Feminist activist Heather Mallick is a thorn in the side of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, because of how she thinks it is handling investigations into sexual assault allegations against members of Parliament.
A book by Mallick called Why Riot Cops? details how she believes police departments and federal authorities are violating a few basic rules about dealing with sexual misconduct claims.
Now Mallick is pushing her case for reform through the Senate committee on human rights.
At first glance, Mallick’s claims appear almost laughable.
First, you can count on police investigating sexual assault claims, of course they will, but wouldn’t they be more likely to find something and investigate if they hadn’t been told to be lenient?
Yes, they would, according to Mallick’s research and advice, but they’re wrong.
She recently posted some papers about the influence of unconscious bias on the investigation process online, and the response has been abominable.
Most anti-Bias readers believe that the man was innocent, and that it was all a big conspiracy that he was drummed out of Canada’s Parliament for being superlative sexually aggressive.
That isn’t Mallick’s report, though.
Her key conclusion is that police department policy on investigations is wrong, and that people who follow that wrongheaded approach are preventing people from getting justice.