Thank you.
One of the most important aspects of the act is confidentiality and in support of confidentiality the act contains several obligations. One of them that falls on the commissioner and the chief executive is to protect the identity of persons involved in the disclosure process. That includes the discloser, witnesses, the alleged wrongdoer or wrongdoers. That is found in sections 11, 22, and 44.
It also demands that chief executives establish procedures to ensure the confidentiality of information collected in relation to disclosure. One of our case reports, the case report on the Canada School of Public Service from November 2013, is an example where a chief executive failed to ensure confidentiality. This was reported to us. We acted on it, investigated, and the commissioner made the finding. It is very important to us so that people can come forward knowing they have a measure of protection and that protection starts with their confidentiality. When we speak with witnesses we do everything in our power to ensure that these witnesses' confidentiality is maintained.
As such, when my investigators go on the road or do investigations and meet witnesses, we do it on neutral ground. Although the act says that we can request having facilities provided to us within the establishment where we do investigations, we choose not to do that in order to ensure that the persons we meet are not seen rotating in an office in a facility where it would not take very long for people to figure out what was happening.
When we meet witnesses we show a great deal of flexibility as to the timing, the alleged wrongdoer, or the complainant or discloser. As such, if they prefer that we meet after hours, we will do that so they do not miss time at work, or we'll arrange with them for the time that is most convenient. That is the way we also support confidentiality.
Of great importance as well, there are exclusions under the Privacy Act, the Access to Information Act, as well as the Personal Information and Electronic Documents Act, which provide us with the ability not to disclose the information under any of these acts if a request is made pertaining to the matters that we have under investigation. If we receive a request for access to information, a Privacy Act request, no documents pertaining to the investigation will be released. That is an important clause to us. It allows the organization to protect identity, and if an investigation reveals that there has been no wrongdoing, the information has been protected.