"Who's the boss?" (Stephen Colbert)/ "Corporate Canada's quiet #MeToo reckoning"

This blog post is about sexual harassment.  You may be angry, depressed and in a bad mood after reading this:




Aug. 2, 2018 "Who's the boss?": Today I found this article by Emily Yahr in the Edmonton Journal:

At first, it was no surprise that Stephen Colbert joked about Leslie Moonves at the top of CBS’s The Late Show on Monday night.

Even though Moonves is his boss (as the CBS Corp. chief executive and chairman, he’s everyone’s boss at the network), Colbert doesn’t hold back when there are negative stories about people at his own company. 

In November, he skewered CBS This Morning host Charlie Rose about Rose’s allegations of sexual misconduct — while Rose’s cohost, Gayle King, was waiting in the wings for an interview.

So Colbert didn’t ignore the news that Moonves was the subject of a recent New Yorker story with accusations from six women of sexual harassment and intimidation. (“I recognize that there were times decades ago when I may have made some women uncomfortable by making advances,” Moonves said, but “I have never misused my position to harm or hinder anyone’s career.”)

First, Colbert pretended to “discover” that he had just heard there was an article about Moonves. When he was informed the author was Ronan Farrow — famous for the investigation that helped bring down Harvey Weinstein — he did a spit-take of water.

“That’s not good,” Colbert faux whispered, as he switched his drink to whiskey. “Ronan isn’t exactly known for his puff pieces about glamping.”

After a few more jokes, including one about how the CBS board is hiring outside lawyers to investigate (which is true) and they should just give the task to the network’s new procedural, CSI: CEO, Colbert moved on.

“Now, I’ll have some more to say on this over at the desk, later — assuming we make it past the commercial break,” he said.

Indeed, Colbert had much more to say, and this part was unusual. It’s one thing to make a few cracks about your boss. It’s another to devote your segment to a very serious monologue about accountability amid the #MeToo movement.

Following are Colbert’s remarks in full:

Folks, before the break, I was talking over there about my boss being in trouble. Are we still broadcasting ? You know what? Don’t tell me, I like a surprise.

And here’s the thing: We’re coming up on one year of general awareness of the #MeToo movement. I think that milestone is worth celebrating, but it is hard to think of an appropriate anniversary gift when the entire Amazon wish list is just: “Stop it!” By the way, women who wanted to “stop it” also searched for “justice.”

Women over the past year have felt empowered to tell their stories in ways they haven’t before, which is an objectively good thing. Because — and it’s strange to have to say this — powerful men taking sexual advantage of relatively powerless employees is wrong. We know it’s wrong now and we knew it was wrong then. And how do we know we knew it was wrong then? Because we know these men tried to keep the stories from coming out back then. I don’t remember any ads in Variety saying, “Congratulations to me on all the butt I’m groping!”

That said — and this is obviously naive on a certain level — the revelations and accusations of the past year, just in the entertainment industry alone, have been shocking. To me. To many of the women I know, it has brought a welcome sense of relief that something ’s finally happening.

Now, as a middle-aged guy with some power in the entertainment industry, I may not be the ideal person to address this kind of systemic abuse. Who am I to judge? I’m a Catholic, still. 

And when I go to confession, I have things to confess. First: that I don’t go to confession. And that I just lied to you for a bit. But this weekend some people asked me, probably cause I work here, “What do you think is going to happen?”

I don’t know. I don’t know who does know. In a situation like this, I’d normally call Les.

But over the past year, there’s been a lot of discussion about whether the disappearing of the accused from public life is the right thing to do. And I get there should be levels of response. But I understand why that disappearing happens. Cause there’s a JFK quote that I like and I cite a fair amount on this show: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable.”

And for so long for women in the workplace, there was no change, no justice for the abused. So we shouldn’t be surprised that when the change comes, it comes radically. This roar is a natural backlash to all that silence.

So I don’t know what’s going to happen. But I do believe in accountability — and not just for politicians you disagree with. Everybody believes in accountability until it’s their guy.

And make no mistake, Les Moonves is my guy. He hired me to sit in this chair. He stood behind this show while we were struggling to find our voice. He gave us the time and the resources to succeed. And he has stood by us when people were mad at me. And I like working for him.

But accountability is meaningless unless it’s for everybody. Whether it’s the leader of the network, or the leader of the free world.

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/edmonton-journal/20180802/281938838727181

1. AAverageGuy2 Aug 2018 7:43 AMFollow
   Colbert needs a few distractions like this to break up the run of Trump thumping. Trump is just another gift that keeps on giving for Colbert.
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2. The Bob2 Aug 2018 9:01 AMFollow
   I used to watch Letterman, but Colbert is tedious and boring. I used to watch (love is a better word) Craig Ferguson, but I can't even remember who took over from him. I'm old enough to remember Johnny Carson. We never knew his politics and he was thoroughly enjoyable.

