing—or threatening to file—a civil lawsuit.

What’s a civil lawsuit?

In civil court, cases are also called claims, lawsuits, or simply “litigation” (which means taking legal action). These are private disputes between people or companies. That means there is no police investigation, no Crown attorney, and no involvement of a tribunal or agency.

Unlike at a tribunal or in a criminal court, no one investigates the case—you and your lawyer have to collect and present all of your evidence yourself. And the other side gets to present their evidence as well.

You have to prove each of the facts on a balance of probabilities. This standard of proof is lower than in a criminal case. A balance of probabilities means that you have to prove that it is more likely than not that the harassment occurred, and that the harassment meets the legal tests for your type of case. In sexual harassment cases, it often comes down to your word against the defendants, and the judge will decide who to believe.

Important

Most civil claims have a two-year limitation period. But for crimes considered serious criminal matters there is no limitation. Sexual assault is in this category.

Why would someone file a civil lawsuit?

The main reason is money.

Nobody can go change what happened to you. But if somebody caused you harm, the premise of the legal system is that, in some circumstances, they can be forced to give you money to make up for it. That’s the main reason courts exist.

There are other reasons you might want to take legal action. You might want the harasser to be ordered to stop harassing you. You might want a permanent public record of what happened. It might feel important to you to have a judge rule in your favour. You might want keep the same thing from happening to someone else.

But the main reason people take legal action, and the main benefit of legal action, is money. It’s that simple.

Why don’t people file a civil lawsuit?

Most people who are harassed don’t take legal action.

There’s no way to know for sure how many do. But the research says that most people who’ve been harassed don’t take any formal action at all. Fewer than half report to their employer what happened. Most don’t talk to a lawyer. Our guess is less than 1% file a lawsuit.

Why? There are probably three main reasons:

They’re not sure if they have solid legal grounds for a claim, so they don’t know how likely it is that their case would be successful.
They think pursuing a legal claim would take too long, be too expensive, and be too risky.
They think it would be unpleasant, and they would rather just put the whole thing behind them and move on.

Those are good reasons.

Researchers say litigation can be really bad for your mental health. It can take years, and during that time, you have to tell your story over and over, including to lawyers on the other side who will try to make you look bad. Researchers say this can keep people stuck in the past and prevent them from being able to heal and move forward.

It’s also expensive. Some people end up spending tens of thousands of dollars, or even hundreds of thousands. If you don’t have that kind of money, it can be hard to even imagine launching a civil court case. However, if a lawyer thinks you have a good case, they make take it on contingency, which means they would only get paid if you win.

Here’s something you need to know.

Just because you start legal action doesn’t mean you’re committing yourself to a long, expensive process.

Hardly any cases go all the way to a trial, and there are lots of opportunities to settle or withdraw along the way.

If you threaten legal action by sending your employer what’s called a demand letter, they may settle with you immediately. In that case, your only expense is the cost of the letter itself, plus any negotiations that might follow it.
If you file a civil case against the harasser or your employer, it may get settled before you get to the trial stage. In Canada, 98% of civil court cases are settled or abandoned before they ever get to trial. Abandonment is a bad outcome for you (it means you gave up), but a settlement could be great.
You could choose to pursue a claim through small claims court rather than ordinary civil court. The downside of small claims court is that the awards are smaller. But the upside is that the process is shorter and simpler, and you might be able to do it by yourself, without even needing a lawyer.

If you think you might have a legal case, even if you’re pretty sure you don’t want to go all the way to trial, you should seriously consider talking with a lawyer.

You can usually get a short consultation for free. A lawyer can help you figure out how strong your case is, and what course of action might make sense for you.

If I take legal action, what could I get?

You can settle for any amount of money that your opponent is willing to offer and you are willing to accept. Or, if you go to trial and win, the judge will decide how much money you get.

Typically, amounts are calculated on the basis of lost wages or expenses, costs of medical treatment, as well as harm to your well-being. These are called general damages. Occasionally, the amount you’re given will also include punitive damages, which are intended to punish the other party for their bad behaviour.

You’ve probably seen headlines about people in the United States being awarded millions of dollars. It’s not like that in Canada. Here, an award of $200,000 is considered really large.

What does it cost to take legal action?

