Issue 12/03 – 17 December 2003
DND/CF Help Line for Harassment/Sexual Assault
Agents are available to take calls from
0900 to 1700 EST Monday to Friday. Voicemail is available at all
other times.
DND/CF is committed to providing a harassment-free
workplace by promoting prevention and prompt resolution of harassment.
The Harassment/Sexual Assault Help Line augments
DND/CF's efforts to provide a safe, non-threatening environment
for the voicing of complaints. Staffed by agents including nurses,
social workers, human resource specialists, and former CF members
who act as facilitators, The Line serves callers who believe they
have been harassed, who want to be well informed about their rights
and responsibilities as leaders, managers, members or employees,
and/or who are having trouble accessing the various complaint resolution
avenues set up within DND/CF.
The Line does not subscribe to call display. No caller
ID information is kept. Callers may choose to remain anonymous;
agents need not know callers' names. Callers are not obligated
in any way to start or to continue harassment complaint proceedings.
Once they hang up, callers alone decide whether or not to pursue
the issue, seek mediation, or make a formal complaint. Agents are
there to help callers help themselves.
Callers are often potential complainants who wish
to discuss an issue or incident, or express a concern about something
unacceptable that is happening to them or others in the workplace.
They may at times be reluctant to raise issues of wrongful conduct
within their chain of command because they believe it is disloyal
or petty to complain, especially about harassment.
The Harassment/Sexual Assault Help Line is not a reporting
venue for offences of a criminal nature. Callers are encouraged
to contact the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service (CFNIS)
in their region.
The Line, launched in May 1998, has provided assistance
and guidance to almost 3000 callers, demonstrating that CF members
and DND employees today have a heightened comfort level with regard
to sharing their concerns about harassment. In the beginning, most
calls were made by women who felt they were targets of sexual harassment
or assault. Today, the majority of calls concern harassment of a
non-sexual nature, and The Line now receives more calls from men
than from women.
Consult www.dnd.ca/hr/harassment/
or http://hr.dwan.dnd.ca/harassment/
(Intranet users only) for complete information.
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