Yes, this is the biggie. I mentioned Bosnia earlier. In Bosnia, the anti-corruption commission is accountable to a three-member parliamentary committee that has one member from each of the parliamentary factions. I don't know about the Canadian system, I am very sorry, but I am all in favour of the legislative branch having as much authority as possible. This is the most democratic branch, of course, and the most transparent branch usually. I think you have to give the people the opportunity to weigh in on the appointment to this whistle-blower office.
Maybe Tom can comment on the U.S. system, but our research shows that the most important thing is for the office to specialize only in whistle-blowing. If it's tacked onto some other institution, it's not going to work. If it's a side office in a ministry of justice or anti-corruption or something.... You need to have a whistle-blower office, and people there whose only job is to protect whistle-blowers. I think you need to have a whistle-blower office for the public sector and a whistle-blower office for the private sector.
In the United States, the SEC has a whistle-blower office. The Office of Special Counsel has an independent whistle-blower office. All they do is protect people from retaliation. The IRS has a whistle-blower office. You need to have a dedicated staff of people who spend all day working on protecting whistle-blowers and nothing else.