You will need to pay for your own lawyer, and also for any support they have, like if they use a paralegal to help them. Lawyers usually charge by the hour, and they will charge you for everything they do: for all the time they spend preparing for your case—talking to you, reading documents, writing letters, contacting the other side’s lawyers, and interviewing witnesses.

You will also need to pay any costs your lawyer incurs on your behalf, like the costs of filing documents, experts’ fees, or getting transcripts or photocopies made.

If your lawyer ends up just drafting a single letter for you, that could cost as little as a few hundred dollars.
If your case goes all the way to trial, it will probably cost many thousands of dollars, and if you end up needing to appeal, it could be much more.

If you go all the way to trial and win, the judge will make the other party pay some of your legal fees. But if you lose, the judge will make you pay some of the legal costs of the other party.

Why might I sue or threaten to sue?

You can’t sue on the basis that you were sexually harassed. That’s not a claim that civil court will accept. Instead, you have two main ways to make a claim.

Your employer responded to the harassment in a way that broke your employment agreement.

This is called wrongful dismissal or constructive dismissal.

Wrongful dismissal means you were fired without cause—without a valid reason, or without being given reasonable notice or pay instead of notice. If you got fired because your employer wanted to get rid of you rather than stop the harassment, you might be able to sue your employer for wrongful dismissal.

Constructive dismissal means that although your employer didn’t literally fire you, they effectively fired you, by making such big changes to your work that you might as well have been fired. The kinds of changes that count as constructive dismissal include things like a reduction in your work hours, a change in your work assignment, a pay cut, a demotion, or a suspension. If your employer made a change like that rather than stopping the harassment, you might be able to sue them for constructive dismissal.

Constructive dismissal can also include things your employer didn’t do. Your employer has an obligation to provide you with a workplace that’s free of harassment and discrimination. If you reported harassment and your employer didn’t stop it, you might have a case for constructive dismissal on that basis.

The harassment caused you loss or harm.

This is called a tort, which means it’s a claim that’s accepted in civil court. Torts that apply to sexual harassment include battery, intentional infliction of mental suffering, and negligence.

If you want to sue for the harm you suffered because of the harassment, that would be a tort. Here are the torts that most commonly apply to sexual harassment:

Battery is any direct, intentional, and physical interference with your body that is harmful or offensive. This tort protects your personal, physical autonomy. If you sue on this basis, you could be suing the harasser or your employer if the harasser is a senior officer of the company.
Intentional infliction of mental suffering recognizes that the harm might not be physical, but that, nonetheless, the harasser deliberately hurt you. For this kind of lawsuit, you have to prove that the harasser wanted to cause harm and prove the illness or symptoms that resulted. If you sue on this basis, you’d be suing the harasser or your employer if the harasser is a senior officer of the company.
Negligence means your employer failed to meet the standard of care that a reasonable person would have shown in the situation. In a harassment case, this could be a claim that they had a duty of care to protect you from the harm caused by the harasser, and that they didn’t live up to that duty. It could also be that your employer knew of a harasser’s conduct but ignored it. In these types of cases, you’d be suing your employer, not the harasser.

Tip

Lawyers who specialize in sexual harassment cases often find new ways to ask the court to hear cases of sexual harassment. A lawyer will help you figure out which kind of civil lawsuit makes sense in your situation.

What are the risks of taking legal action?

Lawsuits are adversarial, and if you sue the harasser or your employer, they may decide you’re their enemy and try to hurt you or damage your career.

The harasser might trash-talk you to other people, or try to hurt you physically, or be hostile in some other way.

If you are still working for your employer, they might try to punish you or fire you. That’s called a reprisal and it’s illegal. Your employer might also talk negatively about you to other people, or refuse to give you a good reference, or make your life unpleasant in other ways.

Lawsuits are public, which means people will know your private business.

Courts are open to the public, which means anyone can access the documents in the case and can sit in the courtroom and watch the trial. Once a decision has been made, it will be listed on public, searchable websites.

This means that private information about you—which could include information about your salary, medications you take, medical diagnoses you’ve received, or things you’ve said and done—will be available to anyone. If you want to see the kind of information that ends up getting published, you can read some court decisions:

You might be able to use a pseudonym if you can show that there’s a good reason to do this: that your mental health could suffer or you might not sue if you had to go public.

Lawsuits are expensive, and the harasser or your employer might deliberately behave in ways that increase your costs.

