RCMP reopen Richmond firehall probe
Claims are that dozens of firefighters were involved
Ian Austin, The Province
Published: Wednesday, November 08, 2006

The RCMP have reopened their investigation into allegations that dozens of Richmond firefighters sexually assaulted three teenage girls in the 1970s.

Cpl. Peter Thiessen said a person came forward with information, and an investigation that was dropped in the 1990s has been reopened.

"She apparently approached a lawyer, who approached the RCMP," said Bryce Gilfillan, a fire captain for 18 years who said he was ostracized and forced to retire after co-operating with the earlier probe.

"I live in Courtenay now, but when I'm in Richmond, no firefighter will talk to me."

Karl Bessler, a former fire captain who says he was forced to quit after co-operating with the earlier probe, welcomed the investigation.

"That should rattle a few bones," said Bessler. "I co-operated with the investigation, and they forced me out.

"A woman has now come forward, and they have to investigate that complaint."

The girls were between 14 and 16 years old at the time of the alleged assaults. The former chief investigator said at the time he ran into a lack of co-operation by the firefighters and the teens, who are now women in their 40s.

Details of the alleged sexual encounters were made public earlier this year when affidavit evidence by two former Richmond fire captains detailed stories of repeated sexual encounters between as many as 30 firefighters and the girls.

"There were three young girls who were taken unfair advantage of sexually by members of the Richmond Fire Department, and the whole thing has been covered up ever since," said Bessler, who called the situation "disgusting."

The allegations were made in B.C. Supreme Court as part of a sexual- harassment case by former Richmond firefighter Jeanette Moznik.

Moznik filed a lawsuit saying the city fostered a culture of sexual discrimination and harassment against female firefighters by failing to take action.

She said human feces were put into her boots, her helmet was smashed, she found a condom filled with an unidentified liquid in her locker and an obscenity was printed on the front of her locker.

Richmond's four women firefighters walked off the job earlier this year to protest sexual harassment by their male colleagues.

A report by veteran mediator Vince Ready, released in September, called the attitude toward women in Richmond fire halls "juvenile and hostile."

Fire Chief Jim Hancock could not be reached yesterday.

"You have reached the voicemail of Fire Chief Jim Hancock for Tuesday, the 7th of November," said a message. "I'm not in the office today, with a bit of sickness."

The troubled Richmond Fire Department made news last month when it banned front-line firefighters from wearing their own underwear.

Instead, at a cost of $16,000, it purchased presumably non-sexual Stanfields boxers for all firefighters, male and female, in an ongoing effort to make the department gender-neutral.

Firefighters remove their clothes down to their underwear at the station and don protective firefighting gear before heading out on a call.

iaustin@png.canwest.com