In honor of International Women’s Day, we would like to highlight the career of Ms. Carole Rousseau, a fire investigator at the Laboratory of Forensic Sciences and Medicine (LSJML), who is now retired. She generously agreed to give us a behind-the-scenes look at her exceptional career during a meeting with Mr. Bernard Pelletier, former president of Origin Enquêtes technico-légales, and Ms. Catherine Dicaire, a fire investigation expert at Origin.

With a technical degree in analytical chemistry, Ms. Rousseau was first hired as a technician at the LSJML in 1974. She then earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from UQÀM thanks to an initiative by the very first Minister of the Status of Women, Lise Payette, who had established a competition aimed at promoting women’s advancement by reimbursing their tuition.

In 1988, she enrolled in a teaching certificate program while still working as a technician at the Laboratory. When she was approached to teach a course on fire chemistry at École Polytechnique alongside Pierre Ricard, she was introduced to fire investigation. As a teacher, she was sometimes challenged by students, but she always remained patient, committed to conveying the material effectively.

In 1990, after securing a position as a fire specialist at the LSJML, she attended her first crime scenes: “Even though I was still in training, they asked me highly technical scientific questions. These were seasoned professionals. The police officers were well-versed in fire chemistry. It took some time for me to earn their trust.”

Budget cuts and restructuring: between 1990 and the end of her career in 2008, the LSJML underwent significant changes. While she might have been dispatched to about a hundred fire scenes a year when she first started as an expert, she hardly went out at all in her final years.

It was against this backdrop that Ms. Dicaire joined the Laboratory: after working for nearly ten years in the pharmaceutical industry, she served as a fire and explosion chemist there for just over five years. Her work primarily involved conducting analyses related to arson cases for various police departments across Quebec. In 2018, she joined Origin, where visits to fire scenes—which were no longer common at the LSJML—would make up a large part of her work.

Challenging Prejudices

As the first woman to practice this profession in Quebec—and likely in Canada—Ms. Rousseau had to navigate a very male-dominated, sometimes sexist environment. Her poise and determination earned her full recognition for her professional qualities and helped dispel certain prejudices. Authentic and direct, she managed to command respect even from colleagues whose behavior was at times misogynistic.

When asked about the challenges of being a woman in this field, Ms. Rousseau and Ms. Dicaire share the same view: while they may be judged more harshly than their male colleagues—perhaps they judge themselves more harshly as well, since cultural biases can be insidious, sometimes even unintentionally imposed by the very people who are subject to them, under social pressure—they also believe that being a woman in fire investigation has certain advantages. Some people encountered at fire scenes tend to open up more easily to them than to their male colleagues. Is it because they inspire less mistrust, or simply because people are less accustomed to encountering female fire investigators? This difference in rapport can prove to be an advantage, in that it occasionally allows them to obtain information that is relevant—or even crucial—to their investigations.

If Ms. Rousseau has become a recognized figure in the field of fire investigation, it is largely thanks to the collaboration of many colleagues who believed in her and supported her throughout her career, notably Claude Fortin, her former boss at the Laboratory, and Pierre Ricard, with whom she taught.

Fire Investigation Experts

What does the future hold for women in fire investigation? Although more women than men are earning college degrees today, Ms. Rousseau believes the field will remain predominantly male. She also firmly believes that women have a place in it. “Women shouldn’t have to prove they’re capable of doing this job,” adds Ms. Dicaire. Attitudes have evolved over the past few decades, and this is largely thanks to pioneers like Ms. Rousseau, who paved the way for other women in fields less traditionally associated with women, such as fire investigation. We would especially like to thank Ms. Carole Rousseau for coming to meet with us and share her memories and experiences at our offices in Dollard-des-Ormeaux on February 20, 2020.