A series of human rights complaints and questionable
management decisions has plagued the Halifax fire department.
Last week we detailed allegations by black firefighters of
institutional racism in the city’s Fire and Emergency Services
Department (see “Fired up,” April 7, link below). This week, a woman firefighter
goes public to say that she too is the victim of institutional
discrimination by Fire Services.
Liane Tessier is a volunteer firefighter attempting to join the
ranks of paid Halifax firefighters. She is also a medalist in the
physically challenging World Firefighter Combat Challenge, having
placed third in that international competition in 2007, and has a
number of advanced firefighting certifications that allowed her to
teach classes for the Halifax department.
“You name it, I pretty much have done it,” she says of her
firefighting accomplishments.
The short version of Tessier’s complaint to the Human Rights
Commission is that she was denied a job with the fire department only
because of negative recommendations from two men she had already
complained about.
While working as a volunteer firefighter at the Herring Cove
station, Tessier explains, she faced increasing harassment from a pair
of male firefighters at the station. She went through the normal
internal complaint system within the Halifax department, sought help
from Halifax’s Employee Assistance Program and took a leave of
absence.
As that grievance was slowly working its way through the process,
she applied to become a full-time, paid firefighter with the
department—the idea being she could work at any of the other HRM fire
stations. She had far more than the required aptitudes and
certifications, and easily passed the tests. She also had favourable
letters of reference. But when it came time for a reference check from
within the department, management turned to none other than one of the
men she had filed a grievance against. The men, one of whom had in the
meanwhile been promoted to captain at Herring Cove, recommended she not
be hired.
The longer version of Tessier’s complaint, detailed in documents and
interviews, involves allegations of petty harassment building into an
untenable work situation of malicious gossip and retribution.
Tessier cites what she calls the “Chebucto Head incident” as a
turning point in her relationship with her male counterparts at the
Herring Cove station.
She lives among a small cluster of modest houses on a wind-swept
barren outcrop that overlooks the ocean near Herring Cove. A private
road with “no trespassing” signs leads to the property, where there is
a small pond. After talking with her neighbours and agreeing upon the
most convenient time for all, Tessier arranged for the pond to be used
for a volunteer training session in the use of pumps. That event was
successful, she says.
Some weeks later, however, Tessier says the volunteers and their
equipment, including several engines, showed up on the road unannounced
and without prior permission to again use the pond. She was at home at
the time, ran out to the road and confronted the men. Words were
exchanged, but she felt that was the end of it.
“They turned it into me being insubordinate,” she says. “I had
raised my voice.”
After that event, the harassment was ratcheted up into open
hostility, she says, and that’s when she filed her complaint with the
city’s human resources department, ultimately leading to her wider
complaint with the human rights commission.
The black firefighters’ complaint lists dozens of incidents since
the creation of the department in 1996, ranging from loose use of
racial epithets among a small number of employees to systematic
discrimination against a class of black recruits to the arbitrary and
improper use of test standards and pay scales for black firefighters.
Department management, say the signers of the complaint, either ignored
their complaints or took inadequate action to seriously address the
issues.
Although it was signed by nine firefighters, chief Bill Mosher told
reporters that the complaint was the work of just two overreacting
black firefighters who took the incidents “out of context.”
Editor’s note: The following was issued by The Coast on April 13, 2010.
APOLOGY
On April 16, 2009, The Coast posted an article on our website entitled “HFD’s old boy network.” As with all of our stories, readers were invited to comment on the article. Unfortunately, several readers took this opportunity to write defamatory comments about Halifax Regional Municipality Fire Services Chief Bill Mosher and Deputy Chief Steve Thurber.
These comments were completely unsubstantiated and have harmed the reputations of Chief Mosher and Deputy Chief Thurber. The Coast sincerely apologizes to Chief Mosher and Deputy Chief Thurber for the damage to their reputations and the pain and suffering they have endured as a result of the defamatory comments which The Coast permitted to be posted on its website.
The postings have been removed from our website. As a consequence of the abuse of our comments policy, further comment posting in respect to this story will not be accepted.
