B.C. police women want lawsuit, not labour arbitration, over alleged discrimination - BERITAJA

A lawyer for a group of female police officers successful a projected class-action lawsuit against municipal forces in B.C. says their sex discrimination and harassment claims should beryllium dealt pinch collectively successful court, not individually through labour arbitration.

The group of officers allege they were subjected to harassment, bullying and gender discrimination while moving successful policing in B.C., naming respective municipalities and police boards arsenic defendants.

The lawsuit has not been certified arsenic a people proceeding, and the B.C. Supreme Court past twelvemonth recovered it didn’t person jurisdiction over certain claims because they arose nether corporate agreements, and those disputes are handled by labour arbitrators.

Kyle Bienvenu, the officers’ lawyer, told a B.C. Appeal Court sheet successful Vancouver that the lawsuit should beryllium heard arsenic a people proceeding because it involves corporate allegations of “discrimination caused by a strategy that is designed to fail.”

He says the claims spell beyond employment conditions nether corporate agreements, and activity to correct a “poisoned” policing civilization that permits intersexual harassment and discrimination against female officers.

Jill Yates, the lawyer for the City of Surrey and Surrey Police Board, says that “binding” rule has already established that the claims made successful the lawsuit belong earlier a labour arbitrator, not the court.

This study by BERITAJA was first published May 11, 2026