Her 10th anniversary as a Toronto police officer was approaching, but Firouzeh Zarabi Majd was not in a mood to celebrate. Outraged by years of sexual harassment she and fellow female officers had experienced on the job, she was embarking on a one-man campaign to publicize her case across Canada.
She had already tried to negotiate through official channels but when that didn't work out she took to social media.
For 18 months, Zarabi-Maid posted pornographic images and racist and sexist messages that she said she had encountered at work.
She detailed the sexual assault she allegedly suffered and denounced and mocked officials who she believed downplayed her allegations.
She ignored a warning from Toronto police to stop.
Zarabi-Majd said that like any other citizen, he should have the right to air his grievances publicly.
But in May 2023, police officials fired her, saying she had sought to bring the Toronto Police Service into disrepute and that her actions constituted gross misconduct.
Zarabi-Maid, 43, appealed her firing to the Ontario Civilian Police Commission, an independent adjudicator, which ruled in April that the police had been justified in firing her “to protect public confidence in the police force.”
Zarabi-Maid is pursuing a separate lawsuit filed with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, a quasi-judicial body that handles discrimination complaints.
“The fact that I was fired made me see things differently,” Zarabi-Maid said. “What are they trying to achieve by firing a woman who has been sexually assaulted?”
Law enforcement experts say her experience illustrates similar issues in other municipal police forces in Canada, where workplaces remain largely male-dominated and female officers often don't report sexual harassment for fear of retaliation.
Last year, six female police officers in British Columbia filed a class action lawsuit against various police forces across the province, alleging they suffered gender-based harassment and bullying.
In Toronto, several female officers have filed sexual harassment complaints against the city's police force, and a 2020 ruling from the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal in one case described the force as “toxic.”
The police force hired consulting firm Deloitte to investigate workplace practices, and a 2022 report found that 28% of female officers surveyed said they had been victims of sexual harassment.
Toronto police did not comment on Zarabi-Maid's case but said it provides anti-harassment training and is working to improve its work environment.
“Harassment and discrimination have no place in our organization,” said Toronto police spokesperson Stephanie Sayer.
Zarabi-Maid was hired by Toronto police as a 27-year-old trainee in 2008. Her superiors were supportive of her ambition to pursue a career as an investigator.
But by 2014, Zarabi-Maid said she began to encounter regular sexist behavior and reported it to her superiors. She began using her mobile phone to take photos of pornographic magazines kept in the police station.
According to her complaint filed with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, male co-workers regularly bombarded her with questions about her sex life and sexual preferences.
She said she dodged questions about her breasts and the appearance of female officers' genitals.
Zarabi-Maid said the sexual harassment escalated after he gave two drunk male colleagues a ride home in 2014. Upon arriving at one officer's apartment, the men forced Zarabi to perform sex acts on him and threatened to tell his colleagues, according to the human rights complaint.
Then, in late 2015, a senior colleague visited Zarabi-Maid's home and forcibly kissed her while bragging about his sexual prowess, the lawsuit says.
She said she did not immediately report these incidents to her supervisor because she feared retaliation.
But Zarabi-Maid broke her silence in 2018 and went through official channels to report her allegations, first to her superiors and then to the police union. (She remains on sick leave and receives disability benefits.)
Police offered her a settlement of C$1.3 million in 2019, but she rejected it, saying it required a non-disclosure agreement.
She decided instead to take her case to the state's human rights tribunal and launched a public campaign.
“Once I started using social media to connect with people, I felt alive again,” Zarabi-Maid said.
Her social media posts included evidence collected over the years documenting the harassment, including screenshots of sexually explicit comments made to her by male officers in WhatsApp group chats.
She chose not to attend disciplinary hearings over her posts — in one she wrote “I will not be attending” a hearing, along with an excrement emoji — and she also accused the former police chief of encouraging “sexual predators,” according to her termination ruling.
The police found Mr Zarabi-Maid guilty of dishonourable conduct and insubordination. In her decision to fire him, former Deputy Chief Robin McElrealy-Downer wrote that Mr Zarabi-Maid had “given what is known as the middle finger” to the police.
“Her blatant refusal to comply with lawful orders in public, her verbal and electronic rants and swearing at senior commanders, and her relentless, unbridled contempt for her employers demonstrate that she is a person filled with so much contempt and anger that she is out of control,” McElary-Downer wrote.
Simona Jelinek, a Toronto lawyer who represents sexual assault victims, toured the police station where Zarabi-Maid worked about 15 years ago and said there were “several pictures of pin-up girls and homophobic derogatory language” posted on the bulletin board.
“I remember confronting the officer directing me, 'Would you be happy with that if it was a straight white man?'” Jelinek said. The officer then removed the poster.
Officer Heather McWilliam, who joined the Toronto police two years before Zarabi-Maid, also said she endured sexual harassment, including sexual remarks and forced kissing, from a colleague.
She said photos of her and other female officers in swimsuits were removed from Facebook and circulated by her superiors.
In a 2020 ruling, the Human Rights Tribunal found that her workplace victimization was not the result of “bad actors” within the police force, but was instead the result of behavior and comments that were normalized in the workplace. The court awarded her $85,000 in compensation, almost half of the $150,000 in legal costs she had incurred.
McWilliam, who is on paid leave from the police department, said the department tried to silence her allegations through procedural delays, intimidation and non-disclosure agreements.
“The police prolonged the investigation because they thought I would eventually give up,” she said. Police said their findings were serious and that they had implemented reforms following the ruling.
Zarabi Majd said her legal costs have risen to C$240,000 as she awaits the Human Rights Tribunal's decision, but added that she is determined to press forward.
Zarabi-Maid said the message was clear: “If you go on social media and talk about things that should be discussed within the family, you will be fired,” she said.