tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/abuse-of-power-12560/articlesAbuse of power – The Conversation2023-09-12T19:58:20Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2134322023-09-12T19:58:20Z2023-09-12T19:58:20ZRepublicans call for impeachment inquiry into Biden – a process the founders intended to deter abuse of power as well as remove from office<p>Yielding to pressure from <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-12/mccarthy-hardliner-dilemma-resounds-from-impeachment-to-ukraine">hard-line members of the GOP House</a> caucus, on Sept. 12, 2023, U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy directed the top Republicans in Congress to open a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/11/biden-impeachment-inquiry-abject-failure-report">formal impeachment inquiry</a> into President Joe Biden. The Republicans allege that the president committed financial wrongdoing with foreign businesses.</p>
<p>GOP-led congressional <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/12/us/politics/mccarthy-biden-impeachment-inquiry.html">inquiries of presidential son Hunter Biden’s records</a> to date <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/11/biden-impeachment-inquiry-abject-failure-report">have not shown any foreign payment</a> to his father, Joe Biden, or any other evidence of wrongdoing. </p>
<p>But McCarthy said in brief remarks on Sept. 12, 2023, “Taken together, these allegations paint a picture of a culture of corruption.”</p>
<p>Although impeachment inquiries can be misused, those concerned about McCarthy’s actions should consider words spoken at the Constitutional Convention, when the founders explained that impeachment was intended to have many important purposes, not just removing a president from office. </p>
<p>A critical debate took place on July 20, 1787, which resulted in adding the impeachment clause to the U.S. Constitution. Benjamin Franklin, the oldest and probably wisest delegate at the convention, said that when the president falls under suspicion, a “<a href="https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llfr&fileName=002/llfr002.db&recNum=71">regular and peaceable inquiry</a>” is needed.</p>
<p>In my work as a <a href="http://www.clarkcunningham.org/">law professor</a> studying <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/29/big-trump-case-hinges-definition-emoluments-new-study-has-bad-news-him/">original texts</a> about the U.S. Constitution, I’ve found statements made at the Constitutional Convention explaining that the founders viewed impeachment as a regular practice with three purposes: </p>
<ul>
<li>To remind both the country and the president that he is not above the law. </li>
<li>To deter abuses of power. </li>
<li>To provide a fair and reliable method to resolve suspicions about misconduct.</li>
</ul>
<p>The convention delegates repeatedly agreed with the assertion by George Mason of Virginia that “<a href="https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llfr&fileName=002/llfr002.db&recNum=68">no point is of more importance</a> … than the right of impeachment” because no one is “above justice.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294441/original/file-20190926-51425-1fa1c8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294441/original/file-20190926-51425-1fa1c8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294441/original/file-20190926-51425-1fa1c8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294441/original/file-20190926-51425-1fa1c8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294441/original/file-20190926-51425-1fa1c8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294441/original/file-20190926-51425-1fa1c8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294441/original/file-20190926-51425-1fa1c8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294441/original/file-20190926-51425-1fa1c8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">George Mason of Virginia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_Mason_portrait.jpg">Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Need for deterrence</h2>
<p>One of the founders’ greatest fears was that the president would abuse his power. George Mason described the president as the “<a href="https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llfr&fileName=002/llfr002.db&recNum=68">man who can commit the most extensive injustice</a>.” </p>
<p>James Madison thought the president might “<a href="https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llfr&fileName=002/llfr002.db&recNum=68">pervert his administration</a> into a scheme of stealing public funds or oppression or <a href="https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llfr&fileName=002/llfr002.db&recNum=69">betray his trust to foreign powers</a>.” Edmund Randolph, governor of Virginia, said the president “will have <a href="https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llfr&fileName=002/llfr002.db&recNum=70">great opportunitys of abusing his power</a>; particularly in time of war when the military force, and in some respects the public money will be in his hands.” </p>
<p>Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania worried that the president “<a href="https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llfr&fileName=002/llfr002.db&recNum=71">may be bribed by a greater interest to betray his trust</a> and no one would say that we ought to expose ourselves to the danger of seeing him in foreign pay.” James Madison, himself a future president, said that in the case of the president, “<a href="https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llfr&fileName=002/llfr002.db&recNum=69">corruption was within the compass of probable events</a> … and might be fatal to the Republic.” </p>
<p>William Davie of North Carolina argued that impeachment was “an essential security for the good behaviour” of the president; otherwise, “he will spare no efforts or means whatever to <a href="https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llfr&fileName=002/llfr002.db&recNum=67">get himself re-elected</a>.” Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts pointed out that a good president will not worry about impeachment, but a “<a href="https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llfr&fileName=002/llfr002.db&recNum=69">bad one ought to be kept in fear</a>.” </p>
<h2>Creating a powerful oversight procedure</h2>
<p>Until the very last week of the convention, the founders’ design was for the impeachment process to <a href="https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llfr&fileName=002/llfr002.db&recNum=432">start in the House of Representatives and conclude with trial in the Supreme Court</a>. </p>
<p>It was not until Sept. 8, 1787, that the convention <a href="https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llfr&fileName=002/llfr002.db&recNum=557">voted to give the Senate instead the power to conduct impeachment trials</a>. </p>
<p>This is clear evidence that the convention at first wanted to combine the authority and resources of the House of Representatives to conduct the impeachment investigation – a body they called “<a href="https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llfr&fileName=002/llfr002.db&recNum=159">the grand Inquest of this Nation</a>” – with the fairness and power exemplified by trial in a court. </p>
<p>Even though trial of impeachments was moved from the Supreme Court to the Senate, Congress can still draw on the example of court procedures to accomplish an effective inquiry, especially if they are trying to get information from uncooperative subjects. In many of the investigations that are now part of the House’s impeachment inquiry, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/politics/trump-blocking-congress/">Trump administration has refused</a> to hand over documents and blocked officials from testifying to Congress.</p>
<p>The Constitution makes clear that impeachment is not a criminal prosecution: “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlei">Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office</a>.” </p>
<p>If impeachment trials had remained at the Supreme Court, the court could therefore have consulted the rules it has approved for civil cases. It makes sense that when the convention at the last minute decided Congress would have complete power over impeachment, the delegates intended Congress would have at least the same powers the Supreme Court would have exercised.</p>
<h2>When courts are stonewalled</h2>
<p>In civil cases, courts have powerful tools for dealing with someone who blocks access to the very information needed to judge the allegations against him.</p>
<p>The most commonly known method is the rule that says that once a person is legally served with a lawsuit against them, they must respond to the complaint. If they don’t, the court can <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/rule_55">enter a judgment</a> against them based on the allegations in the complaint. But there are other processes as well.</p>
<p>One court tool that could easily be adapted to the impeachment process comes from the federal rules of civil procedure. In a process called “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/rule_36">request for admission</a>,” one party to a lawsuit can give their opponents a list of detailed factual allegations with a demand for a response.</p>
<p>If the party does not respond, the court can treat each allegation as if it were true, and proceed accordingly. If the respondent denies one or more particular allegations, there is a follow-up procedure called a <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/rule_34">request for production</a>, demanding any documents in their possession or control supporting the denial. If the respondent refuses, again the court has the power to order that the alleged fact be taken as true. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294443/original/file-20190926-51438-chhu7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294443/original/file-20190926-51438-chhu7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294443/original/file-20190926-51438-chhu7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=734&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294443/original/file-20190926-51438-chhu7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=734&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294443/original/file-20190926-51438-chhu7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=734&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294443/original/file-20190926-51438-chhu7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294443/original/file-20190926-51438-chhu7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294443/original/file-20190926-51438-chhu7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Benjamin_Franklin_by_Joseph_Duplessis_1778.jpg">Joseph Duplessis/National Portrait Gallery/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Good for the president and the country</h2>
<p><a href="https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llfr&fileName=002/llfr002.db&recNum=70">Benjamin Franklin told his fellow delegates the story</a> of a recent dispute that had greatly troubled the Dutch Republic. </p>
<p>One of the Dutch leaders, William V, the Prince of Orange, was suspected to have secretly sabotaged a critical alliance with France. The Dutch had no impeachment process and thus no way to conduct “<a href="https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llfr&fileName=002/llfr002.db&recNum=71">a regular examination</a>” of these allegations. These suspicions mounted, giving rise to “the <a href="https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llfr&fileName=002/llfr002.db&recNum=71&">most violent animosities & contentions</a>.”</p>
<p>The moral to Franklin’s story? If Prince William had “been impeachable, a regular & peaceable inquiry would have taken place.” The prince would, “<a href="https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llfr&fileName=002/llfr002.db&recNum=71">if guilty, have been duly punished – if innocent, restored to the confidence of the public</a>.”</p>
<p>Franklin concluded that impeachment was a process that could be “<a href="https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llfr&fileName=002/llfr002.db&recNum=68">favorable</a>” to the president, saying it is the best way to provide for “the <a href="https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llfr&fileName=002/llfr002.db&recNum=68">regular punishment</a> of the Executive when his misconduct should deserve it and for his <a href="https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llfr&fileName=002/llfr002.db&recNum=68">honorable acquittal</a> when he should be unjustly accused.”</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This is an updated version of an article originally published Sept. 26, 2019.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213432/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clark D. Cunningham does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The founders of the United States viewed impeachment as a way to remind the country and president that he is not above the law and to deter abuses of power.Clark D. Cunningham, Professor of law and ethics, Georgia State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1949652022-12-07T22:40:01Z2022-12-07T22:40:01ZConvictions remain rare when police are accused of sexual assault<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499092/original/file-20221205-15850-1hln9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3095%2C1930&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Few cases of sexual assault by police are investigated by Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, and fewer result in a conviction.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past few years, social movements from <a href="https://canadianwomen.org/the-facts/the-metoo-movement-in-canada/">#MeToo</a> to <a href="https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/">Black Lives Matter</a> have raised awareness of sexual violence, police brutality and systemic racism. </p>
<p>Police-involved sexual assault — sexual violence that is committed by police officers — sits at the intersection of these two important political movements. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08974454.2022.2126744">Our research suggests</a> that sexual violence by police is more common than many might think. </p>
<p>In November 2022, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/oneida-assault-allegations-lawsuit-london-police-1.6646135">a woman of the Oneida First Nation launched a $6 million lawsuit against the London Police Service</a> in Ontario alleging their negligent handling of her sexual assault report. The suit asserts that three police officers sexually abused the woman for years beginning at the age of 12. She says despite making reports to the police force and to the <a href="https://www.siu.on.ca/en/what_we_do.php">Special Investigations Unit (SIU) of Ontario</a>, a police oversight agency, virtually nothing was done. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499090/original/file-20221205-5826-yp8z8n.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman wearing a black sweater outside a stone buidling." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499090/original/file-20221205-5826-yp8z8n.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499090/original/file-20221205-5826-yp8z8n.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499090/original/file-20221205-5826-yp8z8n.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499090/original/file-20221205-5826-yp8z8n.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499090/original/file-20221205-5826-yp8z8n.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499090/original/file-20221205-5826-yp8z8n.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499090/original/file-20221205-5826-yp8z8n.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lawyer Lynn Moore represents several women who filed a lawsuit alleging they were sexually assaulted by officers with Newfoundland and Labrador’s provincial police force between 2001 and 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Daly</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Failure to fully investigate reports of police-involved sexual assault can have a chilling effect on what is already <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2017001/article/14842-eng.htm">the most underreported violent crime in Canada</a>. It also erodes the public’s trust in police accountability and the police themselves, by sending the message that police officers are above the law. </p>
<h2>What is the SIU?</h2>
<p>As a civilian police oversight agency, the SIU investigates when a police encounter with members of the public results in serious injury, death, the discharge of a firearm or sexual assault accusations against officers. The SIU does not employ active police officers and it has the power to lay criminal charges against most police officers in Ontario. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08974454.2022.2126744">In our recent paper</a>, we traced the outcomes of 689 reports of sexual assault made to the SIU between 2005 and 2020. We found that the vast majority of allegations of sexual assault do not result in meaningful consequences for the police officers involved. </p>
<h2>Police-involved sexual assault</h2>
<p>Like other forms of sexual violence, the victims of police-involved sexual assault are predominantly female, and we found the average complainant to be 32 years old. </p>
<p>Although the SIU did not begin publishing race-based data until June 2020, we know that <a href="https://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/disparate-impact-second-interim-report-inquiry-racial-profiling-and-racial-discrimination-black">Black</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/quebec-investigation-alleged-abuse-aboriginal-women-1.3577527">Indigenous people</a> are disproportionately victims of police brutality, a finding that likely extends to sexual violence.</p>
<p>All police officers that were charged with sexual assault were male. And when compared to other forms of criminal conduct, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/cls.2021.3">perpetrators of sexual assault had more years on the job, with many holding the rank of sergeant or higher</a>.</p>
<p>We also found that charged police officers were slightly more likely to have committed sexual assault while on-duty. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499089/original/file-20221205-26-m8brt1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=73%2C7%2C4846%2C3268&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A police officer wearing a protective vest with the word police on it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499089/original/file-20221205-26-m8brt1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=73%2C7%2C4846%2C3268&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499089/original/file-20221205-26-m8brt1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499089/original/file-20221205-26-m8brt1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499089/original/file-20221205-26-m8brt1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499089/original/file-20221205-26-m8brt1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499089/original/file-20221205-26-m8brt1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499089/original/file-20221205-26-m8brt1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Perpetrators of sexual assault had more years on the job, with many holding the rank of sergeant or higher.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What happens after a report is made?</h2>
