Film sets are also feeling the influence of the #metoo movement. In 2021, denunciations for sexual and psychological harassment on set rose by 35%, according to the Quebec Alliance of Image and Sound Technicians (AQTIS), local section 514 AIEST.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
By freeing women to speak in the fall of 2017, the social movement (and viral phenomenon) partly explains the increase in the number of harassment complaints, which rose from 20 to 28 last year.
“People are better informed,” believes Christian Lemay, president of the union, which represents 8,000 workers in the audiovisual field. “Today, people are able to recognize the dynamics of sexual and psychological harassment. They are also more united. When they see misconduct, they suggest victims approach their employer. It’s a culture change that’s taking place in our community. »
Same story with Ghislaine Labelle, organizational psychologist, CHRP. The speaker and accredited mediator perceives the increase in the number of denunciations in a positive light. This would not reveal the existence of a more toxic environment than before. On the contrary.
“Before #metoo, people didn’t dare to talk at all,” she says. Today, they come out of their silence. I have experienced it in other sectors. We observe an increase in complaints, then we see how the prevention mechanisms that we put in place can clean up the environment. »
According to Ghislaine Labelle, on the issue of harassment, the cultural sector is lagging behind compared to more “traditional” areas of activity. Its members would only have reached “the stage of naming a spade a spade”, that is to say of denouncing.
Because they are employees with precarious status, they believe that it is lost in advance. Most of the time, they hesitate to report situations of harassment or abuse because they fear the consequences. We need to change this belief. You have to show them that they have power.
Ghislaine Labelle, psychologist
A training
To prevent sexual and psychological harassment in the workplace, AQTIS, local section 514 AIEST, recently set up free training, carried out with the financial support of the Government of Quebec.
“We want to make our members aware of the problem of harassment,” says Christian Lemay. We want to make sure they know their rights. »
This training is all the more important because of the employment status of the people who walk on film sets.
“We are still a community of freelancers,” emphasizes Christian Lemay. People don’t necessarily want to cause trouble. We realize this because we receive complaints of harassment once the production is finished. By then it is often too late, because the investigative tools are no longer available to us. And when you open an investigation for something that was done months before, the employer rarely feels concerned.
This is what we emphasize in the training: harassment, you have to deal with it when it happens. It gives the investigation a better chance of succeeding.
Christian Lemay, President of the Quebec Alliance of Image and Sound Technicians (AQTIS), Local Section 514 AIEST
Ghislaine Labelle, who has been supporting organizations for 25 years in setting up mechanisms that help create healthy, respectful and inclusive work environments, gives this free training to members of AQTIS, local section 514 AIEST.
“We show them how it starts, a harassment situation, what to do, how to assert themselves, the resources they have, how to start an investigation procedure, etc. »
“I was able to speak”
Véronique’s story is one of the 28 denunciations received last year by the AQTIS local section 514 AIEST. Victim of an inappropriate gesture from a colleague at work while she was shooting an advertisement, the stage technician filed a complaint for sexual harassment.
The facts behind the case date back to June. Having to move her car after lunchtime, the young woman bends down to pick up her keys. She then feels something in her back. As if someone was pulling on something. As soon as she gets up, her Thai pants (which tie in the front and back with a drawstring) begin to fall off. Véronique turns around and sees a male colleague, another technician with whom she has never worked. She asks him if he just undid his pants. No reaction. She insists: “Why did you do that? »
“It was there to be detached,” the man replies with a chuckle.
“I felt bad,” says the technician, met in a café in Montreal. “I felt like a vice was tightening on everything. Like a shame that came over me. »
A few minutes later, Véronique unpacks her bag to the production manager, who invites her to go home without financial penalty. He tells him that if he dismisses the technician concerned, the filming risks being suspended, for lack of being able to find a replacement. In the heat of the moment, this explanation satisfies the main interested party.
