A member of the police board says she will demand answers from the chief of police following a female sergeant’s allegations that she was sexually harassed by a member of the service.

Councillor Shelley Carroll said she wasn’t surprised to learn that Sgt. Jessica McInnis recently filed a complaint to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, as reported in the Star on Thursday, after other claims of sexual harassment and discrimination have been made against the Toronto Police Service in the past.

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Female Toronto officer alleges repeated harassment culture of sexism at downtown police division

Carroll said she “wants to know right now” what the service is doing to ensure that the “poisoned, sexist workplace environment” McInnis, 43, describes in her complaint does not exist.

“I don’t see why we would wait months or even years for a result from a tribunal before we go looking to see if the behaviours such as those described are happening,” Carroll said.

She said she will ask Chief Mark Saunders these questions at the next police board meeting in January.

None of McInnis’s allegations has been tested at the human rights tribunal.

McInnis, with nearly 20 years on the force, alleges that she was subjected to a “steady barrage of unsolicited sexist, sexual, harassing and obscene messages” by Det. Mark Morris, her former police partner and co-leader of their Criminal Investigations Bureau team at downtown’s 14 Division.

McInnis claims that Morris would undermine her, call her vulgar and demeaning names, comment on her body parts and refer to her as “Needle Dick.” She said she repeatedly complained to Morris and supervisors, but it proved fruitless and damaging to her career.

Morris’s lawyer, David Butt, called the allegations “either false or deliberately misleading” and said that they would be “vigorously contested” at the appropriate legal forum.

Within 14 Division, there is a “general culture of sexism” that discourages women targeted by sexist behaviour from coming forward, McInnis alleges.

Saunders is also named as a respondent in the claim. The police service spokesperson, Meaghan Gray, said last week that it will carefully review the claim and consider a response, as with any allegation.

The police board has a responsibility to represent the public, not the service, Carroll said.

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“We have to be vigilant and we have to send a strong message that we are in a new age and sexual harassment is not acceptable,” Carroll said.

With files from Wendy Gillis