<p>Between 2017 and 2020, nearly 40 per cent of all sexual assault reports made to the SIU were terminated. This means the agency decided not to launch a full investigation into the complaint. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.siu.on.ca/en/case_status.php">SIU policy</a>, this happens either because the incident falls outside of their jurisdiction, or because they determine there is “patently nothing to investigate.” </p>
<p>During the same period, the unfounded rate for sexual assault reported to Ontario police forces was <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510017701">10.5 per cent</a>. This means that sexual assault reports made to the SIU are much less likely to have a completed investigation. </p>
<p>Canadian police will classify an incident as unfounded when it is <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2018001/article/54975-eng.htm">“determined through police investigation that the offence reported did not occur, nor was it attempted.” </a> </p>
<p>For the reports that did receive a full investigation, 86.3 per cent did not result in charges being laid. During the 15-year-period of our study, only 7.4 per cent of investigated complaints of sexual assault led to charges. </p>
<h2>What happens to charged officers?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510002701">Conviction rates in Canada sit at around 50-60 per cent</a>. And <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2017001/article/54870-eng.htm#n19-refa">just over half of sexual assault trials result in a conviction</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/victim/rr02_5/p0.html">While most people plead guilty when charged with criminal offences</a>, according to our study, only 16 per cent of charged officers pleaded guilty. Furthermore, under 13 per cent were found guilty after a judge or jury trial, indicating a severely low conviction rate for officers. </p>
<p>To put it in the starkest terms, our study found that only 1.59 per cent of reports investigated by the SIU resulted in a conviction and sentence.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499321/original/file-20221206-3888-rfqorx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Police wearing high visibility jackets on horseback." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499321/original/file-20221206-3888-rfqorx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499321/original/file-20221206-3888-rfqorx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499321/original/file-20221206-3888-rfqorx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499321/original/file-20221206-3888-rfqorx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499321/original/file-20221206-3888-rfqorx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499321/original/file-20221206-3888-rfqorx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499321/original/file-20221206-3888-rfqorx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Few reports of police-involved sexual assault result in conviction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Why it’s so difficult to investigate</h2>
<p>Police officers are <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/police">afforded immense powers</a>. Their work is typically conducted with minimal supervision, out of public view and involves contact with vulnerable populations. It is these conditions that help to facilitate, and make hidden, sexual violence committed by police officers. </p>
<p>These are very challenging cases for the justice system. Like many cases of sexual assault, evidence is often lacking, and cases depend on the credibility of the complainant versus the accused. Police officers are advantaged in assessments of credibility, and they benefit from their expert knowledge of the justice system. </p>
<p>There is much room for improving how we respond to police-involved sexual violence. Allegations of sexual assault made against police officers are less likely to receive a full investigation, have charges laid, and result in a conviction — creating the perception that officers do not always face meaningful consequences when accused of sexual assault. </p>
<p>Individuals considering reporting police-involved sexual violence may lack confidence in the system’s ability to investigate and hold officers accountable. </p>
<p>Effective police oversight is <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2020001/article/00014-eng.htm">built on public trust</a>. Considering the barriers to reporting and investigating sexual violence committed by police officers, maintaining public confidence in police oversight is vital. </p>
<p>Police cannot be held accountable without an informed public. By shedding light on these cases, we hope our research will help us better understand how the police oversight system works so we can better advocate for change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194965/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Danielle McNabb receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Puddister receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada </span></em></p>Sexual violence by police is more common than many might think. Failing to fully investigate can have a chilling effect on what is already the most underreported violent crime in Canada.Danielle McNabb, Doctoral Candidate, Political Studies, Queen's University, OntarioKate Puddister, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1907812022-10-12T14:04:10Z2022-10-12T14:04:10ZJohannesburg’s informal traders face abuse: the city’s ‘world class’ aspirations create hostility towards them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488496/original/file-20221006-22-msr6cl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Street vendors ply their trade in Johannesburg.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Kim Lubrook</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Unemployment and the rising cost of living force many people to make a living in the informal economy, particularly street trading. While it is difficult to measure the size of the informal economy, some studies show that <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_626831.pdf#page=5">more than 60% of employed people in the world work in the informal economy</a>. It’s <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/africacan/supporting-africas-urban-informal-sector-coordinated-policies-social-protection-core#:%7E:text=Accounting%20for%2080.8%25%20of%20jobs,economic%20activity%20in%20urban%20Africa">over 80% in Africa</a>, and the trend is increasing. </p>
<p>But many governments discourage informal trading, considering it the <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12132-005-0013-0.pdf">antithesis of development</a>. In their view, informal trading causes street congestion, contributes to crime and grime and threatens public order.</p>
<p>This is often the case in major cities, such as Johannesburg, South Africa’s economic engine, which aspires to be a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/johannesburg-world-class-city-advert">“world-class city”</a>. “World class” is equated with formality and orderly streets. This aspiration, which is about maintaining an image of a city that is orderly and well managed to attract investments, is unsympathetic to street trading. </p>
<p>But the activity is burgeoning in Johannesburg. This poses urban management challenges for authorities. These challenges include overcrowding in busy streets, trading in non-demarcated spaces as well as the obstruction of foot and vehicular traffic and waste management.</p>
<p>The city’s street trading management approach is mainly restrictive. This is manifest in the <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/39675492.pdf">limiting</a> of the number of legal trading spaces – through evictions, relocations, harassment of traders and confiscation of their stock.</p>
<h2>The study</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/media/wits-university/faculties-and-schools/-engineering-and-the-built-environment/research-entities/cubes/documents/Strategies%20used%20by%20Street%20Traders%20Organisations.pdf">Some studies</a> have found that there was a growing number of organisations that seek to represent the interests of street traders and influence policy and practice. </p>
<p>These organisations engage with the government at various spheres and participate in urban governance to influence the management of street trading. They employ a number of strategies to put pressure on the government to include them in decision making processes. </p>
<p>My recent PhD research focused on <a href="https://cdn.gcro.ac.za/media/documents/2022-01-12_Matjomane_MD_Thesis_10Dec2021.pdf">the role and influence of street trader leaders in urban governance</a> in Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg and Tshwane, the three major metropolitan cities in Gauteng Province, the country’s economic hub. I wanted to understand their role in urban governance. </p>
<p>Understanding the role street trader leaders play in street trading management is crucial to informing the development of appropriate, practical and inclusive management approaches. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-portal-designed-specially-for-informal-businesses-could-be-a-game-changer-133246">A portal designed specially for informal businesses could be a game-changer</a>
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<p>For my study, I reviewed media articles and government documents, and conducted in-depth interviews with city officials as well as street traders and their leaders. </p>
<p>In the case of Johannesburg – the metro least “friendly” to street trading – I interviewed one former city official, eight trader leaders and eight street traders between 2017 and 2018.</p>
<p>Respondents were asked about everyday management of street trading, the relationship between street trader leaders and authorities, and the extent to which the leaders participated in managing trading. </p>
<p>I found that leaders of street traders represented traders in different ways and interact with the government in various ways. There are leaders who operate on the margins, with no institutionalised relationship with authorities and quasi-state bureaucrats who have been formally included in the everyday management of street trade (they have the power to allocate trading spaces together with officials and manage waiting lists for spaces). </p>
<p>The leaders on the margins of the state that have been excluded from formal processes find other ways of inserting themselves into the management processes (allocating trading spaces in areas not demarcated for trade). These findings matter because they show what is really happening on the ground in terms of street trade management. Some of these practices can inform the adoption of an inclusive management approach. </p>
<h2>Street trading policy and practice</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.joburg.org.za/documents_/Documents/POLICIES/COJ_%20Informal%20Trading%20Policy%20April%202022.pdf">Johannesburg’s informal trading policy</a> generally acknowledges street trading as a feature of the urban landscape – at least in rhetoric. This, amid the triple challenge of high poverty, unemployment and inequality. <a href="https://databankfiles.worldbank.org/data/download/poverty/33EF03BB-9722-4AE2-ABC7-AA2972D68AFE/Global_POVEQ_ZAF.pdf">Over 50%</a> of South Africans live in poverty, unemployment <a href="https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0211/Media%20release%20QLFS%20Q2%202022.pdf">is over 30%</a>. The country is one of the <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2022/03/09/new-world-bank-report-assesses-sources-of-inequality-in-five-countries-in-southern-africa#:%7E:text=South%20Africa%2C%20the%20largest%20country,World%20Bank%27s%20global%20poverty%20database">most unequal in the world</a>. </p>
<p>Despite the inclusive nature of the city’s informal trading policy, authorities tend to adopt restrictive and punitive approaches. The translation of the policy into technical tools such as bylaws and authorities’ management practices create an environment that is inimical to street trading. </p>
<p>The restrictive management practices manifest in various ways. One is the <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/39675492.pdf">creation of scarcity</a> of trading spaces – by limiting the number of legal, demarcated spaces for street trading. This makes most traders in the inner city “illegal”. It criminalises them and fuels competition for lucrative trading spaces. (The city does not publicise information about the number of legal traders). </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/informal-economies-are-diverse-south-african-policies-need-to-recognise-this-104586">Informal economies are diverse: South African policies need to recognise this</a>
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<p>Evictions and relocations of street traders from their sites are another manifestation of the city’s restrictive management approach. For example, in 2013, thousands of street traders in the inner city were evicted in a large-scale operation, dubbed <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/news/operation-clean-sweep-a-dirty-game-1604801">Operation Clean Sweep</a>.</p>
<p>The street trading management approach in Johannesburg relies heavily on enforcing bylaws. This results in ongoing harassment of street traders considered “non-compliant”, and the (often unlawful) confiscation of their stock. Intimidation and harassment by city police occur daily. </p>
<h2>Intimidation and corruption</h2>
<p>The city’s approach has opened space for abuse of power and corruption by the authorities. When law enforcement officers confiscate the traders’ stock, they sometimes issue <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/media/wits-university/faculties-and-schools/-engineering-and-the-built-environment/research-entities/cubes/documents/Strategies%20used%20by%20Street%20Traders%20Organisations.pdf">high fines</a>, which are more than the value of the stock.</p>
<p>This is often a strategy to get the street traders to pay bribes to avoid their stock being confiscated. In other instances, city police do not issue confiscation receipts. So, traders have no way of claiming their stock back.</p>
<p>All this has given rise to <a href="https://cdn.gcro.ac.za/media/documents/2022-01-12_Matjomane_MD_Thesis_10Dec2021.pdf">alternative forms of management by street trader leaders</a>. </p>
<p>For instance, the leaders have forged informal partnerships with authorities to manage trading. Some leaders assist authorities in the everyday management of street trading, such as maintaining order on the streets and allocating trading spaces. This alternative form of management strengthens the capacity of the state to govern street trading, and helps provide pragmatic solutions to complex issues.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/zimbabwes-informal-sector-plays-a-key-role-in-skills-development-but-gets-no-recognition-189178">Zimbabwe's informal sector plays a key role in skills development but gets no recognition</a>
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<p>But, there is also a dark side to this alternative form of management. It has in some instances opened a window for extortion of fellow traders by the leaders. </p>
<p>There are instances where they collect <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/media/wits-university/faculties-and-schools/-engineering-and-the-built-environment/research-entities/cubes/documents/Strategies%20used%20by%20Street%20Traders%20Organisations.pdf">“protection fees”</a> from traders, promising to protect them from law enforcement officers who harass and confiscate their stock. </p>
<p>Some of the leaders even have the power to evict “non-compliant” traders and take away their officially allocated trading spaces.</p>
<h2>Looking forward</h2>
<p>The vicious cycle of street trading management in Johannesburg manifests in various ways, from evictions to limiting legal trading spaces. This is despite policies that acknowledge the role of street trading. </p>
<p>Such punitive practices criminalise the efforts of poor people to earn an honest living, and drives corruption. There is, therefore, an urgent need to find better approaches to street trading management that value the role the activity plays in job creation, poverty alleviation and mitigation of the high cost of living.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190781/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mamokete Modiba previously received research support funding from NRF and TISO Foundation. </span></em></p>The city’s street trading management approach is mainly restrictive. Relocations, harassment and confiscation of of traders’ stock are common.Mamokete Modiba, Researcher, Gauteng City-Region ObservatoryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1637022021-07-08T16:27:44Z2021-07-08T16:27:44ZHolding the Tokyo Olympics without spectators during COVID-19 emergency puts the IOC’s ‘supreme authority’ on full display<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410210/original/file-20210707-21-zuj18s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C35%2C5955%2C3925&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The statue of the Olympics rings overlooks people visiting a nearby shopping mall in Tokyo. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Hiro Komae) </span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 250px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/holding-the-tokyo-olympics-without-spectators-during-covid-19-emergency-puts-the-ioc-s--supreme-authority--on-full-display" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Two weeks before the start of the Tokyo Olympics, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57760883">a state of emergency has been declared by the Japanese government</a> in its latest attempt to contain the spread of COVID-19. It’s another setback for these Olympics, which have already been postponed for a year and will now go ahead without any spectators.</p>
<p>With concerns that the Tokyo Olympics could become a super-spreader event, why then are the Games even taking place?</p>
<p>The answer lies in the power that the International Olympic Committee – the <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/olympic-movement">self-proclaimed</a> “supreme authority” for world sport – holds over the cities and countries that host the Games.</p>
<p>If anyone was unaware of the IOC’s use and abuse of power before 2020, events surrounding the Tokyo Olympics during the COVID-19 pandemic have shed unprecedented light on the organization’s iron grip over host cities and countries.</p>
<p>Since early 2020, IOC president Thomas Bach and fellow veteran IOC members John Coates (chair of Tokyo Co-ordination Commission, the main liaison between the IOC and Tokyo organizers) and Richard Pound have been the dominant voices of the committee. Their statements on the postponement or potential cancellation of the Tokyo Games reflect denial, hubris and self-congratulatory rhetoric. </p>
<p>The Tokyo Olympics as <a href="https://olympics.com/athlete365/voice/22-march-letter-from-president-thomas-bach-oly-to-athletes/">“the light at the end of the tunnel”</a> has been one of Bach’s favourites platitudes, while boosters’ references to a <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-and-tokyo-2020-agree-on-measures-to-deliver-games-fit-for-a-post-corona-world">“post-corona world”</a> illustrate the same unfounded optimism.</p>