Many defendants use tactics to delay or prolong a case, such as filing motions, requesting lots of extra documents from you, refusing to hand over their documents, and changing lawyers. These can be strategic moves to drive up your legal costs so you either settle or drop your case altogether. This is called litigation bullying—it is very difficult to manage and adds extra stress and cost.

The harasser or your employer might sue you for defamation, which can also drive up your legal costs.

If you sue your employer or the harasser, they might start their own lawsuit against you for defamation, saying that your claims are untrue and are hurting their reputation, or causing loss of business or other financial damage. Defending against a defamation lawsuit is a whole other process and will increase your legal costs and stress, even if what you are being sued for isn’t true.

You might get nothing in the end.

It’s entirely possible you could go all the way through a long and expensive legal process, and in the end…lose. You could end up spending an enormous amount of time and money on the process, and needing to pay the legal costs of the other side. Even if you win, a harasser might not have any money to pay you. You could end up traumatized by the whole experience, and getting nothing out of it.

What to expect if you start a civil court action

Important

If you’re hoping to reach a settlement, it’s very likely the other party will insist you agree to sign a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA, that will prohibit you from talking about what happened. If you think you might not be willing to sign an NDA, it’s important to tell your lawyer early, because it may change your legal strategy.

The first step is that you get a lawyer, and the two of you figure out who you are targeting with your legal action, and on what basis.

Once you have that figured out, your lawyer might advise you to start with a demand letter, in hopes you can reach a settlement without ever needing to take formal legal action.

If the demand letter doesn’t work, you’ll need to decide whether to proceed with legal action. If you do, here’s how it works.

Your lawyer will write a statement of claim in which they describe what happened and say how it meets the elements of the legal test. Your lawyer will file this statement to the court, and send copies to everyone you are suing. Those people are called defendants because they are required to file a defence to your claim.

The defendants will then file a statement of defence describing the facts that they think matter to the case and will answer your claim. They will deliver it to you, also called serving it on you, or service.

These two documents are called the pleadings. Once these have been filed, the parties start a process called examination for discovery.

Discovery is like a pre-trial, though it doesn’t happen in a courtroom. It is an oral examination recorded by a court reporter in which you and the defendant reveal any evidence related to the case, even if it hurts your argument. The lawyer for the defendant will interview you, asking questions relevant to the case; your lawyer will interview the defendant. The lawyers will have already exchanged the documents that they are using to support their arguments and they may ask questions based on those documents. The information recorded in the discovery transcript may be used in the trail. The discovery process can take months or even years, depending how much evidence there is to go through.

At this point, your lawyer will be able to give you advice about how strong your case is. It’s also common at this stage for the parties to decide to try to reach a settlement through mediation, rather than going all the way to court.

During the mediation process you and the other party may be required to sign a confidentiality agreement. This agreement only applies to the discussions during the mediation. Any admissions or offers made then can’t be repeated in a hearing later, or talked about publicly. This isn’t a long-term ban as part of a settlement; it is a tool to create a period of open discussion during mediation.

Here, you might reach a settlement. Your lawyer will help you decide whether to accept it. They can’t tell you what to do, but they can help you understand your options.

If you don’t reach a settlement, the case goes on to trial.

During a trial, a judge will oversee the courtroom. They may decide the case, or either you or the defendant can request a jury trial. You will have to prove each aspect of your claim. You can bring evidence—witnesses or documents—to prove each fact. The harasser or employer will also get to bring their own evidence supporting their version of events. Each side gets to cross-examine the witnesses that the other side calls. The judge or jury hears all the evidence, and the legal arguments made by the lawyers, before making a decision.

Often the judge will first hear evidence about the facts and make a decision on whether the harassment happened and, if they decide it did, how much money you will receive. (This is called an award of damages.) This may take weeks or even months, depending how complicated the case is. If the trial is heard by a jury, they will decide immediately.

There are things the judge or jury can’t do. They can’t order your employer to fire the harasser, to give you your job back, to make the harasser apologize, or make your employer implement specific policies. If you want those kinds of remedies, a human rights body is a better bet.

How is small claims court different from civil court?

