My question is for whichever witness can answer.
You've said that there were two types of whistleblower. The one that you described is always from the top down or the bottom up: the employee is opposed to his immediate superior. This is the type of whistleblower we're used to. There's also a horizontal type of whistleblowing: an employee will blow the whistle on a colleague who is engaged in wrongdoing.
You represent both people. One of them has committed wrongdoing that is sufficiently serious for the other to file a complaint. First of all, how can you defend both of these people, since you are the bargaining agent for both? Secondly, how can you direct them to the Public Service Labour Relations Board when decisions handed down by the Montreal Bar Association have shown that judges at the Quebec board, undoubtedly like those of the federal board, do not have the same kind of independence as judges in a tribunal such as the Superior Court? In Quebec, we have this important problem, and it is currently moving to other provinces.
Given that Bill C-2 provides for the creation of an independent tribunal, wouldn't it be better to opt for this independent tribunal which has already passed the test of the BNA Act, when labour relations boards, even that of Quebec, because they are headed by administrative judges, have serious problems of independence and are even challenged?
So my question is in two parts. First of all, how can you represent both people? Secondly, why don't you agree with the creation of an independent tribunal? Doesn't Bill C-2 solve the problem of the independence of the Public Service Labour Relations Board?