IT’S LOONATIC! THE LONG ROAD TO A WASHROOM

By SHAGORIKA EASWAR

Ontario to require women-only bathrooms at construction sites. The little report in the Toronto Star was picked up by Newmarket Today.

It might (should) have been picked up by other community newspapers too. For I am willing to bet most of us didn’t know that women-only washrooms weren’t the norm. In this country, in this day and age.

Oh, we all have horror stories from our travels. Of men relieving themselves against a handy wall or a tree while women hunt desperately for cover.

I have images of gross washrooms seared in my brain. Some, like the one at a roadside dhaba en route Kota, Rajasthan, are what one has come to expect at such places.

Dirty, with puddles of unknown origin on the floor, a dented door hanging drunkenly from broken hinges.

And a sign: LADES TOLAT.

Another, at a posh hotel in Jodhpur came as a shock. There for a family wedding, we loved the venue and the rooms we were allotted. On our last morning in the city, some of the ladies wanted a last just-in-case visit to the loo. But the rooms we’d just checked out of were being cleaned and we couldn’t access the toilets there. A receptionist kindly offered us the use of staff toilets. I can’t describe the filth in the tiny, dark space.

As a teenager, when bodily functions are still a source of great amusement, our son actively considered a coffee table book on the subject. Photographs of some of the worst-of-the worst, with descriptive captions and his “rating” below. I used to watch for his expression as he emerged from such toilets on our road trips across India.

“How was it?” I’d ask.

“I’ve seen worse,” was the standard, nonchalant response.

The first time he said that I was shocked. “Where?” I demanded.

“Mom, I’m a Scout, we go camping. Enough said.”

But female construction workers are neither Guides on a camping trip nor are they travelling to places with uncertain hygienic facilities.

The report by Allison Jones detailed a complete absence of women-only toilets on some sites, and a lack of privacy and cleaning at some others.

Female construction workers described “a big pile of feces” and “no flushing, no water, no soap, no paper, no nothing”.

In his article, Joseph Quigley quoted Karen Pullen, chair of Ontario Building and Construction Tradeswomen.

“I’m glad they’re taking a serious look at the ways in which we’re treated,” Pullen said, adding that washrooms have only improved slightly over the past several decades.

Marjorie Ford, a carpenter in the Vaughan area also connected with Sisters in Trade, said separate women’s washrooms are a good solution, as long as they have keys to keep them private.

“If it is not locked, men use it anyway, as it is usually cleaner, and they leave a mess,” she said. “I don't mind neutral bathrooms if they are clean, and, on some sites, cleanliness is a big issue.”

I am reminded of the time I was forced to use a men’s washroom. We were stranded in Brussels after bombs exploded at the airport, grounding all flights for several days. Thousands of passengers – the elderly, sick and children among them – were taken good care of by the airport authorities until arrangements were in place to accommodate everyone in massive community centres.

But at the hangar where we were first rushed to, the washroom facilities weren’t meant to handle so many people at a time. Staff kept up a heroic relay of cleaning and supplying sanitizers and toilet paper (and diapers and sanitary napkins) but there were just so many stalls available.

The line outside the ladies toilets grew so long at one point that staff requested those at the end of the line to use the men’s washrooms. They escorted us through the space. It was done as respectfully as possible, and we were grateful. But I will never forget the sense of shame, walking past men who were in an equally embarrassing spot.

But that was during a terrorist attack, under abnormal circumstances.

That is not what women should encounter on a daily basis at work.

When will women get their dues? Not just due credit and equal compensation for equal work, equal opportunities to rise within an organization. But just simple, basic due respect as human beings?

Skip, skip, skip to my Lou are the words of a song kids in kindergarten danced to when my sons were in school. Originally the words to a dance for a party game popular in the 1800s, it always made me laugh as I imagined people skipping to the loo, instead.

But having to wait for a clean, functioning washroom – or any washroom at all – is no laughing matter.

The new rules were to come into effect on July 1.

Oh, Canada!