Small claims court is a slightly simpler and faster way of legally settling smaller lawsuits. The exact dollar amount you could be awarded in small claims court varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction; the maximum ranges from $15,000 to $50,000. If you want to ask for damages that fall below this limit, you can start a small claims case. The process is a little less complicated and you can either represent yourself or, if you live in Ontario, hire a paralegal.

Because there are limits on costs awards at small claims, this means that you do not risk as big an award against you, if you lose your case. Small claims courts don’t make costs awards for the time you spend representing yourself—just for the amount you pay to a lawyer, and sometimes also your filing fees.

You might also use small claims court if you get an award from a human rights body or labour board, but the harasser hasn’t paid up. If the total amount is under the small claims ceiling in your province or territory, you can start a case to force them to pay. Before you do this, even in small claims, try sending a demand letter first. You can pay a lawyer to write this for you—an hour or two of legal help to send a demand letter could be a good investment.

What to expect at the end

Collecting the money

If you agree to a settlement or win at trial, it will be up to you to collect the money.

If you reach a settlement, this is usually easy. In this case, the other party has agreed to pay you a certain amount, and usually they will do it fairly quickly.

If you win at trial, though, collecting the money may be harder. You can start by sending a demand letter reminding the party of the judgment. If they don’t pay up, you can go back to the court and ask the court to force them to pay. This is another legal process and will take more time and cost you more money.

Confidentiality versus publicity

If you reach a settlement, the other party will almost always insist that you sign an NDA. (Unless you live in P.E.I. In 2022, P.E.I. became the first jurisdiction in Canada to ban NDAs in cases of sexual misconduct, harassment, and discrimination unless the affected person chooses to sign one.)

An NDA may seem like an unimportant detail, but it’s not. An NDA is a binding legal agreement, and if you sign it, you’ll be obligated to live up to what it says. If you don’t, you might end up having to pay back the money you got in the settlement, or you could be sued and forced to pay even more money.

Some people are happy to sign an NDA because they don’t plan on telling anyone about what happened to them anyway. Others would rather go to trial than agree to a settlement that requires an NDA.

It’s not uncommon for a person to sign an NDA and then come to regret it, years or even decades later.

Sometimes people realize later that they need to speak publicly about their experience in order to process it and heal from it.

Or they learn that the circumstances in which they signed the agreement weren’t exactly what they’d thought at the time. For example, lots of people sign an NDA assuming their harassment was an isolated incident, but some find out later that the harasser was actually harassing a lot of people. They may then want to speak up in support of other people who got harassed, and regret signing an agreement that says they can’t.

You can read stories of people who signed NDAs on this website that’s advocating for them to be banned in Canada.

If you’re willing to sign an NDA, it’s a good idea to think about whether there are people you might want to talk about your case with—like your partner or another family member or friend, a therapist, a health care professional, the police, or any other authority. If so, you should make sure your lawyer knows that, so they can ensure the NDA allows it. You should also make sure you understand whether those people are allowed to tell other people.

If you’re considering signing an NDA, definitely discuss it thoroughly with your lawyer first. They can help you understand the terms and decide whether you’re willing to agree to them, and also can negotiate changes.

If your case goes to trial, it’s simpler. Once a decision has been made, it will be listed on public, searchable websites. The judge can anonymize the decision by using only your initials instead of your full name. You may be able to do this if you can show that you would suffer emotional injury if you are publicly identified.

So, should I do it?

There’s no single right answer.

It depends on the facts of your case. It depends on who the harasser is and who your employer is. It depends on how much effort and money you’re willing to spend. It depends on whether you can afford to make an enemy of the harasser and your employer. It depends on how stressful you’re likely to find the experience, and whether the stress is worth the potential benefit to you.

That’s why we urge you to consult with a lawyer. They will listen to your story and help you understand what, in your specific circumstances, is realistically possible.

Important

This is just general information, not legal advice. If you need legal advice, we urge you to find a lawyer who can help you.

Let’s start here: If you think you’re being sexually harassed, you’re probably right. It’s very rare for people to mistakenly feel like they’re being harassed. If what’s happening feels to you like harassment, it almost certainly is.

You might wonder if it’s workplace sexual harassment if it happens to everyone and is happening all the time

There are lots of workplaces where sexual harassment is extremely common. Like in bars and restaurants, or very male environments like construction work, policing, or the military. There, the people getting harassed often see it as just part of the job, and sometimes they decide that must mean it’s not really sexual harassment.

