I take a lot of calls and I provide a lot of information to potential whistleblowers. In my experience, people come to us directly. They do not go to a department first, they come to us simply because they trust the Office of the Commissioner. That has been my experience over the last four years and it stems from the fact that we are becoming more and more known.
After a report to Parliament, we often see an increase in the number of calls from people communicating with us to obtain information on how to make a disclosure. They turn to the Office of the Commissioner directly. So it is also a way for them to protect their identities.
As my colleague Mr. Radford was saying, when we conduct our interviews and speak to people, we always tell them that we will protect their identity to the extent that the law allows. As I was saying earlier, we have to determine the places to hold the interviews, their duration and the time of day when they will take place—which the witnesses have the right to choose. In our reports, we will protect their identities to the extent we can by leaving out any reference to whether there were four witnesses, two witnesses or a single witness. It is all about protecting identities. In the case of fraud, it is not necessary to reveal the identity of an individual reporting two incorrect claims, for example. Our focus is on the claims.