Action Alert:
Whistleblower Protection Bill C-11
A federal Parliamentary committee is currently considering Bill
C-11, which proposes to create a "whistleblower" protection
system so that people who witness wrongdoing in the federal government
can report it without fear of harassment or other penalties.
Bill C-11 has many flaws, and if the flaws are not corrected
whistleblowers will NOT be effectively protected when they blow
the whistle on violations of laws, regulations, policies, codes
and guidelines.
Because the federal Liberals do not control a majority of the
seats in Parliament, the opposition parties can and have promised
to make changes to make Bill C-11 more effective.
The Government Operations and Estimates Committee will be considering
changes to Bill C-11 soon after Parliament opens next week (on
January 31st) so please send your letter this week!
Please send a letter right now calling for changes to Bill C-11.
The following Sample Letter provides a list of changes needed
to make Bill C-11 effective and comprehensive. To be most effective,
please use the Sample Letter only as a model for writing your
own letter, and please note that sending a letter by mail or fax
is much more effective than sending an email.
Sample Letter:
Dear Member of the Government Operations and Estimates Committee:
Effective, comprehensive whistleblower protection is key to
transparent, ethical, law-abiding and accountable government.
The many illegal and scandalous activities of Canadian individuals,
governments and corporations in the past decade have made it clear
that strong whistleblower protection is needed to prevent further
waste of the public's money and many other abuses.
Unfortunately, Bill C-11 will not create effective, comprehensive
protection for anyone who reports wrongdoing. In fact, Bill C-11
is designed mainly to hide wrongdoing from the public and to discourage
whistleblowers.
Please change Bill C-11 in the following six key ways to ensure
that anyone in Canada who reports wrongdoing will be protected
from harm, and the public will be fully informed about wrongdoing
across Canada:
1. Anyone (not just bureaucrats) who reports wrongdoing by anyone
(not just by some people in some government institutions) must
be protected from harm;
2. Everyone must have the right to report wrongdoing anonymously
and directly to an independent whistleblower watchdog agency (without
having to identify themselves or complain first to their bosses);
3. The proposal to have the Public Service Commission (PSC)
act as the watchdog office must be changed because the PSC is
not independent of the federal government (instead, the new Ethics
Commissioner office should be the whistleblower watchdog agency,
but to be fully independent the Ethics Commissioner must be approved
by the opposition party leaders, not chosen only by the Prime
Minister);
4. The whistleblower protection agency must be required to report
the number and topic of ongoing investigations, and to report
publicly the results of any investigation (including the identities
of all wrongdoers);
5. The whistleblower watchdog agency's powers must be increased
to include the power to penalize the wrongdoers, to order a clean-up
of the wrongdoing, and to penalize anyone who resists or delays
cleaning up the wrongdoing, and;
6. Everyone must have a clear right to appeal the rulings of
the watchdog agency to court.
Please let me know in detail by reply letter whether the Committee
has made these changes, and if not why not. I will be deciding
which party to vote for in the next federal election based in
part on what each party does to ensure a strong whistleblower
protection system is created.
I hope to hear from you that the many flaws in Bill C-11 have
been corrected, and that the bill has been passed by Parliament.
Sincerely,
J. Citizen
Send your letter (No postage needed)
re: Bill C-11 (Whistleblower protection bill) to:
Ms. Miriam Burke, Clerk (Note: Ask her to provide all Committee
members with a copy of your letter)
Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates
House of Commons
Ottawa, Canada
K1A 0A6
Fax: (613) 996-1962
Email: BurkeM@parl.gc.ca
|