<p>On the question of contingency plans in the event Tokyo needed to cancel the Games, Coates flatly stated last year that there was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/asia-pacific-united-nations-health-olympic-games-tokyo-936a921979a504cb9d4056dc44b2830a">“no Plan B”</a>. Bach <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/01/27/sports/hopes-tokyo-olympics-still-flickering-doubts-growing-louder/?event=event25&event=event25">spread the same message</a> earlier this year.</p>
<h2>Free speech?</h2>
<p>Criticism from Olympic “insiders” is both rare and noteworthy.</p>
<p>In June, Japanese Olympic Committee member <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/sports/olympian-yamaguchi-says-japan-cornered-into-holding-games-1.5455906">Kaori Yamaguchi</a> claimed Tokyo had been “cornered” into proceeding. She was critical of the IOC for appearing <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/04/tokyo-cornered-into-going-ahead-with-games-says-olympic-official">“to think it could steamroll over the wishes of the Japanese public,”</a> given that about 80 per cent of people wanted the Games postponed again or cancelled.</p>
<p>At the beginning of the pandemic — when the IOC was still suggesting the Tokyo Games would start as scheduled in July 2020 — Hayley Wickenheiser, a member of the IOC Athletes’ Commission, called for postponement. She <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1093067/hayley-wickenheiser-ppe-opc-canada">received a speedy rebuke</a> from an IOC official, stating that it was “a pity” she had posted her thoughts “without asking the IOC first.”</p>
<p>“I didn’t know free speech had to go through the IOC,” <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/hayley-wickenheiser-had-to-speak-out-for-olympic-postponement-1.5512175">she fired back.</a> </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1239985862819155970"}"></div></p>
<p>Attempts to muzzle athletes, as well as journalists and academics critical of the Olympic industry, are commonplace. Athletes are not allowed to engage in podium or on-field political protests — and some are <a href="https://resources.fina.org/fina/document/2021/01/12/c9057283-1c4e-442e-807e-f88c982c7275/logo_fina_code_of_ethics_as_approved_by_the_ec_on_22.07.2017_final_0.pdf">contractually bound</a> by their international federations’ code of ethics to refrain from making “adverse comments” on executive decisions.</p>
<p>Similarly, athletes involved in sport-related disputes with national or international sports organizations, or with anti-doping agencies, cannot use the judicial systems of their home countries. Their contracts require them to submit appeals exclusively to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, a <a href="https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/gender-athletes-rights-and-the-court-of-arbitration-for-sport-helen-jefferson-lenskyjGender,-Athletes-Rights,-and-the-Court-of-Arbitration-for-Sport/?k=9781787542402">tribunal that has come under frequent criticism</a> for its links to the IOC and for inconsistencies in its decisions. </p>
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<img alt="A night time image of people on a rainy street with a large screen in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410401/original/file-20210708-23-14fcky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410401/original/file-20210708-23-14fcky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410401/original/file-20210708-23-14fcky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410401/original/file-20210708-23-14fcky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410401/original/file-20210708-23-14fcky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410401/original/file-20210708-23-14fcky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410401/original/file-20210708-23-14fcky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Pedestrians walk past a giant public TV with a live broadcast of a news conference by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga after he announced a state of emergency because of rising coronavirus infections. The state of emergency will be in place during the Olympic Games.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)</span></span>
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<p>The muzzling of free speech and freedom of assembly extends beyond athletes to residents of host countries and international visitors. <a href="https://stillmed.olympic.org/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/General/EN-Olympic-Charter.pdf">The Olympic Charter</a> overrides freedoms that are universally accepted in democracies by prohibiting protests in or near Olympic venues. These areas become de facto IOC territory for the duration of the Games.</p>
<h2>Silencing ‘naysayers’</h2>
<p>I have first-hand experience of what happens to those who speak up against the Olympics, all providing invaluable material for my <a href="http://helenlenskyj.ca/books.html">subsequent research</a> on the Olympic industry.</p>
<p>My hometown of Toronto has mounted two failed Olympic bids: one for the 1996 Games and the other for 2008. In 1998, I became a member of Toronto’s anti-Olympic group, <a href="https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/search.jsp?N=4292540458">Bread Not Circuses (BNC)</a>. </p>
<p>Toronto newspapers were official bid sponsors and senior media executives were members of Toronto’s bid committee. BNC learned that one newspaper had an unofficial policy of rejecting any letters from our group. We were removed from a televised public forum on the bid because bid leaders refused to be on the same platform as our members. </p>
<p>In 2001, the IOC sent a team to Toronto to inspect its bid preparations. Our group was initially prevented from attending a meeting with the IOC. It was part of the bid committee’s transparent attempt to limit the inspection team’s exposure to “naysayers,” as the local press routinely labelled us. In the end, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306032657_Olympic_industry_and_civil_liberties">Bread Not Circuses was blamed (or credited, from our perspective) for “derailing the bid.”</a> </p>
<p>Since then, anti-Olympic and Olympic watchdog groups have proliferated and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/28/sports/olympics/boston-2024-summer-olympics-bid-terminated.html">a number of bid cities have held referendums</a> — democratizing trends that Bach considers inappropriate and unnecessary. The situation facing Tokyo today demonstrates the vital need for critical voices to be heard.</p>
<h2>Tokyo countermeasures</h2>
<p>Despite IOC claims that athletes’ safety in Tokyo is a priority, COVID-19 countermeasures were <a href="https://uniglobalunion.org/news/ioc-must-urgently-guarantee-world-class-covid-19-protections-tokyo-olympics">universally criticized</a> by medical experts and athlete advocacy organizations.</p>
<p>Most significant was the failure to provide adequate protection for athletes, even adding to their contracts a mandatory waiver <a href="https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/olympics-covid-waiver-tokyo-athletes-202234569.html">absolving the IOC of responsibility</a> if they contracted COVID-19 or suffered any other “serious bodily harm or even death.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Bach raises his hands while appearing on a TV screen at a news conference in Tokyo." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410398/original/file-20210708-27-1dgwvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410398/original/file-20210708-27-1dgwvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410398/original/file-20210708-27-1dgwvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410398/original/file-20210708-27-1dgwvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410398/original/file-20210708-27-1dgwvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410398/original/file-20210708-27-1dgwvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410398/original/file-20210708-27-1dgwvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach gestures on screen at the beginning of the meeting in Tokyo on July 8 where the decision was made to ban spectators from the Tokyo Olympics. Bach was in quarantine after his arrival in Tokyo earlier that day.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Behrouz Mehri/Pool Photo via AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The IOC’s power even extends to the World Health Organization. Dr. Mike Ryan, the WHO’s chief of emergencies, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/asia-pacific-united-nations-health-olympic-games-tokyo-936a921979a504cb9d4056dc44b2830a">explained at the beginning of the pandemic</a> that it was not the WHO’s role “to call off – or not call off” the Olympics, but merely to provide “technical advice.” </p>
<p>In May 2021, Ryan <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/who-ioc-organisers-and-japanese-government-working-extremely-hard-to-ensure-risks-are-well-managed-at-olympic-games-tokyo-2020">praised the pandemic guidelines and organisers’</a> “very, very systematic risk management approach.” His comments were unsurprising given that the WHO was a partner in the task force which prepared the guidelines.</p>
<h2>The cost of cancellation</h2>
<p>The host city contract for every Olympics states the IOC is the only party empowered to postpone or cancel the event. The contract has a weak “force majeure” clause that states “if the IOC has reasonable grounds to believe, in its sole discretion, that the safety of participants… would be seriously threatened or jeopardised for any reason whatsoever.”</p>
<p>If the IOC terminates the contract, the city, the host National Olympic Committee and the organizing committee all waive any claim and right to <a href="https://www.2020games.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/hostcitycontract-EN.pdf">“damages, or other compensation or remedy.”</a></p>
<p>A cancelled Olympic Games would leave Tokyo liable for billions of dollars — <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/05/25/business/economy-business/nomura-olympics-cancellation-cost/">one estimate puts the cancellation costs at US $17 billion</a>. But as some experts have pointed out, “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/money-money-money-cost-tokyos-pandemic-delayed-olympics-2021-06-10/">the economic loss would be much greater</a>” if the Tokyo Games turn into a super-spreader event. </p>
<p>The emergency declaration represents one small step towards protecting Tokyo’s citizens, but does nothing towards safeguarding the tens of thousands of athletes and officials who will arrive in the city to participate in the circus maximus that is the Olympic Games.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163702/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Jefferson Lenskyj does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Concerns about holding the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games during a state of emergency highlights just how much power the International Olympic Committee wields over the global sporting world.Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, Professor Emerita of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1583452021-04-13T19:07:15Z2021-04-13T19:07:15ZSexual misconduct, abuse of power, adultery and secrecy: What I witnessed in Canada’s military<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393653/original/file-20210406-21-1hsovj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C0%2C4823%2C3394&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Vice-Admiral Haydn Edmundson manages military personnel command, which gives him authority over career consequences for military members found to have engaged in sexual misconduct, he is on indefinite leave with pay after being accused of sexually assaulting a subordinate.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As a female veteran observing reports of sexual misconduct among senior Canadian Armed Forces officers, I have been forced to make sense of my own experience.</p>
<p>Over the years, I witnessed firsthand the culture of secrecy and adultery that isn’t spoken of outside military circles. Everyone knows it happens, yet everyone remains quiet. The <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/corporate/policies-standards/defence-administrative-orders-directives/5000-series/5019/5019-1-personal-relationships-and-fraternization.html">“no fraternization” policy</a> is treated as a suggestion and rarely enforced. It is widely understood that “what happens in deployment, exercise or training, stays there.” </p>
<p>Something is wrong with Canada’s military. From the recent testimony given in parliamentary committee on the handling of the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/vance-mcdonald-military-sexual-misconduct-eyre-wernick-1.5977188">Gen. Jonathan Vance investigation</a>, to a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/sexual-assault-allegations-vice-admiral-haydn-edmundson-1.5963430">senior military commander being under investigation</a> after being accused of sexually assaulting a subordinate, and the <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7752832/military-sexual-misconduct-study-liberals-shut-down/">Liberal government’s recent shutdown of the probe into sexual misconduct</a>. My doctoral research since leaving the military has led me to conclude that the military unconsciously fosters a culture of sexual misconduct, abuse of power, adultery and secrecy.</p>
<h2>Consequences and failed regulations</h2>
<p>Both women and men participate in these behaviours. It feels as though it’s widely accepted, so much so it borders on being encouraged. The accepted sexual behaviours in the Forces can have severe consequences beyond harassment. And like everyone else, I went along with it. I entered a “pact of secrecy” and became part of the problem by being a bystander.</p>
<p>In 2015, following a <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/corporate/reports-publications/sexual-misbehaviour/external-review-2015.html">Supreme Court Justice report</a> on sexual misconduct in the military, <a href="https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/dnd-mdn/migration/assets/FORCES_Internet/docs/en/caf-community-support-services-harassment/cds-op-order-op-honour.pdf">Operation HONOUR</a> was established to “eliminate harmful and inappropriate sexual behaviours,” within the Forces, including <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/benefits-military/conflict-misconduct/operation-honour.html">LGBTQ2+</a> discrimination. </p>
<p>Six years later, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/operation-honour-closed-down-1.5962978">Operation HONOUR has ended</a> despite multiple high-ranking officers facing accusations of sexual misconduct. </p>
<p>There is an undeniable need for a culture change. However, the problem will not be fixed through the force-feeding approach of continuously creating regulations and policies to establish the desired culture — <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-canadians-not-confident-military-can-change-culture-survey-shows/">that has proven to be ineffective</a>.</p>
<h2>A different approach</h2>
<p>The literature is scarce when examining the military outside of mechanistic and cultural perspectives.</p>
<p>A theoretical approach to understanding the military is to adopt organizational theorist Gareth Morgan’s <a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/images-of-organization/book229704">psychic prison metaphor</a>. This idea implies an unconscious power structure acts as a control measure. </p>
<p>Morgan says, “powerful visions of the future can lead to blind spots,” and strong <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-groupthink-2795213">groupthink</a> can lead to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2997-1">organizational pathology</a>, which addresses internal aspects of an organization that has become dysfunctional, counterproductive, inefficient, disruptive or destabilizing.</p>
<p>Morgan’s psychic prison metaphor tells us that cultural structures, rules, behaviours and beliefs define the organization and are “personal in the most profound sense.” By using the psychic prison metaphor to understand military organization, we might be able to better understand the military culture and its taken-for-granted assumptions, and determine a better way to address the needed change. It “encourages us to recognize that rationality is often irrationality in disguise” and “plays a powerful role in drawing attention to the ethical dimension of organization.”</p>
<p>When I was a new junior officer, I filed my first complaint of misconduct, which led to five other individuals coming forward. As punishment, the person the complaints were against was asked to write an apology letter. Years later, he bragged about the paper trail being removed before his posting. I took this information up my chain of command and was told that it was in the past. </p>
<p>Despite this misconduct reoccurring with other members, nothing was ever done. </p>
<p>That instance made me lose faith in the system. I never filed another complaint of misconduct again, and kept telling myself it was either “not bad enough,” that “I could handle it,” or I would deem it “OK, it was the alcohol.” I had become a prisoner of the psychic prison.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qW1OL0_Vp0M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Navy Lt. Heather Macdonald says the military can’t afford to ignore sexual misconduct any longer.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In an interview with Global News, Navy Lt. Heather Macdonald (who <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW1OL0_Vp0M">alleges misconduct against Canada’s defence chief</a>) says she is bothered that someone in a “trusted position” has such “weak ethics and values” to leak her allegations to the press. She believes “that what process we have needs to remain fair, and everybody including me should have due process.”</p>
<p>In saying that, Lt. Macdonald is unconsciously protecting the institution as I did. She believes that the leak will affect the due process but it’s the same process that has failed time and time again. </p>
<p>The psychic prison, while not visible, manifests itself through our actions. Our silence perpetuates the issue. In the Forces, we are taught to protect the mission and the institution, before self. The psychic prison unconsciously traps us all: victims are afraid to speak out, aggressors face little retribution and bystanders simply turn a blind eye.</p>
<h2>Towards a culture change</h2>
<p>The bulk of Canadian Armed Forces’ research focuses on the measurable and the visible, but only scratches the surface of what the military culture truly is. I believe there are deeper levels of understanding to be reached, and the psychic prison offers a new approach for understanding the embedded inequalities and misconducts.</p>
<p>Undoubtedly, the first step is to identify and acknowledge the presence of such a strong power structure. But a permanent change will only be possible once we understand the unconscious level and the invisible forces imposed on members. </p>
