Legislatures are unique places of work. Elected officials, political staff, and nonpartisan employees work in precarious conditions with distinctive power dynamics. Like any workplace, workers regularly interact with one another, which means that sexual harassment can involve interactions between and within these different groups.

With funding from Justice Canada, Equal Voice conducted a three-year project to better understand and combat sexual harassment in our legislatures. We surveyed, interviewed, and compared, and talked to experts. Sexual harassment is a real and persistent problem in Canada’s provincial and territorial legislatures.

Join us on February 20, 2024 at 2:00pm (EST) for a conversation to learn more about our key findings and recommendations for how to make legislatures a safer place to work, with Chi Nguyen, Executive Director at Equal Voice; and Emma Philips, labour and human rights lawyer, partner at Goldblatt Partners LLP.

About the Speakers

Equal Voice is Canada’s only national, bilingual, multi-partisan charity dedicated to electing and supporting more women to all levels of political office in Canada Our mission is to increase the representation of women and gender-diverse people in all forms of political leadership.

Chi Nguyen, Executive Director, has worked for over twenty years in the social purpose sector, was a past recipient of the Persons Case Award and YWCA Woman of Distinction, Chi works at the intersections of politics, community and policy-making to champion gender equity and inclusion and was a past candidate in the provincial election for the riding of Spadina-Fort York, Toronto. She loves her most important job as mom to Sam and Ellis.

Goldblatt Partners LLP is a highly respected law firm distinguished by the excellence of our work. While labour law remains a core practice area, we also have thriving civil litigation and criminal law practices, and represent clients in a broad spectrum of other types of disputes, including public interest, constitutional, human rights and Aboriginal rights litigation, public inquiries and coroners inquests, and professional regulation and discipline matters.

Emma Phillips, Partner, practices labour and human rights law, and regularly advises clients on matters relating to workplace harassment and sexual harassment. Emma also acts as an independent workplace investigator, including investigating the systemic roots of sexual harassment and discrimination in some of Canada’s most important organizations. In 2014/15, she acted as counsel to the External Review on Sexual Misconduct and Sexual Harassment in the Armed Forces, and in 2015/16 she was counsel to an independent review commissioned by the UN on sexual abuse by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic. In 2016/17, Emma acted as counsel to an external review of harassment in the RCMP.