SINCERE AND OPEN DIALOGUE ABOUT SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN POLITICS HAS YET TO HAPPEN.

Imagine being afraid to get into an elevator by yourself. Not because it is broken down, or because you have a phobia, or because you don’t want to lose a cell signal. But because you’re genuinely worried that somebody might come in, ride the elevator with you for 20 seconds or so, then accuse you on Twitter the next day of groping them.

At least eight people on Parliament Hill mentioned male MPs’ fear of riding elevators to a researcher this spring as she asked them about whether a culture shift was underway, months after the #MeToo movement began to affect Canadian politicians.

In her as-yet unpublished research paper, focused on conversations with about 25 MPs and 200 Parliament Hill staffers, Rose St-Pierre concluded that changes in elected officials’ behaviour have been driven by fear rather than introspection. Meanwhile, staffers still feel vulnerable and don’t trust complaint mechanisms, with almost half saying they’d rather find a different job than make a complaint.

“Over the past several months I have sensed that there is still a taboo surrounding this subject, and that it is an uncomfortable and unclear debate for many people,” St-Pierre wrote in the conclusion of her paper. “Sincere and open dialogue about sexual harassment in politics has yet to happen.”

While working as a parliamentary intern this year, StPierre set out to investigate whether any real transformation was underway in Ottawa’s halls of power after #MeToo of them speaking under condition of anonymity, described to St-Pierre a skittish atmosphere where male politicians worried about stepping into elevators alone or being at the office afterhours. Several people told her they were aware of a male MP who is no longer willing to hire female staff.

“Those changes (in behaviour) are related to fear, and some misunderstanding of what’s going on, and the idea that the price to pay if you’re wrongly accused is super high. So, they’re not even reflecting on the problem of sexual harassment on the Hill — they’re thinking, ‘What if I get wrongly accused?’ And that’s their main focus,” she said.

The sheer volume of commentary along to others. People are very much on their guard, another MP said, and it has been difficult to have frank, intelligent conversations about sexual harassment.

Among the 200 staffers who participated in the research, 58 per cent worried that their reputation would suffer if they made a complaint of sexual harassment, 54 per cent reported not even knowing how to make a complaint, 49 per cent said they would worry about causing a media frenzy and 44 per cent said they would rather just find a different job than complain.

One staffer said that if there’s an impression that less harassment is taking place in the past few months, it’s not because people have understood they