<p>Acting Chief of Defence Staff Lt.-Gen. Wayne Eyre is on the right track when he said “<a href="https://globe2go.pressreader.com/@Patricia_Bradshaw.1/csb_4NsFTQMi4VbmMGJA-oDJp9MjbqZGiqwrPT1_CirL_AP5ouSbCnhln_1Rc7jAXMTa">the gaps are becoming apparent, such as power dynamics and understanding the use and abuse of power in a hierarchy like our own</a>.” But until he sees how everyone colludes consciously and unconsciously in perpetuating these dynamics, nothing will change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158345/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karyne Gélinas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Deeper levels of comprehension are needed to understand the embedded inequalities and misconducts in the Canadian Armed Forces.Karyne Gélinas, PhD Student, Business Administration, Saint Mary’s UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1537302021-02-04T16:04:46Z2021-02-04T16:04:46ZConflating morality and the law does South Africa’s governing party no good<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381978/original/file-20210202-17-qidyfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Supporters of Ace Magashule, the secretary general of the ANC, protest outside the court where he appeared on corruption charges. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Conrad Bornman</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the African National Congress (ANC) came to power in South Africa in 1994, it has been dogged by <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-corruption-in-south-africa-isnt-simply-about-zuma-and-the-guptas-113056">corruption</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adt069">abuse of power</a>.</p>
<p>These <a href="https://www.gov.za/address-deputy-president-kgalema-motlanthe-south-african-student-congress%E2%80%99-walter-sisulu-memorial">“sins of incumbency”</a> – the seduction of politicians and public officials by power and their abuse of it for their own ends – became endemic during former president Jacob Zuma’s term (<a href="http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/profiles/president-jacob-zuma-0">May 2009 to February 2018</a>). </p>
<p>The details coming out of the Zondo commission of inquiry into <a href="https://www.statecapture.org.za/">state capture</a> have shown how deeply this has taken root. Can the governing party dig it out?</p>
<p>The ANC passed a resolution on how to deal with dishonesty in its ranks at its <a href="https://www.polity.org.za/article/54th-national-conference-report-and-resolutions-2018-03-26">54th national conference</a> in December 2017.</p>
<p>It resolved that any of its cadres “accused of, or reported to be involved in, corrupt practices are to account to the Integrity Committee immediately or face disciplinary processes”. </p>
<p>It added that those</p>
<blockquote>
<p>who fail to give an acceptable explanation or to voluntarily step down while they face disciplinary, investigative or prosecutorial procedures were to be summarily suspended.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The party’s integrity commission was established in 2013 to be the custodian of this moral stance, after a series of scandals that damaged its public image. </p>
<h2>On a path to political morality?</h2>
<p>This, followed by the adoption of the anti-corruption resolution and election of <a href="http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/profiles/president-cyril-ramaphosa%3A-profile">Cyril Ramaphosa</a> as <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-anc-has-a-new-leader-but-south-africa-remains-on-a-political-precipice-89248">president of the ANC</a>, and <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2018-02-15-cyril-ramaphosa-has-been-elected-president-of-south-africa/">of the country</a>, created optimism that, finally, the party was set to mend its ways.</p>
<p>That was easier said than done. </p>
<p>Three years later, the resolution is embroiled in controversies, pitting the ANC’s factions against each other. The biggest test came last November, when the party’s secretary general, Ace Magashule, was charged with corruption and <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/newsletters/comments/mostcommented/never-have-i-done-any-corruption-ace-magashule-insists-he-is-innocent-of-charges-20201114">appeared in court</a>. </p>
<p>He defied the integrity commission’s <a href="https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-12-15-step-aside-anc-integrity-commission-tells-ace-magashule/">call on him to step aside</a>, insisting that only the party’s branches could <a href="https://www.enca.com/news/magasule-only-anc-branches-can-tell-me-step-aside">make that demand</a>.</p>
<p>His loyalists pushed back against the resolution while those aligned to Ramaphosa supported it. The matter became embroiled in legalistic arguments about whether his stepping aside <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/ace-steps-aside-or-gets-pushed-new-legal-opinion-demands-anc-must-act-against-him-20201202">would be just</a> and in keeping with the ANC’s constitution, and that of the country, <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/exclusive-leaked-legal-opinion-states-it-is-unconstitutional-for-ace-magashule-to-step-aside-f42ee890-1d08-4ee6-b79a-c9e427202b89">or not</a>. </p>
<p>But this misses the point in that it conflates morality and the law. It will scupper the resolution, robbing the ANC of a chance to clean up its act. If the distinction between morality and legality is blurred, the resolution could be mired in misconceptions. </p>
<h2>Morality versus the law</h2>
<p>Morality shapes people’s lives, including their thoughts and actions, on the basis of what society generally accepts as right and wrong. It is used to check people’s <a href="https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2828&context=journal_articles">“self-interested, emotional, or sentimental reactions to serious questions of human conduct”</a>. This is what enables people to coexist.</p>
<p>Morality depends on one’s conscience to freely comply with societal expectations.</p>
<p>The law, which the legal scholar Arthur Scheller Jr defines as <a href="http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr/vol36/iss3/12">“an ordination of reason for the common good”</a>, is a system of rules that prescribe behaviour and is enforceable.</p>
<p>Various formations in society, such as political parties, may have their own laws or rules to regulate the conduct of their members. But such rules should not contradict the supreme law of the land - the constitution - especially in a constitutional democracy founded on the principles of the rule of law. </p>
<p>Morals and laws are not binaries. They complement each other. When the law enhances moral conscience and morality promotes legal consciousness, people can live together harmoniously and ethically. </p>
<p>The confluence of morality and law is what makes for a good society. This is what the ANC fails to grasp. It uses the law to stymie its own resolution, which is basically about the party reclaiming its political morality. </p>
<p>Instead of those who run foul of the resolution stepping aside, contrasting legal opinions are sought. They don’t provide clarity; they cloud a resolution that has all along been clear.</p>
<p>As the American sociologist Robert MacIver once <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2249546.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Af9813a7f3af0eddd4d1954c109924039">said</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>to turn all moral obligations into legal obligations would be to destroy morality.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Innocent till proven guilty</h2>
<p>Subjecting the ANC’s “step-aside” resolution to legal interpretation ignores the context that gave rise to it, and its aim of restoring morality within the party. That is imperative if the ANC is to regain trust in society and win votes.</p>
<p>Sticking to the legal principle that one is innocent until proven guilty, just to keep those who flout the resolution in office, misses the point. </p>
<p>The guilt or innocence of a person is a function of a juridical process or law. That they should step aside is a moral stance. It is also for this reason that the party established its integrity commission, whose mandate is to </p>
<blockquote>
<p>protect the image of the organisation and enhance its standing in society by ensuring, among others, that urgent action is taken to deal with public officials, leaders and members of the ANC who face damaging allegations of improper conduct.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The commission cannot pronounce on the guilt or blamelessness of a person, but on political morality – a function of moral conscience and consciousness. Unfortunately, it is becoming difficult for some in the ANC to appreciate this. Indeed, as the American political activist Upton Sinclair once <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Search-Government-Effiency-Hubris-Helplessness/dp/007554900X">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>it is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Way forward</h2>
<p>The conflation of morality with legality has obfuscated a resolution that led many corruption-weary South Africans to believe that the ANC, which fancies itself <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-anc-insists-its-still-a-political-vanguard-this-is-what-ails-democracy-in-south-africa-141938">“the leader of society”</a>, was set on a new path of moral political rectitude. </p>
<p>Building organisational integrity requires that party leaders be guided by their moral conscience. These should shape the party’s moral disposition in line with its values and principles to achieve its purpose, which has always been about the common good. </p>
<p>Changing the party’s rules to make the integrity commission’s recommendations binding is not going to make party leaders and members internalise morality. What the ANC needs is genuine commitment to institutionalise ethical leadership among all in its ranks.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153730/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mashupye Herbert Maserumule receives funding from the National Research Foundation for his postgraduate studies. He is affiliated with the South African Association of Public Administration and Management(SAAPAM), and also serves as the Chief of its scholarly publication- Journal of Public Administration. </span></em></p>Morals and laws are not binaries. They complement each other to enable harmonious coexistence.Mashupye Herbert Maserumule, Professor of Public Affairs, Tshwane University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1333092020-07-02T18:56:29Z2020-07-02T18:56:29ZWe must pay attention to Canada’s #MeToo moment in sports<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342552/original/file-20200617-94066-1xst862.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=251%2C75%2C3947%2C2568&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women in track and field must be involved in any planning around safety for all in the sport. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Something is rotten in the state of track and field at local athletics clubs and Canadian universities. </p>
<p>The <em>Globe and Mail</em> sent shock waves through the running community when it published Megan Brown’s story of emotional, sexual and physical abuse at the hands of <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-athlete-breaks-silence-about-sexual-misconduct-of-university-of-guelph/">renowned University of Guelph and Speed River Track Club coach Dave Scott-Thomas</a>. Meanwhile, the Ottawa Lions Track Club, the largest and most successful in Canada, was rocked by the firing of Ken Porter and Andy McInnis, both of whom <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ken-porter-andy-mcinnis-athletics-canada-lifetime-bans-1.5124391">also coached for the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, for athlete sexual misconduct</a>. </p>
<p>And after making comments about the University of Guelph’s inaction in waiting 13 years to fire Scott-Thomas and highlighting what he felt was multiple groups’ (including athletes’) complicity in the abuse, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-queens-track-coach-fired-after-criticizing-university-of-guelphs/">Queen’s University track coach Steve Boyd was fired</a>. (Boyd remains a coach within his Physi-Kult track club).</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1230994456347914240"}"></div></p>
<p>There needs to be significant change in the administration of athletics programs from the grassroots to the elite level. The global pause in sporting competitions is a unique, if unforeseen, opportunity to begin the urgent work of making it safe for women. <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.93.4.529">Meaningful change within a community has to come from members of that community</a>. For running to become a safe sport for women, the changes must be led by women.</p>
<h2>#MeToo in sport</h2>
<p>As both runners and researchers, we have experienced toxic running culture. We’ve also studied it, but it seems our ideas, and those of our female peers, are continuously evaded by some men who both literally and figuratively speak louder than we do.</p>
<p>We are intimately familiar with the elite running community’s mechanics. Heather Hillsburg was captain of York University’s cross-country team, Audrey Giles was captain of Queen’s University’s cross-country team and coached at the University of Alberta for four years, and Francine Darroch competed at an NCAA Division 1 school and represented Canada as a junior athlete. And as researchers, we study philosophy, social and political theory and have consulted on or implemented community-driven, trauma-informed and culturally safe physical activity and sport programs. </p>
<p>Together, we study the ways <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2017.03.005">gender and sex make female runners vulnerable</a> to inequity in sport. We have found that waves of progress, such as increased participation and equal pay, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/wspaj.2015-0040">are often met with backlash</a> and a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2019.1567495">regression back to established patterns</a>.</p>
<p>Despite our collective expertise and experience, and although we occupy positions of relative social power, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-48333945">as women our ideas and discussion points are less likely to be taken seriously</a>. Rather, our personal experiences become fodder for debate, even as “<a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/aoc-calls-out-hypocritical-response-to-biden-sexual-assault-allegation-believe-women-until-it-inconveniences-us/">believe women</a>” has become a rallying cry. </p>
<p>But we have also experienced the best of the sport and know change is possible. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/metoo-campaign-brings-conversation-of-rape-to-the-mainstream-85875">#MeToo campaign brings conversation of rape to the mainstream</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Making change</h2>
<p>The current world of elite running is built by, and for, men. Creating space for women to speak in a meaningful way does not mean silencing men, but instead ensuring that the voices of women are central to the discussion, particularly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/opinion/nike-running-mary-cain.html">the women who have come forward with allegations of abuse</a>. </p>
<p>Believing women is mere lip service when men keep speaking for them, talking over them and insisting on retaining positions of power - even if these men have the best intentions.</p>
<p>In this vein, governing bodies’ responses have become predictable: they disavow the abuse, fire the abusers (and here, fire supporters as well) and issue statements claiming to have athletes’ best interests at heart. Despite the public firing of three renowned coaches in short succession, Athletics Canada, track and field’s National Sport Organization, responded without implementing sweeping structural changes. In the end, victims’ needs and experiences are lost. </p>
<p>On social media, prominent Canadian runners have said <a href="https://twitter.com/gstafford13/status/1226547364619595776">they have lost faith in their governing bodies</a>, and university administrators appear to be more concerned with protecting their image and brands than athletes’ best interests, as evidenced, for example, by Carleton University and the University of Ottawa making no statement of support for their athletes following the banning of their coaches.</p>
<h2>What’s next?</h2>
<p>To stamp out all abuse at universities and track clubs, we need to change power structures. We must ensure that people who are made vulnerable — in this case, athletes — can come forward and be believed. We have to listen to athletes who have experienced abuse, many of whom are women, and allow meaningful change to come from their experiences.</p>
<p>Athletics Canada must form a working group of women. <a href="https://usports.ca/en">U Sports</a>, the organization that oversees sport in Canadian universities, should make a special effort to recruit women coaches, athletes and advisers. Above all, women from all backgrounds and experiences must be included in these discussions. </p>
<p>Within Athletics Canada and U Sports, there should be a dedicated position for diversity and inclusion to demonstrate commitment to diversifying coach and athlete representation. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/669608">An intersectional approach</a> – a lens that considers the various ways in which individuals experience inequality and how inequalities can exacerbate each other — must guide these changes. </p>
<p>Of course, these suggestions will not, in and of themselves, create a safe space for athletes. They are a beginning. We hope they set the stage for other women to put forth concrete suggestions to implement change. </p>
<p>We cannot afford a false start. </p>
<p><em>Heather Hillsburg co-authored this article. She is a recent PhD graduate who currently works for the B.C. government.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133309/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Audrey R. Giles receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is a member of Physi-Kult, a running club coached by Steve Boyd. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francine Darroch receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>There needs to be significant change in the administration of athletics programs. The global pause in sporting competitions is a unique opportunity to begin the urgent work of making it safe for womenAudrey R. Giles, Professor in Human Kinetics, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaFrancine Darroch, Assistant Professor, Health Sciences, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1354762020-04-07T15:57:36Z2020-04-07T15:57:36ZGhana’s president has invoked a tough new law against coronavirus: why it’s disquieting<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325354/original/file-20200403-74220-1fucy8s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">All Women Militarized Police Unit of the Ghana Police Service</span> </figcaption></figure><p>During a state of emergency, governments, as the duty-bearers, are allowed to temporarily suspend the exercise and enjoyment of some rights. They are also allowed to bypass some procedural limits to have more of a free hand to deal with the emergency, while maintaining law and order. </p>
<p>But national and international <a href="https://www.un.org/ruleoflaw/thematic-areas/international-law-courts-tribunals/human-rights-law/">laws</a> set limits for governments to follow to avoid abuses and possible human rights violations.</p>
