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No One to Tell: Breaking My Silence on Life in the RCMP

by Janet Merlo

The image of Canada’s iconic RCMP has long been burnished by strategic marketing, culminating in the recent release of Mattel’s limited-edition RCMP Barbie doll. While the toy has proved to be a hit, its timing is ironic given the ongoing class-action lawsuit filed by over 200 current and former female RCMP officers alleging systemic sexual harassment in Canada’s national police.

The lead plaintiff, 19-year veteran Janet Merlo, is a Newfoundland-born idealist who saw policing as her way of making a difference in people’s lives. What she did not expect was the daily grind of sexism, harassment, and corruption she encountered, along with a wall of silence preventing officers from speaking out.

With equal doses of humour and horror, Merlo documents the daily life of a Mountie, responding to calls that range from ridiculous to traumatic. An already difficult job becomes even more complicated when Merlo is called in to a supervisor’s office and told to stand next to a naked blow-up doll to see how she “measured up.” Fellow officers spread rumours about having slept with her, and incessant verbal harassment and distasteful “pranks” were dished out daily. The title of Merlo’s book hints at the whistleblower’s loneliness and self-doubt, combined with incessant anxiety about losing her career, and the fear that, like New York City’s Frank Serpico, she might one day find herself without backup during a dangerous call as punishment for opening her mouth.

Merlo is a salty-tongued straight shooter whose story, which reads like a tale told over pints at the local pub, rings with a rare, down-home truthfulness. While she indicts the RCMP’s institutional failures, her narrative is a personal one, including painful details of her deteriorating marriage, struggles with PTSD, and the corrosive long-term effects of her toxic workplace. She also documents a steady stream of missed opportunities on the part of the RCMP – which she still calls “one of the most amazing organizations in the world” – from a failure to provide proper staffing complements to a lack of psychological assistance for officers.

Merlo knows something is amiss, and her lawsuit is part of an effort to expose and fix deeply rooted problems. In a political climate unfriendly to whistleblowers, Merlo’s timely memoir is both courageous and hopeful.

 

Reviewer: Matthew Behrens

Publisher: Breakwater Books

DETAILS

Price: $24.95

Page Count: 218 pp

Format: Paper

ISBN: 978-1-55081-434-7

Released: Oct.

Issue Date: 2013-12

Categories: Politics & Current Affairs