A federal hotline set up to discourage civil servants from leaking to the media has largely failed, with records showing only a handful of complaints were deemed valid.Blacklock's Reporter says the Department of Immigration pioneered the internal “dissent channel” in 2024, urging employees to lodge anonymous grievances with management instead of speaking to reporters. But according to a March 12 memo, only 24 messages were received, and just three met the criteria for forwarding to the deputy minister.Foreign Affairs later considered setting up its own version of the complaint line, describing it as a “mechanism of last resort” for staff to express professional dissent while being shielded from reprisals. .Employees were warned not to use it to push personal or political views.Immigration officials admitted the hotline was designed to stem leaks. A January 19 memo to the deputy minister said disclosures to media undermined trust in government and breached security obligations. It acknowledged the press was “likely to learn” of the channel’s existence but argued it would “mitigate against dissenting views being shared publicly.”The move followed a 2023 Values and Ethics Report that flagged “decreasing confidence in Canada’s democracy” and frustration over what staff saw as a double standard protecting senior managers from consequences for incompetence or misconduct..Due to a high level of spam content being posted in our comment section below, all comments undergo manual approval by a staff member during regular business hours (Monday - Friday). Your patience is appreciated.
