Canada’s whistleblower protection is nearly dead and lies dead last among other countries surveyed on their “track record for compliance with best practices” behind Albania, Bangladesh, Latvia, Pakistan, Romania, Tanzania, Uganda and Vietnam..The International Bar Association said Tuesday federal whistleblower protection law is “nearly entirely dormant.”.Blacklock’s Reporter said cabinet has ignored a 2017 recommendation from MPs to strengthen the law targeting disclosure of wrongdoings..“It is concerning the law is nearly entirely dormant,” the Association wrote in a report..The U.K.-based Association said federal complaints in Canada involved lengthy processing with little result..“It takes tenacity and financial resources for any whistleblower to sustain a reprisal dispute for over six years only to lose,” said the report..“As eyewitnesses, whistleblowers are often an organization’s best early warning system against institutional liability or malfunction. Whistleblowers are essential for credible law enforcement campaigns against corruption.”.Parliament in 2007 passed the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act granting an Integrity Commissioner powers to investigate allegations of reprisal against federal employees who report wrongdoing, abuse of office or corruption..The Commons government operations committee in a 2017 report recommended numerous reforms. Cabinet never acted on the report..“We have very weak whistleblower laws,” Conservative MP Kelly McCauley (Edmonton West) told a February 17 committee hearing..McCauley said legislators “have seen ample evidence of failures to protect whistleblowers.”.Sylvie Therrien of Ottawa, a former Employment Insurance claims officer, told MPs she was fired in 2013 after complaining management offered staff $50,000 bonuses to deny legitimate EI applications..“I’m in debt, I’m no longer considered employable, I don’t have any money,” Therrien testified at committee hearings..“They put me through the wringer. That was my experience.”.“When you see the suffering some of these people have gone through, it’s horrible,” David Hutton, a whistleblowers’ advocate with the Ottawa-based group Canadians for Accountability, said in an earlier interview..“If we look at the failure of the system, the Act has pretty much been a disaster.”.Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com.Twitter.com/nobby7694
