Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My question deals with protecting the whistleblowers’ anonymity. Witnesses tell us that it is important to protect the names of the people making disclosures, but there is more to it than that.
I assume that, at some point, those making disclosures have tried to solve situations internally. However, if a problem is not solved, they decide to contact your office. It would be quite easy for an employer to know who disclosed the information because the employee in question has already tried to make him or her aware of the situation.
How do you go about protecting the confidentiality of the disclosure? When you communicate with disclosers, do you tell them that you are going to try to protect their anonymity to the extent possible—to use your words—because of the way things are, it is possible that their names will become known? Is that information communicated to whistleblowers?