In the wake of the sexual assault scandal involving disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, women and men have turned to social media to share personal experiences.
The hashtag 'Me Too' has gained momentum.
It’s an effort to show how widespread sexual harassment and violence really is.
Former RCMP officer Sherry Benson-Podolchuk added her voice to the social media campaign.
The 20-year member retired in 2009 due to harassment and bullying.
She has shared her story publicly many times and now works as an advocate for people dealing with the same issues.
"I thought, okay well I'll just ignore it, but it got worse,” said Benson-Podolchuk. “And I'll say right now, anytime you ignore workplace violence or sexual harassment it just gets worse. It escalates."
"So I ignored it for a little bit longer and then I went to my boss and said 'listen, I've tried to tell them to stop calling me these names and they keep doing it’ and he just laughed and said maybe I enjoy the attention."
Tracey Epp, a labour and employment lawyer with Pitblado Law, said sexual harassment in the workplace is still a problem, but that high profile cases have the potential to empower more people to speak out.
"It tells the victim of harassment that you're not the only one,” said Epp. “That Gwyneth Paltrow has been subjected to this and other actresses and people you've seen on the screen have been subjected to it."
While victims may be feel empowered to come forward, sexual assault counsellors hope high profile cases put more of an emphasis on prevention.
Rosemarie Gjerek, the director of counselling and community health with Klinic Community Health Centre, said stopping sexual harassment and violence from happening in the first place should be the focus.
"It's very important that we engage men in this dialogue, in this conversation, because that's what needs to happen in order to address sexual violence and sexual harassment in the workplace, in the home, anywhere, in schools," said Gjerek.
Gjerek said for some victims hearing about high profile cases can bring back painful memories about their own experiences.
In some cases, people who’ve already come forward may be re-traumatized.
She said it's up to each person to make a choice about whether they want to speak out and share their story.
A dilemma Benson-Podolchuk understands.
“The reason why women remain so silent is because they're damned if they do and they're damned if they don't," said Benson-Podolchuk. “With Weinstein it was their career. He had tremendous power and in my case it was the RCMP. Or, remain silent and it just escalates and it gets worse.”
In her case, staying silent was no longer an option.
She hopes by sharing her story more people feel comfortable coming forward so the conversation can shift from discussing the problem to preventing it.
