Information & Ethics committee  I've worked very closely with the unions throughout my career, either co-managing the union management forum.... I have always said that unions have to be part of the solution. I appeared before the national joint committee, which represents the 18 bargaining units, just two mont

Information & Ethics committee  That organization has a much broader mandate than whistle-blowing. In fact, it regroups as well on elections issues, ethics issues. While there are similarities with respect to the issues at stake, in the end what I gathered out of this--and I spoke to a lot of experts, includi

Information & Ethics committee  Some of them were that the person making the disclosure decided they didn't need to pursue it, or it didn't need a further examination of jurisdiction because, for instance, it was clearly a private sector matter. It is confusing, and I would commit that in our next annual repo

Information & Ethics committee  Correct.

Information & Ethics committee  Correct.

Information & Ethics committee  That is an excellent question, Mr. Chair. Sometimes, people who start working for a small organization expect to be promoted rapidly and need to follow very specific ongoing training. Sometimes too they are offered something better elsewhere; it's a matter of supply and demand.

Information & Ethics committee  In fact, we have a whole chapter in the next annual report on this that is entitled “Why People Are Afraid to Come Forward”. We've extended an invitation to former disclosers to share with us their concern about what has happened. We've also spoken to top researchers in the areas

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. Not only linking reprisal and reprisals—that's a very good question—but as well having the power to investigate. Occasionally you have those links, but the power to investigate rests elsewhere. I hesitate to use the word “unique”. There has been that debate among my deputy c

Information & Ethics committee  In fact, they have a choice. They can designate either a senior officer within their organization or what we call the 10(4). That is subsection 10(4), where they can designate our office as the prime recipient of the complaint.

Information & Ethics committee  They either have designated or have their own, and we're reaching out to that community as well.

Information & Ethics committee  It is definitely in the minority. It is 37.

Information & Ethics committee  We provide as many details as we can in order to inform Parliament about the type of work we have done and the issues we have dealt with. This is a very delicate issue, particularly with respect to unfounded cases, to ensure neither the whistleblower nor the people who are part o

Information & Ethics committee  Let me clarify, I think I've caused some confusion. When I talk about the general mandate of my office, I am talking about public administration. In the preamble, there is reference to serious cases of mismanagement, violations of the code of conduct, and the poor management of p

Information & Ethics committee  It would be difficult to comment on a specific case. However, I invite any member of Parliament or any individual to feel free to ask questions and to speak in confidence to a representative from our legal service or someone else in our office. We would be pleased to deal with an

Information & Ethics committee  That is an excellent question. The establishment of small agencies is in fact one of the important themes in my upcoming annual report. We are still facing challenges, in particular staff turnover, and in having the right people in the right place with the right training. We want