<p>Ghana has introduced a range of measures in a bid to stop the spread of the coronavirus. These include quarantine and isolation of those who have the virus. <a href="https://citinewsroom.com/2020/03/coronavirus-shut-down-all-schools-until-further-notice-nana-addo-orders/">Restrictions</a> have also been placed on a host of events, including public and social gatherings. The country’s borders have been shut and partial lockdowns imposed in Greater Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Greater Kumasi.</p>
<p>Many of these measures have been imposed under a new law, the <a href="https://acts.ghanajustice.com/actsofparliament/imposition-of-restrictions-act-2020-act-1012/">Imposition of Restrictions Act</a>, which was passed by parliament two weeks ago. The act was <a href="https://www.myjoyonline.com/news/imposition-of-restriction-bill-2020-worse-than-state-of-emergency-muntaka/">opposed</a> mainly by the parliamentarians belonging to the minority party. </p>
<p>The law states that “the imposition of the restriction under subsection (1) shall be reasonably justifiable in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution.”</p>
<p>But this is not the case. This is just one of a number of big concerns with the new law, and the way in which the president has gone about enacting it. </p>
<p>The first is that it is draconian and opens the door to overreach and violations of fundamental rights and freedoms in Ghana. Second, the president chose not to put an expiry date on when the provisions of the act will be lifted. Thirdly the act is general – its doesn’t mention COVID-19 as its focus. Section 7 provides only a broad definition of “disaster”, which means that any president can use it in future under various circumstances.</p>
<h2>The problem with the Act</h2>
<p>The Imposition of Restrictions Act was enacted based on a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=720BW0yMQE0">directive</a> issued by the president on March 15 to introduce emergency measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. In his speech, he directed the attorney-general to introduce “emergency legislation” to that effect. </p>
<p>The act is “to provide for powers to impose restrictions on persons, to give effect to paragraphs (c), (d) and (e) of clause (4) of article 21 of the Constitution in the event of an emergency, disaster or similar circumstance to ensure public safety, public health and protection.” </p>
<p>The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic and a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January. Based on the WHO <a href="https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/924596">definition</a>, a state of emergency exists in Ghana as in many other countries affected by the pandemic. </p>
<p>Ghana has a law – the <a href="https://www.wipo.int/edocs/lexdocs/laws/en/gh/gh014en.pdf">Emergency Powers Act</a>, 1994 (Act 472) – that allows it to declare a state of emergency. Its <a href="https://www.wipo.int/edocs/lexdocs/laws/en/gh/gh014.pdf">1992 constitution</a> also makes provision for a state of emergency. The reasons for this include a public health emergency which can trigger a quarantine or isolation order. This would justify restricting people’s movement.</p>
<p>This shows that the president didn’t need a new law. He had all the powers he needed set out in the constitution as well as a number of existing laws to restrict the movement of Ghanaians during a health crisis such as COVID-19.</p>
<p>By taking these steps the government has gone the route of a number of states which have enacted what have been described as emergency laws in response to the coronavirus pandemic, without actually declaring a state of emergency under law. Terms such as “restriction”, “lockdown” and “lockout” are preferred.</p>
<h2>Usurping powers</h2>
<p>The new act violates the constitution in a number of critical ways.</p>
<p>The main problem is that it was enacted outside the purview and control of the <a href="https://www.wipo.int/edocs/lexdocs/laws/en/gh/gh014en.pdf">1992 constitution</a>. </p>
<p>First, the Emergency Powers Act requires the president to consult with the <a href="http://judicial.gov.gh/index.php/the-council-of-state">Council of State</a>, an advisory committee of eminent citizens, before declaring a state of emergency. </p>
<p>Yet the new act gives this power to a “relevant person or body”. This opens it to abuse.</p>
<p>Second, parliament has the power, under the constitution, to revoke the declaration of a state of emergency or extend it for up to three months.</p>
<p>However, under the new act, this power is reserved for the president. </p>
<p>Act 1012 seeks to derive its authority from article 21(4)(c) of the constitution, which is limited to freedom of movement only. Yet the act restricts the enjoyment of many other rights. Among them is the right to privacy. The act grants the government wide powers to intercept communication and the services of the network provider at the disposal of the state for mass dissemination of information. </p>
<p>There are other protections the act does away with. For example, the constitution stipulates that a person restricted and detained under a state of emergency will be accorded certain privileges and will be released immediately after the expiration of the state of emergency. </p>
<p>No such privilege exists under the new act, which can have a person incarcerated for up to four years.</p>
<h2>What next</h2>
<p>Flexibility is important to deal with emergencies. But it does not justify the steps taken by Ghana’s government to deal with the COVID-19 emergency. </p>
<p>Governments generally have an uncanny desire to exploit novel situations or emergencies to gain political advantage. In my view the Imposition of Restrictions Act, 2020 lends itself to abuse as it can be applied in a variety of situations that the government can imagine – or create.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.law.umn.edu/profiles/fionnuala-ni-aolain">Fionnuala Ní Aoláin</a>, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, has observed that in dealing with the pandemic</p>
<blockquote>
<p>emergency or not, states must reach the same threshold of legality, legitimacy, necessity and proportionality for each measure taken. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Instead of seeking to protect the health of Ghanaians and stop the coronavirus epidemic by instituting totalitarian surveillance regimes, the government should rather focus on empowering citizens. An empowered citizenry is well-informed and self-motivated, trusts the state and is ready to propose new social contractual terms with the state to deal with an emergency.</p>
<p>This comes about where the state is transparent and accountable and also trusts the citizenry.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135476/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Instead of seeking to protect our health and stop the coronavirus epidemic by instituting totalitarian surveillance regimes, we should rather focus on empowering citizens.Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua, Associate Professor of Law, University of GhanaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1304492020-01-23T20:52:51Z2020-01-23T20:52:51ZPrecedent? Nah, the Senate gets to reinvent its rules in every impeachment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311674/original/file-20200123-162190-1xt07gq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., during debate over rules for the Senate impeachment trial against President Donald Trump, Jan. 21, 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Trump-Impeachment/31407e2b9f75408eb6c1bd377abaaeea/1/0">Senate Television via AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Everybody seems to be using the word “precedent” right now. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.wsj.com/video/opinion-the-democrat-impeachment-case-could-set-dangerous-precedents/29B59768-FDA9-4701-8CFA-D8AF8FCE0D3B.html">Commentators</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/20/us/politics/mcconnell-impeachment-rules.html">the media</a> and even Senate Majority Leader <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/video/mcconnell-impeachment-of-trump-sets-toxic-precedent/vp-BBYabmc">Mitch McConnell</a> use it when they discuss or debate the appropriate procedures for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. </p>
<p>The word has multiple meanings, though, so what people mean by “precedent” is often unclear and confusing. </p>
<h2>Binding or just a guide</h2>
<p>The word “precedent” has a technical legal meaning and a common one. </p>
<p>Legally, it is a term of art that refers to a rule established in a court case. That rule is either binding or persuasive for other courts in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/precedent">deciding later cases with similar issues or facts</a>. </p>
<p>Simply put, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/stare_decisis">legal precedents obligate courts</a> to follow the same rule and often determine the outcome in a similar case. </p>
<p>In common parlance, however, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/precedent">precedent</a> has a different meaning. </p>
<p>In this use, it refers to an earlier event or action that is regarded as an example or guide to be considered in similar circumstances. This kind of precedent is nonbinding and merely instructive.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311675/original/file-20200123-162232-jduqb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311675/original/file-20200123-162232-jduqb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311675/original/file-20200123-162232-jduqb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311675/original/file-20200123-162232-jduqb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311675/original/file-20200123-162232-jduqb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311675/original/file-20200123-162232-jduqb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311675/original/file-20200123-162232-jduqb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311675/original/file-20200123-162232-jduqb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The sun rises over the Senate on the first day of Trump’s impeachment hearing, Jan. 21, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Trump-Impeachment/7d898d336baf487398cbd64a0ecac08d/20/0">AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>When a trial doesn’t set precedent</h2>
<p>Unlike a court of law, prior impeachment trials serve as precedent only in the nonlegal, nonbinding sense. </p>
<p>The Senate can look to the procedures it has used in past impeachment proceedings, but those procedures do not have to be followed. </p>
<p>The Constitution gives very little guidance on how an impeachment trial should proceed. <a href="https://www.heritage.org/constitution/#!/articles/1/essays/17/trial-of-impeachment">Article I, Section 3, Clause 6</a> states, “The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments.” </p>
<p>After requiring that Senators be “on oath,” that the chief justice preside and that a two-thirds vote is required to convict, the Constitution leaves it to the Senate to make its own rules about how to conduct the trial. </p>
<p>The Supreme Court in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/506/224">Walter L. Nixon v. the United States</a> upheld the Senate’s sole authority to determine how to run an impeachment trial. In that 1992-93 case, Judge Nixon, chief judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, objected to the procedures used by the Senate in his impeachment trial. </p>
<p>The Supreme Court held that courts cannot review the procedures used by the Senate in trying impeachments because the framers gave the authority to try impeachments to the Senate – not the courts. In short, the Senate gets to decide its procedures.</p>
<p>The Senate followed different procedures in the presidential impeachment trials of <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/12/how-senate-conducts-impeachment-trial/601954/">Andrew Johnson</a> and <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-01-16/a-look-back-at-how-clintons-impeachment-trial-unfolded">Bill Clinton</a>.<br>
Nothing says that they have to follow either of those past procedures now, which is why the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/01/21/797320215/senate-impeachment-trial-begins-with-fight-over-rules">Senate recently approved new rules to govern the impeachment trial of President Trump</a>. </p>
<p>In adopting these rules, the Senate left the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/21/politics/senate-impeachment-trial-day-1/index.html">questions of admitting new evidence and witnesses unresolved</a>. So the fight over procedures and precedents may not be over yet, especially since the Senate can change the rules by majority vote whenever it wants.</p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130449/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirsten Matoy Carlson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Certain words are being used over and over during the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. One of them is ‘precedent.’ What does it really mean?Kirsten Matoy Carlson, Associate Professor of Law and Adjunct Associate Professor of Political Science, Wayne State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/944662018-04-20T14:11:36Z2018-04-20T14:11:36ZAfter Weinstein: two women on why we still need to explain the difference between flirting and sexual harassment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215755/original/file-20180420-75100-abaj5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/october-14-2017-illustration-showing-controversial-734140321">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><h2>Helena Bassil-Morozow: we need a ‘good conduct’ guide</h2>
<p>Following the high-profile toppling of <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/10/6/16431674/harvey-weinstein-allegations-explained">Harvey Weinstein</a> in autumn 2017, there was a significant shift in the way society perceives the power balance in the workplace. Though we are still far from solving it completely, at least we can now talk about one of the most enduring and complex taboos of Western societies: abuse of power, particularly when it takes the form of sexual harassment or rape.</p>
<p>After the release of actress <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jan/30/brave-rose-mcgowans-memoir-details-by-harvey-weinstein">Rose McGowan’s memoir Brave</a>, whose allegations of rape and abuse erupted the whole Weinstein affair, things changed overnight. I still remember the shock I felt when I realised that people were actually talking openly about this abuse of power. Western societies operate on an unspoken set of assumptions, all united by the idea of fairness, democracy and equality.</p>
<p>Abuse of power, particularly of a sexual kind, is almost a taboo subject. Its discussion in the workplace is usually relegated to the shadowy world of rumours and innuendo (such as Seth Macfarlane’s 2013 Oscar joke, below), but the subject rarely sees the light of the day. In the past, we seemed reluctant to acknowledge that something like this goes on in a society that promotes equality, diversity and merit.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KCNvREKTnQc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">YouTube.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At last we have witnessed via the Weinstein allegations the start of a dialogue, even if we are some way from definitive solutions to the problem. But in raising the issue of undesirable sexual behaviour, we also need to be careful not to see it where it does not exist, not to turn all human actions into punishable offences. If everyone becomes a stalker, what happens to romantic relationships?</p>
<p>In December 2017, I stumbled upon <a href="https://www.ebg.admin.ch/ebg/en/home/topics/work/sexual-harassment-in-the-workplace.html">a guide</a> provided by the Swiss parliament to its employees on the issue of flirting in the workplace. This was basically <a href="https://www.thelocal.ch/20171213/swiss-mps-given-good-conduct-guide-following-sexual-harassment-case">their response</a> to the #MeToo campaign. Although a little simplistic and even patronising, this “good conduct guide” is a valid attempt to clarify the difference between flirting and harassment. The main distinction it makes is that of reciprocated feelings and respect versus treating a person as a fantasy figure expected to fulfil one’s wishes.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215758/original/file-20180420-75126-9vxdlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215758/original/file-20180420-75126-9vxdlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=656&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215758/original/file-20180420-75126-9vxdlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=656&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215758/original/file-20180420-75126-9vxdlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=656&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215758/original/file-20180420-75126-9vxdlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215758/original/file-20180420-75126-9vxdlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215758/original/file-20180420-75126-9vxdlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Actress Rose McGowan, the first woman to come out with public allegations of rape and abuse by Harvey Weinstein.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cannes-france-may-19-rose-mcgowan-49523113">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Among the qualities of a healthy relationship, the guide lists “mutuality and respect for personal boundaries”. It is also a “source of joy and self-esteem”. By contrast, a bad relationship is one-sided, degrading and involves breaking the other’s boundaries, whether physical or psychological. </p>
<p>That’s all well and good, but how does one actually spot, achieve or define mutuality? For instance, some people may imagine signs of reciprocity where none are expressed. A colleague may have a crush on you and attempt to attract your attention in ways which you may perceive as awkward or too intense if you do not feel the same way. It’s all further complicated by the fact that human actions are not always consciously expressed or thoroughly understood.</p>
<p>Using the Swiss parliament’s guide as an inspiration, I’ve come up with the list of “danger signs” to look out for when engaging in any romantic behaviour, particularly in a professional setting.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Is there a <a href="https://www.grammarly.com/blog/quid-pro-quo/">quid pro quo</a> element? This can take a variety of forms, all of which would require a person to agree to sex in exchange for a professional benefit (a job, a promotion, or funding). This is the surest sign that this is not a relationship of equals, and Weinstein is a classic example. Often when quid pro quo is present, the whole relationship is not about mutuality and equality – nor even sexual attraction – but about hierarchy and demonstration of power. This kind of relationship is narcissistic: the person offering the exchange is simply testing the limits of their position. In its most extreme forms, it is manifested in threats to withdraw existing privileges rather than in offers of new benefits. </p></li>
