Enhancing Whistleblower Protection

I agree with this article and unfortunately it is far too late to help many who have suffered reprisals at the workplace when they have reported unsafe /unethical practices

Even within the Canadian healthcare system there is a culture, at many times, much like Facebook and other private organizations. It is not very healthy.

Targeted misinformation is often wielded by a few with power and privilege to maintain the status quo for personal benefit.

This makes food of healthcare's younger bright minds - who either leave the industry and often Canada entirely for their survival (after realizing as-advertised values of compassion, service, altruism, & trust are shrinking in prevalence in reality), or suffer burnout, suicide, and other healthcare complications while trying to heal the system from within. In both instances, a lack of legal protections means they are often labelled as whistleblowers or otherwise reprised to silence them.

This undermines patient and health system outcomes for all, making our health and innovative capacity as a diverse, resource-rich, and highly trained nation of individuals and communities increasingly unsustainable and uncompetitive.

Whistleblower laws and more support for fearful voices that includes healthcare, especially its most vulnerable struggling to heal the system from within, is critically needed if we are to ever learn from our (medical) mistakes, safely innovate antiquated practices, and provide a level of care our diverse populations expect (but in reality, only a few have the privilege to receive - which is not sustainable, competitive, or morally fulfilling for ourselves and future generations)

I had a Assistant Deputy minister laugh in my face when I discussed whistleblower protection laws. This system is an utter farce but what can you expect from a government willing to kill indigenous babies and bury them in mass graves. The governments of Canada are rotten to the core.

Honestly, I've been laughing a lot about the USA in the recent years but go learn today that there's absolutely no laws protecting whistleblowers disgust me. This is nothing short of shameful coming from a democratic country and something should be done now to, at the very least, protect employees from the public sector.

In defence of whistleblowers
December 3, 2019
By Pierre Chauvin
David Hutton, a whistleblower protection advocate working at the Centre for Free Expression (CFE) at Ryerson University in Toronto, and previously of FAIR — an organization dedicated to counselling whistleblowers facing potential repercussions.
Laws intended to protect public servants across the country do exist, but according to Hutton’s analysis, most of them are ineffective and require whistleblowers to first clear a number of hurdles.
“Canada has the international reputation of being the Titanic [disaster] of whistleblower protection,” he says.
At the federal level, whistleblowers experiencing reprisals can turn to the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Tribunal. But to get there, the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner has to refer them. And once they start the process, it is up to the whistleblowers to prove that the actions taken against them are reprisals.
“The law stacks the odds against them; it’s very expensive and time-consuming.”
https://www.ohscanada.com/features/in-defence-of-whistleblowers/

Trudeau’s Words On Federal Whistleblower Law An ‘Illusion,’ Warns Former Whistleblower
After three decades, and four prime ministers, stronger whistleblowing legislation remains a pipe dream.
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/canada-whistleblower-joanna-gualtie…

The Ontario Provincial Police have refused to investigate
Threats and retaliation against employees
425.1 (1) No employer or person acting on behalf of an employer or in a position of authority in respect of an employee of the employer shall take a disciplinary measure against, demote, terminate or otherwise adversely affect the employment of such an employee, or threaten to do so,
• (a) with the intent to compel the employee to abstain from providing information to a person whose duties include the enforcement of federal or provincial law, respecting an offence that the employee believes has been or is being committed contrary to this or any other federal or provincial Act or regulation by the employer or an officer or employee of the employer or, if the employer is a corporation, by one or more of its directors; or
• (b) with the intent to retaliate against the employee because the employee has provided information referred to in paragraph (a) to a person whose duties include the enforcement of federal or provincial law.
Punishment
(2) Any one who contravenes subsection (1) is guilty of
o (a) an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years; or
o (b) an offence punishable on summary conviction.
• 2004, c. 3, s. 6
https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/laws/stat/rsc-1985-c-c-46/latest/rsc-1985-…

Canada needs to get serious about whistleblower protections. Here’s why
... according to top experts in the field, our nation (Canada) has some of the world’s worst protections. “Currently, Canada’s whistleblower law is the object of consistent international ridicule,” says Tom Devine, the legal director of the Government Accountability Project (GAP) in Washington, D.C. “It’s regularly held up as an example of free-speech rights that are false advertising in practice.” https://www.cpacanada.ca/en/news/pivot-magazine/2020-04-27-canada-prote…

Ontario does not offer a remedy, there is a reference to protection from reprisal in the Public Servants Act but you must be an employee of a Crown agency to utilize it or to make a complaint to the Integrity Commissioner. In Feb 2015 I filed a formal notice of wrongdoing with the Board of Directors of a provincially funded agency of fraud involving hundreds of thousands of dollars intended for individuals with autism and developmental disabilities, was bullied, denied accommodation and fired six weeks later - have been fighting for justice ever since, have now filed lawsuits against the province and Canada quoting Khadr v. Canada.

