Hamilton, Ontario surfaces again.
This man is married with a daughter.
Great article here about Bob Feaver, the guy in the video. He sexually harassed a coworker and she tells about it.
THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR
SATURDAY, MAY 17, 2008
A progressive society?
My career began with a boss’s hurtful
comment years ago, yet sexual harassment
still exists today for most women in the
workplace
By: Susan Clairmont
He is on a bed with two young
women.
They’ve gone into the room with
him because he’s using his twofor-one ticket before he leaves the
Venezuelan brothel to return home
to Peterborough.
He takes his shirt off revealing his
huge gut and man-*advertiser censored* that one
girl says are bigger than hers. He
begins to touch the girls.
Before things go too much further, the camera operated by a BBC
documentary crew backs out the
doorway, leaving the sex tourist to
have his way with the girls he has
bought for the week.
“I’ll be back in April,” he says in
the next shot as he farewells girl
after girl with a hug and a kiss.
I’m watching this on YouTube
with my mouth open.
I know this guy. His name is Bob
Feaver. I used to work for him. He
was my editor.
And he sexually harassed me.
It was at the beginning of my career. I was fresh out of journalism
school, 22 years old. Working for
The Peterborough Examiner. The
only other woman in the newsroom
was our lifestyles editor.
I was the police reporter. But, as
is the way at a small daily, I had
other duties as well. I took photos.
Wrote a column. Did some sports
reporting. I answered to a number
of different editors. Feaver, known
as Sports Feaver, was one of them.
He’d been at the paper forever,
even then. Was well known around
town, though not necessarily well
respected. He was crass and ignorant. Once, during a staff Christmas gift exchange, he presented a
gay reporter with a feather duster.
I had been at the paper only a few
weeks when head shots were taken
of me. The photographer was at my
desk, showing me the pics and a
few colleagues gathered around to
help me choose the best one.
Then Feaver came by.
In my short time at the paper,
he’d been attentive to me. Came to
my desk a lot. But I wasn’t prepared
for what he had to say this day. In
front of the guys I worked with.
“It’s a good picture, but it would
be better if you were naked.”
Nobody knew what to do.
The guys turned on their heels
and walked away. I sat in front of
my computer, feeling my cheeks
burn and tears well.
What have I done to deserve that
humiliation? I’m going about my
business, doing my job and I get
treated like that? I’ve just earned a
master’s degree and landed my first
newsroom job so I can be treated
like that? By a guy I report to?
People who know me now might
be surprised that I was so overwhelmed that day. After all, I’m not
exactly a shrinking violet. But this
was a long time ago. I wasn’t as sure
of myself. Wasn’t as knowledgeable about my rights and the law
and the definition of sexual harassment. Wouldn’t have realized that
what just happened to me is experienced by 87 per cent of women at
some point in their working life,
according to Statistics Canada.
snip...
Even as I watch my former editor
on YouTube, the day’s Spectator on
my desk is open to a column about a
high profile sexual harassment case
at our city hall. Hamilton Police
have problems with a male sergeant
and 12 female complainants.
That day back at The Examiner, I
was devastated. Yet I had to do
something.
I went to my managing editor.
The big boss. It may have been the
first time I’d set foot in his office.
Told him what had just transpired
between me, his newest staffer, and
Feaver, one of his longest-serving
employees.
The ME immediately took me
and Feaver into the board room. I
was terrified. The ME asked Feaver
if it was true. Feaver began to cry.
He apologized then left the room.
That was that. I worked with
Feaver for another five years.
I’ve sometimes thought about
that day. Questioned the way I’d
handled things. Wondered how
he’d treated other women who
came after me.
Recently I got an e-mail from a
long-lost Examiner co-worker. He
sent me a link to YouTube and the
BBC documentary that aired in
Britain in December.
I called my old ME. Seems that,
after 30 years on the job, Feaver left
the paper. In December.
My encounter with
Feaver stuck with me,
but I realized he
probably never
gave it another
thought. I decided I’d write about
him. The harassment, the video
and the fretting I’d done in between.
I was going to write this column
without naming him. Then my editor reminded me I don’t do that. I
name names. I make people accountable. Or try to. She’s right.
So I phoned Bob Feaver.
He recognized my name immediately. I told him I was writing a column about him. About the harassment. About the documentary.
“That show was edited to make
me look bad. All the women there
were adults. They all had government papers,” he says.
As for the harassment, he can’t
remember where it took place, but
yes, he does recollect saying something he shouldn’t have.
“It did not become part of my
personnel file. (Our ME) felt it was
dealt with at the time, and that was
it... It was just the old male mentality of cracking jokes.”
He is upset I am writing this column. Doesn’t know why I would do
this to him.
“You hurt me enough at the time,
Susan.”
http://www.degroote.mcmaster.ca/News/pdfs/2008-05-17_Sexual_harassment.pdf