"Corporate Canada's quiet #MeToo reckoning": Today I found this article by Armina Ligaya in the Globe and Mail:

Maria Soklis remembers feeling ostracized by her co-workers early in her career for speaking up about “aggressive” sexual harassment — until more allegations by others involving the same person later came to light.

She complained to her employer (which she did not want to name), who handled it in an “exemplary fashion” and terminated her harasser swiftly.

Still, her harasser was well-liked and she felt shunned by her colleagues.

“This type of behaviour typically doesn’t happen on a one off. So, naturally, there was further information about other incidents... which helped make what I did more credible.”

Soklis, now the president of Cox Automotive, has risen to the top ranks but she believes a fear of career consequences continues to deter people from speaking publicly.

Allegations of inappropriate behaviour have recently been levelled against powerful Canadian figures in a broad range of industries including politics, media, theatre, sports and entertainment — but corporate Canada has been noticeably absent from the public reckoning.

Silence on this issue is not indicative of the lack of a problem, and lawyers say, the #MeToo movement is quietly making its mark in corporate Canada.

A recent survey by public relations firm Navigator found nearly 40 per cent of Canadians polled say there is some or a lot of sexual harassment in their workplace, while a February poll of Human Resources Professionals Association members found that 17 per cent of respondents reported having witnessed sexual harassment or assault of an employee at work.

A confluence of factors keeps sexual misconduct stories from spilling out of Canada’s corporate offices, according to experts and lawyers that spoke with The Canadian Press.

For one, a lack of women at the top of the corporate ladder means victims may feel they lack powerful allies, discouraging them from speaking out.

Women hold just eight per cent of top-earning roles at Canada’s large, influential companies listed on the TSX 60 index, according to a Canadian Press analysis. None of Canada’s TSX 60 companies were headed by a woman and two-thirds did not include a single woman among top earners during their latest fiscal year.

Those who do speak out run the risk of being viewed as a troublemaker within Canada’s tight-knit corporate sphere, and potentially having their career aspirations scuttled.

Many sexual misconduct allegations in large corporations are often settled in-house and fall under strict non-disclosure agreements, which effectively keep the news from getting out, according to experts that spoke with The Canadian Press.

And for women that decide to make their case public and go the legal route, justice can be slow-moving.

During a holiday party for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Diane Vivares’ boss allegedly asked her to go somewhere private with him, and when she responded “no” he “proceeded to shove his hand down the inside of her skirt,” according to court documents.

Vivares’s allegations date back to 2007. She was terminated from the bank in 2015 and in 2016 filed a $1-million sexual harassment and sexual assault lawsuit, which is still before the courts.

CIBC and the plaintiff Kevin Carter have denied Vivares’s claims, which also include allegations of an explicit note from another co-worker about sexual intercourse in the boardroom and a junior trader showing her a photograph of a vagina. Vivares declined to comment through her lawyer, as the case is still before the Ontario Superior Court.

A CIBC spokesperson said the bank is unable to comment on the specifics of the case, as it is still before the court, but “no form of harassment, discrimination, bullying or any other kind of violence in the workplace will be tolerated.”

Sexual misconduct in Canadian workplaces is nothing new, but a seismic shift in society’s view of such behaviour is underway and organizations are now facing mounting pressure to hold predatory employees to account.

It’s been nearly a year since the #MeToo movement was born, when collective anger at allegations of sexual assault and harassment against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein spurred more women to speak out about their own experiences and call for change.

And while corporate Canada appears to be immune to such public shaming, #MeToo has resulted in movement behind the scenes, according to several employment lawyers and investigators.

A surge of sexual harassment investigations at corporations across the country is underway as women are quietly stepping forward with their stories and companies increasingly take a proactive stance to deal with allegations head on.

One-in-five Human Resources Professionals Association members polled in a February survey reported an increase in the number of complaints they have received about harassment.

Employment lawyer Jennifer Mathers McHenry has seen more sexual misconduct or harassment cases in six months than she has in her entire career. But most civil litigation usually ends up in some sort of confidentiality agreement, said McHenry, who is with the Toronto firm Teplitsky Colson.

“It keeps this in dark corners, and a light should be shone,” she said.

“But at the same time, it is not only the accused and the institutions that benefit from the confidentiality agreement, to some degree it can be the claimants themselves.”

Keeping these issues quiet not only reduces potential stigma when seeking new employment, but the promise of confidentiality can help motivate the accused to settle and avoid a years-long court process, lawyers say.

Another element keeping allegations out of the public domain is that many corporations have established avenues such as hotlines or human resources departments and other protocols for employees to raise concerns, said employment lawyer and workplace investigator Gillian Shearer.

As a result, the average banker, lawyer or financial professional is less likely to go public with their allegations. Shearer’s firm too has seen an increase in cases and a higher demand for workplace investigations, but often dealt with confidentially, she said.

“Regardless of how much awareness there will be out there, if you’re a senior female leader at an investment organization and you want to raise a complaint, there’s still a concern about stigma and what it would do to your career.”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-corporate-canadas-quiet-metoo-reckoning/