Why are get being dragged when it comes to a full circle whistle blowing process? Protection is crucial in order for whistle blowing to occur in the first place.

Private citizens should be offered whistleblower protection. Do you know that Toronto Police employees who befriend health professionals, teachers and members of regulatory and oversight committes usually threaten people who complain against their friends?
When you complain to the Police Oversight body, the Toronto Police downplay the complaint, though if Joe did such a thing (threaten a complainant), they would be in jail.

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Merci,

The Alberta dental authority uses its powers to crush publications that notify the public of harmful activities within the profession which are confirmed by internal publications. The over-treatment of unsuspecting dental patients is documented. The ADA&C lawyers take the position that notifying the put of these concerns 'harms the integrity of the profession' and is therefore professional misconduct. Where does this place protection of the public trust in their balancing act of relative importance?

Please consider in earnest adding amendments relative to "community based' and/or derived whistle-blowing. One does not always have to be public, or private sector to be privy to "clandestine," or "secretive" information.

Thank you.

I volunteer on the board of a religious organization. We want to create a policy to protect whistleblowers, but don't know where to start. Is there a template or outline we should follow?

There needs to be more protection for private sector whistleblowers as well as public sector. Great gains were made in the last year for public but their is still a lot of risk in the private sector. As a previous whistleblower it was one of the hardest decisions I have made and it shouldn’t have had to be. Too many companies (such as banks) have shady ethics that put the bottom line first rather than the customer. Someone reporting on this problems in the private sector can face harassment, bullying and even termination not to mention the risk of legal and financial consequences if speaking out can be considered defamation. There were great gains this year for public sector whistleblowers,but more needs to be done to protect the private sector whistleblower.

I support the proposed changes. Sheila Copps, in one of her books, stated that the proposed whistle blowing legislation they had attempted to pass got so amended that it were better that it had never been passed, worse than the one before it. Whatever you put in place, be assured that I have found that the churches go no further in their dealings with this matter than that of legislation as its guide.

I fully support TI-Canada’s submission on whistleblower protection. Having spent more than a decade actively working in this field, my observation is that Canadian whistleblowers are significantly worse off today than they were twenty years ago despite repeated promises by politicians to protect them, starting with Jean Chretien in 1993. The two agencies created by the Federal Accountability Act in 2007, supposedly to protect whistleblowers, have been in my observation almost completely ineffective. Even the new departmental codes of conduct required by the Act have in many cases been crafted to make it easier, not harder, to fire whistleblowers. This wasted effort has also been costly. Since 2002 federal governments have spent about $50 million on whistleblowing agencies with little to show for this expenditure. Yet the urgent need to improve this system is not being addressed: the legally-required five-year review of the law is now more than four years overdue. A government-commissioned study completed in December 2011 found that most federal workers see job reprisals as the likely outcome of any effort to expose a wrong. In fact, bureaucrats said they believe that it's typically the whistleblower who gets punished. One participant said “Show me that these stories have happy endings. Show me the [whistle-blower] who got a promotion and the wrongdoer who lost his job.” Regrettably, to this day this almost never happens in Canada. This situation needs to change -- both for the sake of the honest and courageous employees who speak out about wrongdoing, and for the sake of the public, whom they are striving to protect. Reference: What's Wrong With Canada's Federal Whistleblowing Legislation https://web.archive.org/web/20150306013638/http://fairwhistleblower.ca/files/fair/docs/psdpa/whats_wrong_with_the_psdpa.pdf

I fully support TI-Canada’s submission on whisttleblower protecton. Supporting the courage of individuals that expose wrong doings at great personal risks should be a priortiy to us all. This is an issue of great importance for Canada.

I fully support the contents of the submission on whistleblower protection and current laws regulating whistleblowing. I would urge the President of the Treasury Board, who is responsible for launching the promised five-year review of the legislation, to initiate this long-overdue Review.

I fully support the submission made by Transparency International Canada. Protection of those who are brave enough to expose corruption, usually at considerable risk to themselves and their careers, must be a priority in Canada.

I fully support the submission made by Transparency International Canada. Protection of those who are brave enough to expose corruption, usually at considerable risk to themselves and their careers, must be a priority in Canada.

A strong free, free press is a cornerstone of democratic societies. However, the ability of the press to lift the veil on corruption in the public and private sectors often hinges upon courageous individuals willing to speak up about wrongdoings. Too often, these whistleblowers pay a serious price and face losing their livelihoods and threats to their personal safety. Canada must take action to strengthen whistleblower protection for individuals in the public and private sector. I support TI-Canada's submission, which calls upon the government to take action to reform Canada's whistleblowing laws. TI-Canada's submission details clear milestones, which should be spelled out in Canada's Action Plan on Open Government 2016-2018. Canada cannot effectively fight corruption, if those people who put everything on the line to expose it, are not protected.