Whistleblower Protection

The Centre for Free Expression at Ryerson University (CFE) has launched an independent investigation of the Phoenix Pay System debacle. The goal of the investigation is to determine if the devastating problems might have been prevented had there been adequate whistleblowing protection for public servants who could have safely alerted their superiors to the impending deficiencies and errors.

CFE’s David Hutton was featured prominently in CBC's excellent recent coverage of whistleblowing. The National profiled former federal civil servant Sylvie Therrien, fired for exposing the government’s pressure on fraud investigators to disentitle legitimate EI claimants.

Being a whistleblower in Canada is tough. The Canadian legal framework with respect to whistleblowing is a hodgepodge of different laws and regulations, none of which historically have been very effective. The frameworks differ with respect to whether the whistleblower is in the federal or provincial jurisdiction, in the public or private sector or depending on the type of information being disclosed.

Good whistleblower protection could have prevented Phoenix, argues David Hutton. Calling the project an “incomprehensible failure,” Auditor General Michael Ferguson’s recent report on Phoenix describes not just a litany of outrageously bad and irresponsible decisions, but a stunning level of dishonesty among the senior executives responsible. For years—right from the start of the project—they knowingly hid important information and misled their superiors, concealing serious problems and risks. Here are just two examples:

The Centre for Free Expression has urged the Ontario Security Commission to clarify its policy guidance as to when in-house counsel would be eligible for the whistleblowing award.  We endorsed the submission of Bersenas Jacobsen Chouest Thomson Blackburn LLP shown below.   March 5, 2018 Dear Ms. Knakowski: Re: Request for comments regarding changes to OSC Policy 15-601 – In-house counsel eligibility for whistleblowing awards

Kudos to House committee for sound recommendations on whistleblower protection By DAVID HUTTON PUBLISHED : Monday, June 26, 2017 12:00 AM OTTAWA—The parliamentary committee studying Canada’s federal whistle blowing law for the past five months has unanimously called on the Trudeau government to make sweeping changes to the act.