<li><p>Are physical boundaries violated when one person clearly indicates that they do not wish to engage in physical contact? This is usually exacerbated by quid pro quo situations in which the offending individual believes that she or he “owns” their subordinates. Rape is the most extreme form of this. On the matter of what constitutes sexual assault, the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/42/contents">Sexual Offences Act 2003</a> states: </p></li>
</ul>
<blockquote>
<p>(1) A person (A) commits an offence if:</p>
<p>a) he intentionally touches another person (B)</p>
<p>b) the touching is sexual</p>
<p>c) B does not consent to the touching, and</p>
<p>d) A does not reasonably believe that B consents.</p>
<p>(2) Whether a belief is reasonable is to be determined having regard to all the circumstances, including any steps A has taken to ascertain whether B consents.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I am aware that this description is fairly vague and open to interpretation, particularly around what kind of touching can be considered sexual, or what is “reasonable belief” that an act of consent has taken place. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Is the sexual/romantic attention manifested in the form of name-calling and other denigrating expressions? For instance, being propositioned is not in itself a problem, but when a person you barely know explains they would like to have sex with you using graphic sexual slang, this is highly problematic. Again, this is a serious boundaries issue, and being “invaded” like this feels dehumanising to the other person.</p></li>
<li><p>Finally, the issue of excessive attention. Unless it takes the above three forms, this could be solved by communicating to the other person that their attention is unwanted. This should not be hinted at, but clearly explained. Falling in love is not a crime, but it has to be mutual.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>It all boils down to treating other people as individuals, not objects. In sensitive situations, we all need to be clear about what the other person wants instead of projecting ideas and fantasies on to them. It is about connecting fully with another human being, where feelings are shared and understood. Anything less is just not love.</p>
<h2>Katy Proctor: we need zero tolerance</h2>
<p>My interpretation of these events is a little less forgiving than my colleague’s. As I see it, the problem does not lie in seeing abuse where it isn’t and “overreacting”. Women have to navigate a minefield of sexual comments, attention and harassment on a daily basis, modifying their reactions and behaviour to defuse risky situations. Women are the best judges of risk and malicious intent, something they are not credited for – and rarely do they see it where it isn’t.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215761/original/file-20180420-75110-651kig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215761/original/file-20180420-75110-651kig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215761/original/file-20180420-75110-651kig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215761/original/file-20180420-75110-651kig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215761/original/file-20180420-75110-651kig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215761/original/file-20180420-75110-651kig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215761/original/file-20180420-75110-651kig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">After multiple sex abuse allegations, Weinstein was fired from his film company Miramax and shunned.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/los-angeles-feb-22-harvey-weinstein-381077386">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Guidelines on “how to behave” fail to recognise that it isn’t necessarily the individual acts that are the problem – no matter how explicit they are. The problem lies when these incidents merge into a course of conduct in the context of unequal power relations. These are not awkward gestures of romantic pursuit, these are calculated acts exploiting a situation for personal gain. </p>
<p>After a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/sexual-misconduct/weinstein-here-s-growing-list-men-accused-sexual-misconduct-n816546">tsunami of allegations</a> of serial sexual abuse against male celebrities, there have been many welcome calls for serious change in attitudes and behaviour. </p>
<p>In their wake, of course, there have been the inevitable defensive claims of “it was a different time back then” to “this is just political correctness gone mad” and more recently, “women keep changing their minds about what is acceptable behaviour” and “how are men supposed to navigate the fine line between flirting and harassment these days?”.</p>
<p>The narrative here is that women’s behaviour is confusing men and causing the miscommunication which can lead to abusive behaviour. These particular blame-shifting narratives started with the <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/10950998/Should-I-be-worried-about-how-I-behaved-in-the-1970s.html">Jimmy Savile scandal</a> in an attempt to find a reason why his visible abuses were minimised and ignored. And they are still used regularly to excuse and justify abusive behaviour.</p>
<p>Apparently, they didn’t know that what they were doing was wrong, it was a different time and it was just the “norm”; women expected it and enjoyed the attention. I can’t argue that it wasn’t the norm and that women probably did expect the attention, but that doesn’t automatically translate as “they enjoyed it”. In actual fact, many found it abusive – the sheer number of recent disclosures testifies to that. As for the rest of the excuses, they are nothing more than fantasy.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ehs6LJKhxDQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Women have been protesting against this kind of treatment for decades, centuries even. It seems that every alleged celebrity perpetrator has a string of silenced historical complaints made against them. Each person targeted has been victimised deliberately, in a context of unequal power to prevent them from speaking out, being believed, or taken seriously. For a long time, many people – not least the perpetrators – have known that these types of behaviours were wrong.</p>
<p>Those who say otherwise are indulging in “<a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/vocabularies-motive">vocabularies of motive</a>”, contextualising their attitudes and actions in ways that not only justify and remove responsibility from those who perpetrate the abuse, but firmly place the responsibility and blame on those who endure it.</p>
<p>A set of guidelines reaffirming the definitions of flirting and sexual harassment, or listing acceptable and non-acceptable behaviours is at best pointless. More worryingly, however, guidelines just fuel the raging fires of vocabularies of motive. We know that abuse is planned to be perpetrated in the grey areas of life, not the well defined. We also know that no matter how watertight a set of guidelines, a defence solicitor worth their salt will argue the loopholes exhaustively.</p>
<p>Perpetrators rely on blurring the boundaries to manipulate a picture of innocence. Setting more (ultimately arbitrary) boundaries for them to blur, therefore, will only provide them with more excuses, as in “I didn’t realise the action in that context was inappropriate”. Not only that, but it boosts the perpertrator’s inherent narcissism and feelings of entitlement.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215757/original/file-20180420-75126-14y65et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215757/original/file-20180420-75126-14y65et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215757/original/file-20180420-75126-14y65et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215757/original/file-20180420-75126-14y65et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215757/original/file-20180420-75126-14y65et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215757/original/file-20180420-75126-14y65et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215757/original/file-20180420-75126-14y65et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jimmy Savile was a predatory abuser who had friends in high places and hid in plain sight.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.paimages.co.uk/image-details/2.5136037">PA</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We need a zero tolerance approach to gender inequality to convince those who abuse their power that they are not entitled to do so. There are many areas of criminality where claims of ignorance regarding the law are not deemed an acceptable defence. Why do we continue to allow and facilitate claimed ignorance as a defence when it comes to sexual assault?</p>
<p>The high number of credible (and high-profile) allegations made by women against Weinstein means he has been publicly cast as a serial abuser and shunned. But like Savile, he has managed to create a new benchmark for the new language of motive – “That’s just what we did in those circumstances, how was I supposed to know women would change the rules?”.</p>
<p>Providing a new set of guidelines on now to behave appropriately can only facilitate denials of understanding of past abuse – “if only I had known that back then”, or for future abuse – “I must have misinterpreted that”. The rules haven’t changed, only the excuses.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94466/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Do we need a code of conduct to clarify issues around sexual harassment or worse in the workplace or zero tolerance to send the right message?Helena Bassil-Morozow, Lecturer in Media and Journalism, Glasgow Caledonian UniversityKaty Proctor, Lecturer in Criminology and Policing, Glasgow Caledonian UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/910192018-02-01T13:45:03Z2018-02-01T13:45:03ZTime’s up: the ‘pale, male and stale’ Hollywood of Harvey Weinstein is over<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204341/original/file-20180131-157473-1xyiced.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/harvey-weinstein-attend-carol-premiere-during-279099371">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the past 20 years, an increasingly repetitive Hollywood has been serving up bland blockbusters with male protagonists supported by busty blondes on the narrative sidelines, pseudo-intellectual disaster sci-fi, and endless comedies about weddings or stag nights and being lost in Los Angeles. For high-profile culture, Hollywood has offered audiences an exceedingly narrow view of the world.</p>
<p>This may paint a picture of intellectual decay and creative stagnation, but it’s actually worse than that. For decades we have been subjected to films in which women are 10 or more years younger than their male counterparts; where a James Bond character is accepted as sexy and valued in his 50s and 60s, yet the female sidekick is seen as attractive only if she is under 30 and conventionally beautiful.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204424/original/file-20180201-123849-1nt68ga.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204424/original/file-20180201-123849-1nt68ga.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204424/original/file-20180201-123849-1nt68ga.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204424/original/file-20180201-123849-1nt68ga.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204424/original/file-20180201-123849-1nt68ga.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204424/original/file-20180201-123849-1nt68ga.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204424/original/file-20180201-123849-1nt68ga.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A hit series on Netflix, Godless is a Western that focuses squarely on women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These women are flat, two-dimensional dolls devoid of darkness, moral or maternal imperfection, doubt or ambiguity. Their only function is to support men in their moral struggles and help them uncoil their fascinating internal complexities.</p>
<p>These narratives are not surprising given the demographics of decision-makers in Hollywood – that is male, pale and stale. The sorry <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/10/6/16431674/harvey-weinstein-allegations-explained">Weinstein affair</a> has particularly brought this imbalance of power to the fore. It turns out the accepted misogyny displayed in Hollywood film is a reflection of a misogynistic and abusive reality being played out in the dynamics of the film industry.</p>
<h2>Power and glory</h2>
<p>This concept of “narrative choice” is important. We know that people have a tendency to recreate their own vision of the world, not necessarily consciously or with malice. This is what they know and accept as the norm. But in choosing to recreate that narrative they are simply reinforcing and maintaining these norms.</p>
<p>In the context of Hollywood and Harvey Weinstein, the norms being reinforced and maintained are those of <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/martha-ts-laham-/the-celluloid-ceiling-tru_b_11389544.html">gender inequality</a>. Hollywood men with power recreate their world of inequality on screen, promoting and legitimising tired and outdated stereotypes in our society and culture. It is these “norms” that allow an industry and the individuals within it to abuse and exploit, or to be abused and exploited without challenge or intervention.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2LFg_KDxR5I?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">YouTube/DC Comics.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The power to choose directors, actors and actresses, storylines and cultural context comes with the potential to have enormous influence over individual, social, and cultural assumptions. For some reason, few doubted the repetitive rigidity of these industry choices, and only now do we begin to notice that, like a metaphorical hostage, the films we watched without thought have been covertly communicating the place and value of women relative to men since films began. </p>
<p>In 2016, women made up <a href="http://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/2017_Celluloid_Ceiling_Report.pdf">just 7%</a> of all directors of the top 250 films; in 2017 that went up four points to 11%. But Hollywood also suffers from a <a href="http://variety.com/2015/film/news/ucla-report-audiences-seeking-more-diversity-in-films-tv-1201441464/">racial inclusion crisis</a>, with very few ethnic minority producers and directors making it to the top.</p>
<p>In a multi-billion dollar industry there is a lot at stake in a very competitive and ruthless environment. As a result, narrative decisions in the biggest entertainment structure in the world are made by those in established positions of power – ruthless but risk-averse middle-aged white men. When this is translated into narratives about relationships and sexual power, dangerous precedents can be set. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204432/original/file-20180201-123829-1utgs7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204432/original/file-20180201-123829-1utgs7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=745&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204432/original/file-20180201-123829-1utgs7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=745&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204432/original/file-20180201-123829-1utgs7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=745&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204432/original/file-20180201-123829-1utgs7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=937&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204432/original/file-20180201-123829-1utgs7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=937&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204432/original/file-20180201-123829-1utgs7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=937&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bridget Jones, the much-loved chick flick from Weinstein’s Miramax, would not have passed the Bechdel test.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Miramax</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For instance, Woody Allen’s films (such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/11/manhattan-review-woody-allen">Manhattan</a>) contain numerous references to old men dating very young women, which in any other context would be considered concerning. Quentin Tarantino’s films overtly <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/12/29/samuel_l_jackson_s_hateful_eight_monologue_about_forcing_the_general_s_son.html">sexualise violence</a>, often by trivialising the threat with humour.</p>
<p>Formulaic “<a href="https://www.quora.com/What-constitutes-a-chick-flick">chick flicks</a>” such as Bridget Jones, reproduce the common movie <a href="https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/07/what-is-heteronormativity/">assumption</a> that a woman’s sole purpose in life is to find a man – and until she achieves that, she is a figure of fun or pity.</p>
<p>Equally predictable action films romanticise the extremes of masculine and feminine stereotypes – powerful men and submissive women. Most of them would not pass the so-called “<a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/TheBechdelTest?from=Main.TheBechdeltest">Bechdel test</a>” which asks simple but provocative questions: does a narrative contain two female characters, and do they speak to each other of something other than men? </p>
<h2>Smashing the Hollywood monopoly</h2>
<p>Luckily, on-demand television and media streaming arrived just in time to shake up, then directly challenge, the industry, saving it from itself. HBO, Netflix, Amazon and the BBC all began to offer narratives that went beyond the limited tastes and perspectives of the average Hollywood decision-maker. </p>
<p>Shows such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytkjQvSk2VA">Luke Cage</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3UYWK2jeX0">Jessica Jones</a> envisaged a superhero who is not white, or even a man. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2013/jul/11/orange-new-black-netflix-tv">Orange is the New Black</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/may/11/i-love-dick-review-jill-soloway-transparent-kathryn-hahn-kevin-bacon">I Love Dick</a> and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/09/26/fleabag-an-original-bad-girl-comedy">Fleabag</a> depicted the never-seen before – multi-dimensional female characters exhibiting aggression, criminality, promiscuity, alternative sexuality and the capacity to shape and achieve their own ambitions.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204434/original/file-20180201-123826-1sivcfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204434/original/file-20180201-123826-1sivcfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=668&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204434/original/file-20180201-123826-1sivcfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=668&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204434/original/file-20180201-123826-1sivcfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=668&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204434/original/file-20180201-123826-1sivcfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204434/original/file-20180201-123826-1sivcfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204434/original/file-20180201-123826-1sivcfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fleabag featured the messy life of a funny, foul-mouthed thirtysomething woman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other complex, fleshed-out female characters could be found in <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/maureen-ryan/girls-season-1-finale_b_1602385.html">Girls</a> (a 21st-century Sex and the City), <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/07/arts/television/glow-netflix-recap-season-1.html">Glow</a> (a comedy about female wrestling), <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/nov/22/godless-review-netflix-wonderfully-wicked-western-fires-on-all-cylinders">Godless</a> (a female Western series) and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/arts/television/top-of-the-lake-china-girl-tv-review.html">Top of the Lake</a> (a troubled female detective drama).</p>
