Mineral Exploration

20 Mineral Exploration | amebc.ca PHOTO: iSTOCK A Time of Reckoning Examining our workplace culture in the wake of Me Too By KYLIE WILLIAMS H ollywood's red carpet is a long way from a remote exploration camp in northern British Columbia in more ways than one, but a chain of events in 2016 emphasized an upsetting similarity between the two: sexual assault and harassment happen, and the workplace culture deters victims from speaking up. The Me Too movement (or, as it appears so often in social media, #MeToo), a virtual global network that emboldens women and men to report sexual harassment and sexual assault, has forced a diverse range of industries to closely examine the accepted cultures that prevent people speaking up. What can the B.C. exploration sector learn from Me Too? With mineral discovery rates on a steady decline and a generation of experienced explorers and mine developers set to retire from the industry over the next decade, the mineral exploration industry is facing an uphill battle to attract and retain new workers. Future discoveries will not come easily and require diverse teams with a wide range of backgrounds and specialist skills. They must be capable of thinking innovatively and collaboratively to find and responsibly extract increasingly complex and diŽicult deposits. Sadly, exploration and mining workplaces are not attractive to a diverse range of people. Women, immigrants and Indigenous people are poorly represented. When people from these under- represented groups do enter the industry, they often face barriers, harassment and unconscious bias. Research published by the Mining Industry Human Resources Council in 2016 (prior to the emergence of Me Too) reported that 32 per cent of women said that they have experienced harassment, bullying or violence in their workplace in the last five years and 16 per cent of men said the same. Almost one in five women (18 per cent) who work in field settings reported that they had experienced harassment, bullying or violence in their workplace(s) monthly, weekly or daily in the past five years. Just as our attitudes toward health and safety have evolved over a generation, now is the time for workplace culture to evolve to be inclusive and safe for everyone. The Me Too movement is accelerating this cultural shift toward equality, diversity and inclusion far beyond the entertainment industry where it was sparked in 2017 when actress Ashley Judd accused a high-profile Hollywood producer of sexual harassment. Her actions encouraged over a dozen colleagues and fellow victims come forward with similar accusations. In solidarity, actress Alyssa Milano encouraged people to post the words "#MeToo" on social media if they had also experienced sexual assault or harassment, to show how widespread and common this behaviour really is and help victims feel less alone. Millions of women and men responded, and the global Me Too movement was born. Within a year of Judd's actions, almost every industry on every continent was examining its workplace culture through the Me Too lens. According to Lisa

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