B.C. police women want lawsuit, not labour arbitration, over alleged discrimination

A person enters The Law Courts building, which is home to B.C. Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, in Vancouver, on Monday, January 12, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

A lawyer for a group of female police officers in a proposed class-action lawsuit against municipal forces in B.C. says their sex discrimination and harassment claims should be dealt with collectively in court, not individually through labour arbitration.

The group of officers allege they were subjected to harassment, bullying and gender discrimination while working in policing in B.C., naming several municipalities and police boards as defendants.

The case has not been certified as a class proceeding, and the B.C. Supreme Court last year found it didn’t have jurisdiction over certain claims because they arose under collective agreements, and those disputes are handled by labour arbitrators.

Kyle Bienvenu, the officers’ lawyer, told a B.C. Appeal Court panel in Vancouver that the case should be heard as a class proceeding because it involves collective allegations of “discrimination caused by a system that is designed to fail.”

He says the claims go beyond employment conditions under collective agreements, and seek to correct a “poisoned” policing culture that permits sexual harassment and discrimination against female officers.

Jill Yates, the attorney for the City of Surrey and Surrey Police Board, says that “binding” law has already established that the claims made in the lawsuit belong before a labour arbitrator, not the court.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2026