Earlier, I talked about protected disclosure and the way in which we define it. As much as possible, we try to help people who have made a protected disclosure by using the broadest possible definition of “protected disclosure”.
On page 13 of the document, we say that a protected disclosure is one made in accordance with the act. In other words, to a supervisor, to their organization's senior officer, or directly to us. One of the commissioner's recommendations is to broaden what is understood by “supervisor”.
We give the benefit of the doubt to complainants when we are dealing with complaints about reprisals. For example, if someone does not use the form provided for the purpose by the department, we consider that the fact of their communicating wrongdoing to us verbally is sufficient to protect them.
With a parliamentary procedure, people who appear before you, as we are doing today, are protected. Under another federal act, for example if someone has had problems after submitting a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner, we consider it protected disclosure too. People do not necessarily have to turn to the Privacy Commissioner if they want to complain about that situation. They can come to us and file a complaint about the reprisals.