<p>And at last there was an array of morally ambiguous but rather sympathetic female characters: <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/fargo-star-kirsten-dunst-peggys-832967">Peggy Blumquist</a> in Fargo 2, <a href="http://time.com/4765797/fargo-mary-elizabeth-winstead/">Nikki Swango</a> in Fargo 3, Scandi-Noir detectives Sara Lund (<a href="http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-killing/23375/looking-back-at-the-killing-series-1">The Killing</a>) and Saga Noren (<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-sexual-freedom-if-someone-is-raping-you-sofia-helin-and-the-swedish-metoo-90962">The Bridge</a>) and most of the female characters in Orange is the New Black. </p>
<p>Rather awkwardly and much too late, Hollywood has been trying to copy this trend. Now Star Wars has a female protagonist in the form of <a href="http://www.starwars.com/databank/rey">Rey</a>. There’s even a female superhero in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jun/04/wonder-woman-review-gloriously-badass-breath-fresh-air-gal-gadot">Wonder Woman</a> – a protagonist proper, with no men attached to her story. Before them there were, of course, Ridley Scott’s female bad-asses such as <a href="http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/movies/alien/47055/ellen-ripley-alien-and-the-rise-of-the-modern-ripleys">Ripley</a> in the Alien franchise, <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/ThelmaAndLouise">Thelma and Louise</a> and Lieutenant Jordan O’Neil in <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/GIJane">GI Jane</a>, who all fought for the right to be seen as human beings in a world otherwise run by men.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204423/original/file-20180201-123821-14bwt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204423/original/file-20180201-123821-14bwt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204423/original/file-20180201-123821-14bwt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204423/original/file-20180201-123821-14bwt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204423/original/file-20180201-123821-14bwt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204423/original/file-20180201-123821-14bwt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204423/original/file-20180201-123821-14bwt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Greta Gerwig has been nominated for Best Director at this year’s Oscars for Ladybird.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/greta-gerwig-23rd-annual-critics-choice-797599711?src=OYpZmLlv7mb2mDS5D7QI5Q-1-7">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With the revulsion caused by the uncovering of Weinstein’s abuse of power and the exposure of unequal pay highlighting the shocking lack of gender equality, it feels like finally those narratives are about to change. Women everywhere celebrate every milestone on the road to equality – this year Greta Gerwig has been nominated for best director at the Oscars, and with only five other women ever nominated (and only one, Kathryn Bigelow, winning) in the awards’ 90-year history, this is a <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/23/entertainment/greta-gerwig-lady-bird-oscar-nomination/index.html">big deal</a>.</p>
<p>The powerless have been given a voice with which they can make demands, challenges and criticisms of the Hollywood we know. The genie is out of the bottle and she’s not going back in.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91019/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hollywood has long had a problem with diversity. But thanks to services like Netflix women have found a place for their stories, compelling Tinseltown to change.Helena Bassil-Morozow, Lecturer in Media and Journalism, Glasgow Caledonian UniversityKaty Proctor, Lecturer in Criminology and Policing, Glasgow Caledonian UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/632022016-08-04T20:08:30Z2016-08-04T20:08:30ZShould monopoly businesses have an obligation to create competition?<p>Australia has many concentrated markets, dominated by a few big businesses. Should these businesses be required to actively promote competition?</p>
<p>Australia’s <a href="http://www.australiancompetitionlaw.org/legislation/provisions/2010cca46.html">current competition law</a> says that as long as a business doesn’t use its market power in a way that is intended to harm competition and consumers, it has behaved legally.</p>
<p>But perhaps the law should go further, so a big business is required to actively “assist” competitors or to treat competitors on the same terms that it treats itself. </p>
<p>Arguably, this is the position in Europe, where Google is being prosecuted for not providing competitor advertisers with “equal access” to Google’s own search engine. Similarly, Australia’s infrastructure access laws place a competitive obligation on a business that controls an “essential facility”. </p>
<p>Or does a business with market power owe a “duty of care”? This means it doesn’t need to actively help competition. However, the business needs to ensure it doesn’t harm competition, either intentionally or accidentally, through its conduct. </p>
<p>For example, a big business, like any other business, can negotiate with suppliers. But it needs to recognise that, because of its market power, such negotiations may have very different consequences. </p>
<p>For example, the suppliers may stop sales or raise prices to other businesses if these terms and conditions are used as comparatives by the business with market power. This was at the heart of <a href="http://www.ags.gov.au/publications/express-law/07AGSCasenoteSafeway.pdf">the Safeway bread case</a>, where the supermarket was penalised for fixing the price of bread and misusing its market power.</p>
<h2>Australia’s current system</h2>
<p>Australia, like most developed countries, makes it illegal for a dominant business to abuse its market power and reduce competition. But what does this mean?</p>
<p>It is clearly not about protecting competitors. As the <a href="http://competitionpolicyreview.gov.au">final report of the Competition Policy Review (2015)</a> notes, competition law:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“is not designed to support a particular number of participants in a market or to protect individual competitors; instead, it is designed to prevent competitors’ behaviour from damaging the competitive process to the detriment of consumers”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Unfortunately, the “competitive process” is poorly defined. Does it mean that big business can compete on the merits? Or that the law is not broken so long as a business does not behave in a way that depends on its market power? Or that the aim is to protect an equally efficient competitor? </p>
<p>Neither economics nor the law provides a simple answer to these questions. </p>
<p>For example, if a big business drops its price, undercutting rivals so that they exit, and then raises its price above the original level, harming consumers, is this illegal? </p>
<p>According to legal precedent, both here and overseas, it depends. A business cannot price “too low” or it breaks the law. But undercutting competitors, even if this leads to higher prices later on, is not necessarily illegal.</p>
<p>Economics also provides little help. <a href="http://www.yalelawjournal.org/essay/stopping-above-cost-predatory-pricing">According to some economists</a>, low pricing should be illegal if it harms consumers over the longer term. According to others, the short-term benefits to consumers of low prices should never be prevented.</p>
<p>So the problem of designing competition laws to “protect the competitive process” is that it is unclear what this means. </p>
<h2>Changes to Australia’s competition laws</h2>
<p>In contrast, we can think of competition law as creating competitive obligations on big business. Different views of obligations will lead to very different laws. The changes to our competition laws proposed by the Competition Policy Review create positive obligations. That is why they are so controversial. </p>
<p>At a minimum, the proposed laws create a duty of care. So long as there is an anti-competitive effect, a business can break the law unintentionally. Intent or purpose is not required. </p>
<p>Arguably, this is not a major change. The courts assume big business knows what it is doing. Claims by big business that “we didn’t expect that” are often treated with scepticism. </p>
<p>However, the proposed changes go further. A business with market power may breach the proposed law if it acts in a way that substantially lessens competition, even if its behaviour is not connected to its market power. </p>
<p>This goes beyond a duty of care. It creates a proactive obligation and may limit behaviour that would be considered pro-competitive for a business without market power.</p>
<p>This is a major change in how Australia governs competition. And it may not be desirable. </p>
<p>The changes may lead to excessive business caution. It may harm consumers, particularly if it results in large international players, like Google, Visa or Apple, bypassing our market or restricting new services for fear that they might break the law. Europe is too big for business to ignore. Australia is not.</p>
<h2>The need for debate</h2>
<p>Supporters of the proposed competition law changes would argue that I am too pessimistic. The courts, they would claim, will not put a positive obligation on big business. The courts will understand what it means to “substantially lessen competition” and will stop short of such a requirement. </p>
<p>Perhaps. But what if they are wrong?</p>
<p>Before changing our competition laws we need to debate the objective of those laws. Debates about a poorly defined “competitive process” are unhelpful. Rather, what, if any, competitive obligations do we want to place on a business that has “substantial market power”? What are the costs and benefits of different obligations?</p>
<p>Maybe the status quo is best? Or possibly we want big business to bear a positive obligation to competition? I don’t know – because we have not had the discussion.</p>
<p>However, I do know that this debate is necessary. To change our laws without clearly stating the objective is a recipe for confusion and uncertainty.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63202/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen King does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s time that Australians debated the objective of our competition law. It shouldn’t just be left to the courts.Stephen King, Adjunct professor, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/532102016-01-28T19:20:25Z2016-01-28T19:20:25ZHow to stop the sexual harassment of women in science: reboot the system<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109421/original/image-20160127-26778-uqozu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Enough! There is a way to end the harassment of women in science.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Dean Drobot</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The culture in astronomy, and in science more broadly, needs a major reboot following revelations early this year of another case of harassment against women by a senior male academic.</p>
<p>The journal Science <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/01/caltech-suspends-professor-harassment-0">revealed earlier this month</a> that the latest case involved Christian Ott, a professor of theoretical astrophysics at Caltech university, in the United States.</p>
<p>Frustrated that Ott was not fired and only <a href="http://us11.campaign-archive1.com/?u=0657df8937aa6f6a60b025e79&id=7a115853f8">placed on unpaid leave</a> for a year, the two female students who raised the allegations took their story to the popular online news outlet <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/azeenghorayshi/ott-harassment-investigation">Buzzfeed</a>. </p>
<p>Also this month, US Congresswoman Jackie Speier <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2681332-2016-01-11-Speier-Letter-to-USED-Re-Sexual.html">raised the case</a> of Professor Tim Slater, who <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2655517-U-AZ-EOAAO-Investigative-Report-Timothy-Slater.html">had been investigated for various sexual harassment incidents</a> that began after he was hired by the University of Arizona in August 2001. Slater went on to the University of Wyoming.</p>
<p>Slater spoke to the news website <a href="http://mashable.com/2016/01/12/astronomy-professor-sexual-harassment-university-of-arizona/#L141NyaMtiqM">Mashable</a> and said he had received sexual harassment training as an outcome of the investigation.</p>
<p>But Congresswoman Speier questioned why the investigation into <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyWeNycz1mA">Slater’s sexual harassment was sealed</a> “while he went on with his career”, even though women who were victims lost years of study and career progress due to his conduct.</p>
<h2>A familiar pattern</h2>
<p>In these two cases, a pattern emerges: so-called rising stars in academic astronomy engage in routine harassment of students early in their careers, receiving tenure and accolades, all the while engaging in abuse of power.</p>
<p>Remember last year’s case of the Professor of Astronomy, Geoff Marcy, who in early October wrote <a href="http://w.astro.berkeley.edu/%7Egmarcy/MarcyLetter_October7.pdf">an open letter of apology</a> acknowledging his history of sexual harassment at University of California, Berkeley.</p>
<p>Two days later <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/azeenghorayshi/famous-astronomer-allegedly-sexually-harassed-students">Buzzfeed broke the news</a> of a six-month investigation into Marcy, which covered incidents from 2001 to 2010. A few days later Marcy’s resignation was <a href="http://news.berkeley.edu/2015/10/14/a-message-about-professor-marcys-resignation/">announced by the university</a>.</p>
<p>But later that month, <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/azeenghorayshi/geoff-marcy-at-sfsu">Buzzfeed reported</a> three more women shared their experiences of harassment by Marcy while he was at San Francisco State University. In December, the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/berkeley-releases-report-on-astronomer-sexual-harassment-case-1.19068">Nature reported</a> more incidents in 2011, 2013 and 2014.</p>
<p>A few days ago, it was revealed that UC Berkley has <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/azeenghorayshi/professor-emeritus-marcy">granted Marcy an honorific Emeritus Professorship</a>, despite these events.</p>
<h2>How big is the problem?</h2>
<p>The current incidents are not isolated. A <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/astronomers-struggle-to-translate-anger-into-action-on-sexual-harassment/">recent survey</a> by the American Astronomical Society’s Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy included 426 astronomers, 82% of whom had heard sexist remarks from peers; 57% had experienced verbal sexual harassment; and 9% had been physically harassed.</p>
<p>These recent high-profile cases are notable because the victims of harassment have pursued alternative routes to raise awareness and chosen to speak out. Still, going to a politician or the media should be a last resort.</p>
<p>The pattern in these cases is clear: women attempt to manage the harassment directly with their abusers, who hold power over them. They are afraid to launch a formal report due to fear of retaliation. </p>
<p>After prolonged harassment, sometimes years later, they make a formal complaint. In all cases, harassers are not immediately suspended. They are given some one-off training and then allowed to move on with their careers.</p>
<p>The same is not true of victims, who struggle to put their progress back on track and who live with the anxiety of having their harassers back on campus.</p>
<p>Institutions appear reticent to take strong disciplinary action, focusing on mentoring rather than tackling sexual harassment as a systemic problem requiring an institutional solution.</p>
<h2>The system is failing women</h2>
<p>Science careers depend heavily on recommendations from supervisors, and this is in an environment where many senior researchers collaborate. This leaves victims vulnerable, fearful of the consequences of speaking up. This anxiety is not unfounded.</p>
<p>In mid-2015, prominent scientists <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3132413/Eight-Nobel-prize-winners-attack-lynch-mob-forced-sexism-row-professor-Sir-Tim-Hunt-job.html">jumped to the defence</a> of Sir Tim Hunt after he <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33077107">made a sexist “joke”</a> during the World Conference of Science Journalists in South Korea.</p>
<p>The women scientists who spoke out against this, and other incidents of sexism, <a href="http://www.stemwomen.net/summer-of-sexism/">are routinely faced with a torrent of abuse</a>.</p>
<p>Senior leaders’ kneejerk reaction is to publicly defend sexual harassers, such as by <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/azeenghorayshi/berkeley-astronomy-dept-calls-for-professor-to-leave-in-wake">emphasising a friendship with Marcy</a> even after he was found guilty of sexual harassment, without adequate consideration for his victims.</p>
<p>But as of this week, more than 500 astronomers and physicists from across the world have <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/14c77S8HVshiEUXvuZD93vzw1Xg9TIMtxc5oZpaGB-wI/edit">signed a letter of support</a> for both of Ott’s victims, which reads:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A career in astronomy is a joy and a privilege, and one that we firmly believe should be open to all. Harassment and bullying force talent out of our field, and as such have no place in it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Too few institutions are proactive about sexual harassment. MIT took action <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2014/lewin-courses-removed-1208">in December 2014</a>, but then again Dr Walter Lewin was already retired when he carried out online sexual harassment. The online course he ran was cancelled.</p>
<p>Administrator of NASA, Charles Bolden, <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/bolden_letter_20160115.pdf">recently issued a strong statement</a> warning institutions to be compliant with civil rights laws against sexual harassment in order to remain qualified for grants.</p>
<p>The National Science Foundation similarly warned it may <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=137466">terminate funding to institutions</a> found to be non-compliant with anti-sexual harassment regulation. Still, the onus largely remains on institutions to police compliance. Recent history shows this is not always effective.</p>
