A Vancouver Island food market will be paying six women $750,000 after reaching a settlement in a class-action lawsuit against them and a former employee who was found to have secretly recorded women in the store’s bathroom.
The $750,000 settlement will be split among the six plaintiffs in the suit, with different amounts allocated between five whose recorded images were distributed on the internet, and one whose images were recorded but not distributed, according to Sean Hern, one of the lawyers representing the class.
He also noted that another undisclosed amount was donated by the five in the first group to charity in recognition of some victims who were recorded but not identified.
In a court decision from 2023, the two plaintiffs, Jennifer Madill and Mallory Fulmore, described a pattern of predatory behaviour from Matthew Schwabe and other male employees of the Red Barn Market at Mattick’s farm in Saanich, including Schwabe’s father Samuel, who was part owner of the business at the time.
According to Madill in the decision, Matthew Schwabe would “very often” say that “he could not help” making comments about the clothing and appearances of female workers due to the fact that he was “surrounded by a bunch of hot young girls in tight pants.”
One former employee, referred t0 as K.B., summarized the atmosphere at the shop as “a sexualized environment”, with the owners and male managers “commenting on young women’s bodies and generally making sexualized remarks” or “innuendo”, adding that Samuel Schwabe made “lewd comments about younger girls.”
In another undisputed incident, an affidavit from another former employee, named as C.J., noted that in 2013, Schwabe approached her and attempted to converse with her while exposing his penis. She said he “remained standing, blocking the only entrance and exit” and tried to converse with her for another five minutes or so with his penis exposed.
In February 2016, Madill and Fulmore identified explicit images of themselves secretly taken in the Red Barn washroom, as well as images of other young women who they recognized as other store employees, prompting a Saanich Police Department investigation into Schwabe.
In June 2016, a search warrant was executed at Schwabe’s residence. Schwabe was subsequently charged with several offences relating to the taking and downloading of the images. He eventually entered a guilty plea and received a jail sentence of 15 months and two years’ probation in 2022.
A decade after realizing they were victims of Schwabe’s voyeurism, Madill and Fulmore say they are pleased with the result of the class action.
“From the beginning, this proceeding was about pursuing justice and demanding accountability, not just for ourselves but for the class. Through this settlement, we are pleased to have achieved that goal. No one would ever choose to have been put in this position; however, neither should anyone in our position feel ashamed. We are proud to have taken a stand and feel vindicated by this outcome,” noted a joint statement from Madill and Fulmore.
Voyeurism has been on the rise in B.C., with police-involved incidents jumping 65 per cent between 2014 and 2024, with the total number of people charged with voyeurism jumping from 30 to 50 in the same timespan, according to Statistics Canada.
In early December, the federal government announced sweeping changes to the criminal code through the Protecting Victims Act in an effort to better protect victims and survivors of sexual violence and gender-based violence.
Namely, the proposed legislation would prohibit the distribution of non-consensual sexual deepfakes, increase penalties for the distribution of intimate images without consent, prohibit threats to distribute such images, and increase penalties for sexual assault on summary conviction.
“These reforms strengthen the tools available to protect women and girls, and to hold offenders accountable. Alongside our broader efforts to prevent violence before it happens, we are building a safer and more just Canada. Above all, we are guided by victims and survivors, whose voices and experiences continue to shape our path forward,” said Minister of Women and Gender Equality Rechie Valdez, in a news release about the bill.