Former Nanaimo Mountie takes own life after fight for change within ‘toxic’ police force
VANCOUVER — Former RCMP officers who suffered sexual harassment and bullying on the job are grieving the suicide of an ex-Mountie who advocated for change within the force they say ruined so many lives.
Catherine Galliford, who was one of the first Mounties to speak out about her experiences at the hands of fellow officers, said she was devastated to learn that Krista Carle, with whom she graduated from Depot division in Regina, had taken her own life.
A photo shows Galliford, Carle and seven other female graduates wearing red serge on the day they graduated in 1991, years before several of them would be leaving their jobs because of sexual harassment or sexual assault.
“I had a breakdown a couple of nights ago and kept on saying to my partner, ‘I was right here, I was right here. Why didn’t she phone me?’ ” Galliford said Tuesday. “We were like sisters. We lived together for six months in Depot. We both went through harassment and I don’t know what happened.”