But it is. There may not be much you can do about it. It may be completely “normal.” It may seem like nobody cares. But it’s still workplace sexual harassment. It shouldn’t be happening, and it’s prohibited under Canadian law.

You might wonder if it’s sexual harassment if it’s not your boss harassing you but somebody else

It is. In fact, most harassers aren’t the boss. Most are clients and customers, or co-workers.

That is workplace sexual harassment, and it’s prohibited under Canadian law.

You might wonder if it’s workplace sexual harassment if it’s not happening at work

If somebody related to your work is harassing you, it’s workplace sexual harassment, even if it happens:

when you’re at home
on the street, on a bus, in a parking garage, or some other public place
at a work party, training, conference, or other work-related event
while you’re travelling (in a car, on a bus or plane, at a hotel) with co-workers to or from a workplace or work-related event

Workplace sexual harassment doesn’t only happen at work. If someone from your work is sexually harassing you, it can still be considered harassment even if it happens somewhere other than at your workplace, and it’s prohibited under Canadian law.

You might wonder if you’re being harassed for sex- or gender-based reasons, versus whether it’s because of your race, religion, or some other reason

It’s very common for people to not be sure exactly why they’re being harassed, or to suspect that there’s a mix of reasons. A Muslim woman may not know whether she’s being harassed because she’s Muslim or because she’s female. A gay Anishinaabe man may not know whether he’s being harassed because of his sexual orientation or because he’s Indigenous.

The reality is, it shouldn’t and doesn’t matter. It’s prohibited to harass people on the basis of their sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, and also on the basis of their race/ethnicity, disability/ability status, and their religion. All those characteristics are protected, which means people can’t harass you because of them.

You are not responsible for figuring out exactly why someone is harassing you.

If you’re being harassed on the basis of your sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, even if you are also being harassed for other reasons, that’s workplace sexual harassment. It shouldn’t be happening, and it’s prohibited under Canadian law.

The four types of high-harassment workplaces

Workplaces where most of the workers are men

Workplaces where most of the clients or customers are men

Workplaces where most people are white (if you’re not)

Workplaces where most people aren’t 2SLGBTQIA+ (if you are)

What leads people to change their careers

How to decide if changing your career is right for you

How to get started changing your career

Trust your own instincts

High-harassment industries pay more than low-harassment ones.

Consider independent contractor or consultant work

Unemployment or underemployment is normal

High-harassment industries have higher status

Wanting to work alone is common

Retraining is worth considering

You might be happiest working with people like you

What are the federally regulated industries?

What legislation applies to federally regulated workers?

The Canada Labour Code

The Canadian Human Rights Act

Talk with people you can trust to listen and support you

Don’t talk with people at work (at least, not right away)

Find additional sources for support, even if your family and friends are pretty solid

How workers comp works if you’re a federally regulated worker

So what does punishment look like in practice?

What to do if you’re being punished

Punishments by your boss

Where to report reprisals

What else can you do?

Punishments by your co-workers

How and where to get help

What your union should do for you

How to talk to your union

How your union can help you

What if I don’t want to pursue a grievance?

What if my union doesn’t help?

The grievance process

Who’s who

Parties

Grievor

Mediator

Arbitrator

Possible outcomes

The grievance process step-by-step

What happens after a grievance is filed

How long does the grievance process take?

Mediation

Settlement

Grievance arbitration

There are three degrees of sexual assault

Should you go to the police if you’ve been sexually assaulted?

If you go to the police

What other types of sexual harassment might break criminal laws

Sharing sexual imagery

Indecent communications

Defamation

Stalking

Doxxing and swatting

Voyeurism

Uttering threats

Hate speech

So, should you go to the police?

If you go public, you might get sued for defamation

If you go public, strangers might attack and abuse you

If you go public, you might lose your job or have a hard time getting a new one

If you go public, you might mess up any legal case you’re pursuing or settlement you’ve received

The first thing you have to do is find a lawyer

How to decide who to hire

What it will cost

Working with your lawyer

What a lawyer can’t do for you

Confidentiality, privilege, and honesty

If things go badly

If you have a complaint

How demand letters work

Why demand letters are great

Why your employer might agree to give you money

Here are some things that might mean you’re more likely to win a settlement:

What a demand letter usually looks like

Salutation