Book Launch — Silenced: The Untold Story of the Fight for Equality in the RCMP

Date(s): Tuesday, November 17
Time: 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Location: : Abbotsford Campus

In 2004, Bonnie Reilly Schmidt completed her Bachelor of Arts at UFV. Since that time she has gone on to earn a Master of Arts and a PhD in History from SFU, and this fall, publishes her first book.

Silenced: The Untold Story of the Fight for Equality in the RCMP, offers a comprehensive history of women in the RCMP from 1873 until today. Not only does Reilly Schmidt write with the authority of an award-winning history scholar, but she brings a decade of personal experience as a plainclothes officer (she worked as a police officer with the RCMP from 1977-1987), and speaks on this subject with passion and intelligence.

In 1974, thirty-two women were hired as mounted police officers. Since that time, some of the immense challenges women encountered upon entering the RCMP have been revealed; nearly 400 female RCMP officers and civilian employees from across Canada have asked a BC judge to certify a class action lawsuit filed by Const. Janet Merlo over sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the RCMP. But 1974 does not mark a beginning of women’s history in the RCMP.

Bonnie Reilly Schmidt is a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada scholar and the recipient of the prestigious Dean of Graduate Studies Convocation Medal for Academic Excellence. She was a consultant and contributor to “First Ladies of the RCMP: The History of Women in the Force,” which aired on The Current with Anna Maria Tremonti, CBC Radio One. She has presented at numerous academic conferences, and has provided expert insights into this subject in interviews with the National Post, the Canadian Press, Macleans, the Vancouver Sun, and many other newspapers and radio programs.

Bonnie will do a reading from her book, and will be available to sign copies. Light refreshments will be served.

For more information contact Kim Isaac: kim.isaac@ufv.ca.