I wasn’t fit to persist in saying, “No, he’s the one who has to squeal his camp; not me !” But when I think about it, he was the one who had to leave. If he had hit someone, I don’t feel like they would have kept him. It would have been frowned upon.
Véronique, victim of sexual harassment on a set
Once back home, Véronique calls her union to find out her options. After naming the technician, she understands that the man in question has been doing this type of thing for years, but that he has never been the subject of an official complaint.
“I was told there were a lot of rumours, but nothing in writing. This is one of the reasons that led me to file a complaint. I wanted there to be a mark on his file. To prevent him from making other victims. »
The complaint was processed a few months later. No investigation was conducted since the man never challenged Véronique’s version.
At the end of the process, Véronique even wrote a letter to the technician concerned so that he understood her approach. “I wanted him to know that there are consequences to his actions, that he can’t do what he wants and go to sleep peacefully afterwards. I wanted to change the shame camp. »
This speech helped Véronique a lot. “I did it for me. I was able to speak. It allowed me to move on. »
Apart from statistics
Not all cases of sexual and psychological harassment result in the filing of a formal complaint.
The example of Ariane (fictitious name) illustrates this reality well. In an interview, this stage electro-machinist, who wishes to preserve her anonymity because she fears reprisals if she appears publicly, recounts the nightmare she experienced in 2021, while participating in the filming of a television series.
Ariane talks about a relationship which, after a very professional and “square” start, took a pernicious path. It was a hand on the shoulder, useless one-on-ones that dragged on, a touch that was exercised throughout a sound recording, while silence was demanded – and immobility – complete of participants, etc.
The situation deteriorated during a day of filming outside Montreal. The day before, Ariane had asked the other members of the group to make sure that she was not going to make the journey in the front of the truck, alone with the man in question.
Once there, his grievances reached the ears of the individual, through the stage manager. Isolated, Ariane was forced to manage the irritation of the technician herself, who strongly rejected her allegations. After spending several hours under high tension, and after listening to him screaming to defend himself, the young woman began to think that she herself was the oppressor. “I did not receive support from anyone. The only person who apologized during our conversation was me. I promised to clear his name with people in the know.
“The only person who suffered from this denunciation was me,” she adds.
According to Ariane, the monster labor shortage that affected the television shooting sector last year did not help her cause. “The harassers felt they had total impunity because there were so few technicians that they knew they were never going to be fired. »
When she looks back, Ariane describes herself as “easy prey”. “I am quite an introverted person. I worked 16 hours a day, I slept little… I was in a weak position. I was in a fragile situation in the industry. I never filed a complaint, because it was too big. I didn’t want him to lose his job. I wanted him to stop, but I didn’t want him to be scratched out of the middle. »
This misadventure profoundly changed Ariane. Shaken, she decided to leave the big sets. Today, she favors smaller productions. “It traumatized me. When you play your place on each board, it’s hard to express your displeasure. It’s old school. You cash in to show that you are ready to make the next board. When a woman dares to open her mouth, it’s because she really got her ass kicked. »
A way forward
AQTIS 514 AIEST is not the only group to educate its members about harassment. The Quebec Media Production Association (AQPM) has also been offering training for several years. Since 1er January 2019, the AQPM provides producers with a model harassment prevention policy which, according to a law that came into effect on 1er January 2019, must in particular provide for the stages of processing a denunciation.
Director of labor relations at the AQPM, Geneviève Leduc points out that this procedure was negotiated with the AQTIS 514 AIEST, the Union des artistes and the Association of directors and directors of Quebec. “When there is a complaint, the tools we have developed come in handy,” says Geneviève Leduc. Victim of harassment at work last year, Ariane nevertheless questions this standardized way of managing this type of situation.
“It’s nice to sign harassment policies, but nobody reads what they sign. It does not change anything. It’s no use. That, to me, is bullshit. What is really important is that we follow a training course. All heads of department and all technicians must be subject to it,” insists the young woman.