<p>The situation we are seeing within astronomy is perhaps more public than in other areas of science, but the machinations are by no means unique. A <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0102172">Survey of Academic Field Experiences</a> by the University of Illinois’ Professor Kate Clancy and colleagues included responses from almost 700 scientists from various disciplines.</p>
<p>Almost three-quarters of the sample (72%) had observed or been told about sexual harassment at their most recent research field site. Two-thirds (64%) of researchers had experienced sexual harassment, mostly at the hands of a senior researcher. </p>
<p>Women were 3.5 times more likely than men to report being subject to sexual harassment.</p>
<h2>Beyond sexism</h2>
<p>Beyond sexual harassment, science has problems with other forms of harassment, and it’s not confined to just the US.</p>
<p>Astronomer Dr Jessica Kirkpatrick founded the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/astro.physics.women/">Equity and Inclusion in Physics and Astronomy</a> group on Facebook, which she manages with fellow astronomer Adam Jacobs and me, a sociologist.</p>
<p>At its peak, late in 2015, we had more than 4,000 members from around the world. Our group was expressly formed to support underrepresented groups in astronomy and physics. This included white women; racial and ethnic minorities; people with disabilities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people; and others.</p>
<p>Our group was regularly inundated by astronomers and physicists who were angry at <a href="http://bit.ly/1EpszI8">our group’s aims</a> to improve inclusion of underrepresented groups. </p>
<p>During the “<a href="http://www.stemwomen.net/astronomy-sexism-rosetta-shirtstorm/">shirtstorm</a>” incident, where a prominent scientist wore a shirt with naked women during an interview about an international space mission, our group was descended upon by astronomers trying to derail discussions of sexism.</p>
<p>In various other incidents, especially in discussions of racism, very senior researchers attacked junior scholars for their activism, both within our group and in other, more high-profile professional astronomy networks.</p>
<p>All of this harassment and abuse happens in front of a potential international audience of thousands astronomers and physicists.</p>
<p>But senior astronomers rarely speak up, simply watching from the sidelines as our most vulnerable members, women of different race or ethnic backgrounds, people with disabilities and other minority students and early career researchers, are lambasted, sometimes by hundreds of disparaging comments and abuse over a weekly period.</p>
<p>After trying different approaches to reform the group, we took drastic measures. We decided to reboot the group. We ejected everyone and asked them to re-join after filling out a form where members explicitly vow to uphold our mission to create an inclusive culture in astronomy and physics.</p>
<p>Our group is currently close to 900 members who made this commitment, and the environment is much improved (though we occasionally experience individual issues). The culture has shifted because everyone who belongs to our community has signed on to take responsibility for their education on issues of inclusion and equity. We are striving towards proactive action.</p>
<p>In a similar way, astronomy at large needs a reboot. The culture of harassment, abuse and resistance to equity and diversity needs to be stamped out through direct intervention.</p>
<h2>Rebooting the culture of harassment</h2>
<p>At the individual level, we need more astronomers speaking out against sexual harassment and related forms of discrimination. The current system relies heavily on victims coming forward in a climate where this is professionally and personally costly.</p>
<p>It is therefore up to the rest of us to pick up the slack, so here are a few ideas on what to do.</p>
<h3>We need to speak up</h3>
<p>When you hear or see a colleague being made to feel uncomfortable due to gender and sexual issues, a few simple words calling out this behaviour can make a big difference.</p>
<p>Inappropriate sexual and gender-based jokes or sexual comments are not benign. They plant a seed for sexual harassment, making women uncomfortable and unwelcome, and setting the tone for future abuse.</p>
<h3>Lead by example</h3>
<p>Leaders who take an active approach to equity and diversity foster stronger, more productive teams. Be sure to find regular opportunities to discuss issues of sexual harassment (and racism and other forms of discrimination). Invite an expert on discrimination to give talks, or discuss useful anti-harassment resources.</p>
<h3>Make it easier to report abuse and harassment</h3>
<p>Equity and diversity officers are often an underutilised resource. Institutions that are serious about stamping out harassment should empower these officers to pursue action that is effective.</p>
<p><a href="http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/fed-up-with-sexual-harassment-ii_9.html">Information escrows</a> can be one way to manage confidential sexual harassment claims, where a third-party agent holds onto anonymised reports until a second complaint is made. When two independent claims are made, an investigation can be launched.</p>
<p>Alternatively, host regular confidential discussions with students and staff that allow institutions to gather confidential feedback about incidents that individuals are otherwise too afraid to report. This is more about creating an environment where faculty, staff and students have an opportunity to tell you about departmental or managerial issues before they spiral out of control. </p>
<h3>Make sure the policies work</h3>
<p>Listing anti-harassment policies on your website and campus manual is not enough. Administrators might ask themselves these two questions:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Does my institution have evidence that the policies are working for the people they’re meant to protect? Absence of complaints does not necessarily mean your faculty, staff and students feel safe and supported.</p></li>
<li><p>How do you know if reporting mechanisms are working? Scientists who experience harassment don’t always know the options available to them, and those who do report are often unhappy with the outcome.</p></li>
</ol>
<h3>Make safety a day-to-day priority</h3>
<p>Much of academia is a baptism of fire. We are not taught how to teach; we are not taught how to supervise students effectively; we are not taught how to manage sexual harassment and other issues of discrimination. (<a href="http://knowyourix.org/i-want-to/support-survivor/">These guidelines</a> can help you make a start.)</p>
<p>Relevant and ongoing anti-sexual harassment training should be part of managerial responsibilities. All staff should get the same basic training, but it should be tweaked at the individual level.</p>
<p>Managers and decision-makers (anyone who sits on a funding or recruitment panel, for example) should attend training on physical sexual harassment. They should also attend training on other forms of harassment that make workplace culture untenable for many women and underrepresented scientists.</p>
<p>Unconscious gender bias training can help managers see how the behaviour they take for granted may be a problem for those with less power. </p>
<p>Diversity training encourages managers to effectively manage different groups and be more aware of potential exclusion. It can show them the benefits of having a diverse team finding innovative solutions to research problems</p>
<h3>Strategic planning</h3>
<p>What would it take to overhaul and radically improve your institution so that women are not demotivated through a hostile work environment? How can you actively protect staff from harassment, bullying and discrimination? </p>
<p>University strategic plans nowadays often have equity and diversity statements, with anti-harassment and anti-bullying sometimes highlighted, but how will your university reach its goals if harassment underpins organisational culture?</p>
<p>Given that surveys find sexual harassment is a common experience, a strategic vision for a healthy, successful science organisation needs to formulate clear targets and key performance indicators that directly address the elimination of harassment, gender bias, racial discrimination, and other forms of abuse</p>
<h3>A collective stand against harassment</h3>
<p>National efforts <a href="http://www.ecu.ac.uk/equality-charters/athena-swan/">in the UK</a> and <a href="http://www.sciencegenderequity.org.au/">Australia</a> as well as <a href="http://www.gender-net.eu/">regional programs in Europe</a> are working towards the elimination of gender bias. Sexual harassment is one important piece of the puzzle.</p>
<p>Joining the global movement to make gender equity and diversity policies and outcomes more explicit is the best way to commit to a more inclusive culture within science.</p>
<p>In order for institutions to make a clear commitment against harassment, discrimination and bias, they should publish data and analysis about their policies and practices. This makes institutions more publicly accountable.</p>
<h2>Act now, before it’s too late</h2>
<p>There is no denying that astronomy has a problem with sexual harassment, along with other forms of discrimination and abuse of power.</p>
<p>But we don’t need to wait for journalists and politicians to shine a spotlight on more individual cases of harassment. It’s time individual researchers, science managers, departments and institutions made the commitment to reboot science and wipe out harassment.</p>
<p>Science faces many complex problems that require the type of innovation that can only be fully realised with gender equity and diversity. Astronomy, like other sciences, simply cannot afford to miss out on the talents of different groups of women if they feel forced to leave the professions because of sexual harassment.</p>
<p>Similarly, science cannot reach its full potential without diversity, and diversity cannot flourish in a culture of racism, discrimination and fear. Research excellence cannot happen without rebooting science culture. The rest of us are ready for change. Are you?</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Dr Zuleyka Zevallos will be online between 12.30pm and 1.30pm <a href="http://www.timeanddate.com/time/zones/aedt">AEDT</a> today, Friday January 29, 2016, to answer any questions or comments you may post (below) on how to deal with any harassment of women in science. Please be aware of our <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/community-standards">Community Standards</a> on comments.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53210/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zuleyka Zevallos is affiliated with Equity and Inclusion in Astronomy and Physics, a volunteer-run, private Facebook group that receives no funding, resources or external support for our activities. </span></em></p>The public outing of a number of high profile scientists in sexual harassment cases shows the current system of protecting women isn’t working. But there is a solution.Zuleyka Zevallos, Adjunct Research Fellow, Sociology, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/321032014-09-26T04:18:42Z2014-09-26T04:18:42ZNational security gags on media force us to trust state will do no wrong<p>It has been said that the line between good investigative reporting and inappropriate journalistic prying is never clearly drawn. Journalists usually complain long and hard when governments intervene to move the line. So they will not be impressed with what has happened this week.</p>
<p>In the shadow of the recent anti-terrorism raids across New South Wales and Queensland, the Abbott government has <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/consumer-security/terror-laws-clear-senate-enabling-entire-australian-web-to-be-monitored-and-whistleblowers-to-be-jailed-20140926-10m8ih.html">passed legislation</a> (with Labor support) <a href="https://theconversation.com/national-security-bills-compound-existing-threats-to-media-freedom-29946">designed specifically to silence</a> those who would seek to report particular anti-terrorism measures.</p>
<h2>Government can impose blanket of silence</h2>
<p>The relevant law emerges from the <a href="http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/legislation/bills/s969_first-senate/toc_pdf/1417820.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf">National Security Legislation Amendment Bill</a> (No.1) 2014. This amends the <a href="http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2014C00613">ASIO Act 1979</a> by adding a new section 35P (amongst others) to extend existing state and federal prohibitions on the disclosure of information regarding policing for anti-terrorist purposes.</p>
<p>The amendment imposes substantial jail terms (five years) for anyone who discloses information relating to a “special intelligence operation” (SIO). That penalty doubles if there is evidence that the disclosure would endanger the health or safety of any person or prejudice the effective conduct of an SIO. The Senate <a href="http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/spy-laws-passed-in-senate-asio-given-new-powers/story-fnjwmwrh-1227071116071">accepted a Palmer United Party amendment</a> that means anyone who publicly names an ASIO agent could be jailed for up to a decade, a ten-fold increase in the existing penalty.</p>
<p>There is no “public interest” defence. There is no defence that a journalist was not aware that an SIO was even in progress.</p>
<p>Laws designed to limit the reporting of such matters are not new. In the last decade each jurisdiction in Australia has passed legislation that limits publication of information about anti-terrorism orders, or other operations. For example, section 26P of the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/tpa2002291/">Terrorism (Police Powers) Act 2002 (NSW)</a> gives the NSW Supreme Court (upon application by the government) power to suppress anything to do with a preventative detention order or prohibited contact order.</p>
<p>What is different about the latest legislation is that the silence “blanket” now applies across Australia without the need for a court order.</p>
<h2>History of abuses makes case for transparency</h2>
<p>Respected criminologist Peter Grabosky has contributed an interesting chapter <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2482170">on this subject</a> in a forthcoming book, Unsettling Transparency. In his chapter he writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>While hardly anyone would suggest that national security should be managed in an environment of complete transparency, there are many who suggest that citizens of a democracy are entitled to know about acts of questionable propriety that have been committed by their government on their behalf. And prospectively, it is important for citizens to be party to informed discussion about whether the policies that may lead to these acts are misguided or not.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60127/original/n2r9fpnj-1411698403.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60127/original/n2r9fpnj-1411698403.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60127/original/n2r9fpnj-1411698403.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60127/original/n2r9fpnj-1411698403.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60127/original/n2r9fpnj-1411698403.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60127/original/n2r9fpnj-1411698403.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60127/original/n2r9fpnj-1411698403.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The reporting of the Pentagon Papers, exposing lies to the people and Congress about the Vietnam War, wouldn’t happen under our national security laws.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Professor Grabosky analyses five international cases of unauthorised public disclosures of national security information. He concludes that the real harm to the national interest in each of the cases arose not from the initial disclosures, but from the state responses. Richard Nixon’s attempted censorship of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagon_Papers">Pentagon Papers</a>, for example, only invited further opposition to the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>The difficulty for any government that invokes a cloak of secrecy under the claim of “national security” is that it invites suspicion. Is the real agenda to conceal a blunder, to justify a violation of the law, or to pursue a political end?</p>
<p>Remember the famous phrase of Ronald Reagan? “If you knew what I knew.” That rang hollow a decade later when the US government trotted out the same justification for the military pursuit of Saddam Hussein’s alleged “weapons of mass destruction” in the absence of any overt evidence.</p>
<p>In our own corner of the world the tradition continues: on the grounds of <a href="http://www.ag.gov.au/NationalSecurity/Counterterrorismlaw/Pages/default.aspx">“national security”</a> the Australian government continues to refuse to discuss allegations that it engaged in <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-australia-and-timor-leste-in-the-hague-21215">eavesdropping on cabinet ministers</a> of the government of Timor-Leste.</p>
<h2>The need to speak truth to power</h2>
<p>Into this debate come the journalists, those whose natural inquisitiveness aids their scepticism. Are there any ulterior purposes? Are governments exaggerating a threat in order to justify excessive countermeasures?</p>
<p>No-one is able to assess whether the claims are valid, and whether operations are a legitimate use of state power, unless the information is put under public scrutiny. Moreover, in the absence of reliable information, potentially damaging speculation is likely to fill the evidentiary gap.</p>
<p>So where do we go from here? One could suggest that media proprietors’ barristers should head to the High Court and argue that the law violates the <a href="http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22library%2Fprspub%2FT0610%22">freedom of political communication</a> implied in the Constitution, especially if disclosure does not pose a disproportionate threat to public safety.</p>
<p>The legislation, however, does not give any assistance in this respect. And, in the case of <a href="http://www.gtcentre.unsw.edu.au/node/169">Lodhi (2006) NSWSC 571</a>, the NSW Supreme Court held that suppressing evidence such as this was not an unconstitutional restriction on freedom of speech. </p>
<p>One could simply trust governments to do their job, and tell naysayers to desist. But we need to remember that, when officials are confident that they are not under scrutiny, it is not unfair (nor un-Australian) to suspect that some will exercise their power inappropriately. And to determine whether that has occurred we need transparency, not a wall of silence.</p>
<p>Governmental zeal, however justified by the pressures of the day, must be kept in check by the curiosity of a free press.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32103/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rick Sarre does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It has been said that the line between good investigative reporting and inappropriate journalistic prying is never clearly drawn. Journalists usually complain long and hard when governments intervene to…Rick Sarre, Professor in Law, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.