Related Stories
Black firefighters file human rights complaint
This article appears in Apr 16-22, 2009.
What does an access to property argument between a member of the volunteer fire department and other members of the volunteer fire department have to do with management of the fire department?
I find gender to be completely irrelevant in this article. Any one with a brain can also infer that the woman was being subordinate and works below a chain of command. Fire fighters follow a rank system, similar to the army. The system is in place to ensure quick decisions in dangerous situations, with no room for argument. A woman cannot be exempted anymore than a black or homosexual fire fighter from this system.
The real issue in this article seems to be use of a private road. Perhaps the volunteers should have been fined for trespassing, and then written up by there commanding officer.
This does not come across as discrimination. It seems to be sensationalism by the media, and confusion among the members of a volunteer unit over permission to use private property.
“The real issue in Tessier’s complaint seems to be the fact that she was qualified to be hired and the only reason she wasn’t was because of the bad references given by people that had issues with her.”
This is discrimination how? That is not discrimination. If she is such a competent fire fighter she could have found a good reference. She obviously did not have a leg to stand on. Tessier was unable to supply a good reference is not discrimination. Your arguments are ridiculous. You keep saying that the management is horrible and a cancer but you have yet to prove it. You constantly write on here and make allegations and name names, with little to support your statements. I find you to be irrelevant and can tell you are only commenting out of bitterness, or some sort of vendetta against the current Administration. You are obviously personally involved in this, either you never made the grade to get into the department or you were fired.
Wow Rifiki,
You didn’t even become a new member in the last week, your job starts at 3 pm and finishes at 12:30 AM, you recently lived in Ottawa ( about 5 years ago) and “you built part of Inglis street”. Damn, but you make up stories good to hide the fact you are really in management at HRM fire.
Research people, dialogue. So much better than accusations aimed to discredit someone with a differing opinion….
As for this article… Just because she can do combat challege it does not make her a good firefighter, there is alot more to firefighting then running stairs. And her comment about you name it I’ve done it, thats the type of attuide they want to keep away from the department. With comments like that no wonder she didnt get hired. Now for the comment of the police having it right because the promoted a female and a black, come on, the only reson you know that is cause it was in the paper, the only reason it was in the paper is cause it was a women and a black. Im not saying they werent the best ones for the job but why the need to post it anywhere, the fire deparment has promoted both females and blacks….who are all capable at there jobs, thats what it should be about, promote the best not the people who will get you on the front page.
There are plenty of volunteer firefighters in HRM who think that they are more than qualified to do the job of a firefighter and that they have been hard-done-by in the selection process. However, playing firefighter in a competition under non-hostile conditions has very little to do with doing the job. Its like saying that a competitor in biathlon (skiing and target shooting) would make an excellent soldier. One has very little to do with the other. If you were to poll career firefighters about the quality of personnel that have been hired in the last five or so years there would be a wide range of opinions, with some probably saying that a good number of newer firefighters that have been hired do not have much work experience, are lacking in initiative, are lacking practical skills ( although they may have a university degree) and are really not suited to be firefighters. The problem is the selection process itself. A good firefighter is someone who acts quickly in emergency situations without thinking about the risk to him/herself, someone willing to take some risks to get the job done. It can be and often is a dirty, nasty job in the worst kind of conditions and you must be able to rely on your co-workers to be there to back you up. It is not a game. But the Dept. is hiring educated people who have never done anything risky in their lives, always follow the rules,and color inside the lines, and they are hiring ONLY from the volunteer ranks. In the interaction between career firefighters and volunteers that has occurred since amalgamation(1996) many have found that the volunteers at emergency scenes are not up to the task, milling about without direction, refusing to enter burning buildings, unwilling to take any risks or to do the hard work. Before amalgamation, the respective city fire departments did not have to worry about any of these issues, but now they have to provide fire protection for all of Halifax county and must rely on and placate the volunteers. If they wanted to provide career fire protection for the whole county the Dept. budget would have to be tripled, at least. So, outside the urban core, your best choice for fire protection is a good fire insurance policy. As for Ms.Tessier, she can join the long line of other belly-achers that tried and were not selected.