B.C. fire department was investigated for previous misconduct:

Randy Orton

WC's Resident Alchoholic

B.C. fire department was investigated for previous misconduct: CBC report
Last Updated Thu, 06 Apr 2006 23:03:10 EDT
CBC News
A CBC News investigation has uncovered court documents that allege firefighters in Richmond, B.C., sneaked 15-year-old girls into their dorm for sex in the 1970s.

The discovery comes as four women firefighters in Richmond are alleging widespread sexual harassment and discrimination.


Mayor Malcolm Brodie of Richmond, B.C., has been questioned about the conduct of the city's fire department. (CBC)
Court documents filed in a lawsuit by the women allege that male firefighters brought high school girls up the ladder of the fire station, across its roof and into their dorm for sex about 30 years ago.

In 1998, police launched an 18-month criminal investigation into the allegations.

No charges were ever laid, but the City of Richmond launched its own review.

"The recommendation was to take no further action, there was nothing of a criminal nature that could be alleged and there was nothing from an employment basis that could be substantiated," said Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie.

But documents obtained by the CBC show investigators hired by the city concluded there was evidence of misconduct.

An investigator wrote that two firefighters in particular appeared "guilty as sin in that they reacted as most criminals do when confronted with an allegation they know can likely be proven."

One firefighter told an investigator he saw a young girl lift her top at a party and was told by a fellow firefighter: "The boys were taking turns at having sex with them" ... "get in line, we're all doing it."

Ex-firefighters back complaints

Retired firefighters Bryce Gilfillan and Karl Bessler, who support the harassment allegations by the Richmond female firefighters, have testified in affidavits about what they heard was going on in the '70s.

They say that what bothers them most is that no one was ever disciplined for their conduct. Instead, some of the firefighters implicated in the city's report were promoted.

"I feel the city just covered it all up because they didn't want to bring it forth, 'cause there were too many people involved in it," Gilfillan said.

Decades later, a lawsuit has landed in court by a woman who says it's that same type of environment that forced her to leave her job.

Lawyers for the City of Richmond will be at B.C Supreme Court on Monday trying to get the female firefighter's lawsuit thrown out, arguing this dispute should be heard through the union's grievance process.

But the firefighter is also suing her own union, alleging it also failed to protect her from a hostile workplace.