Government Operations committee  We're not bound by gag orders. If someone has signed an agreement in which they agree to keep confidential the details of whatever the dispute or the issue was, they can still make a disclosure to us. You can't—

Government Operations committee  Our office doesn't negotiate them. We don't act as the mediator, we actually—

Government Operations committee  No, we pay for the process and we hire a third party neutral who is agreed to by the parties. We mediate or conciliate a reprisal case only if the parties, including the complainant, agree to it. In very many cases, the complainant asks for that confidential process, because they don't want their—

Government Operations committee  Conciliation is something that we agree to, that we propose, so we do that. Every time we've had a conciliation, there is a written analysis put forward as to whether or not this is the right stage for conciliation, and whether or not the parties are in agreement. There's a legal analysis.

Government Operations committee  Pardon me?

Government Operations committee  With respect to the first commissioner and the Auditor General's findings against her?

Government Operations committee  I think that's what...yes, if that's what he's talking about, I can say that as a member of the office at that time, I was interviewed. I fully participated, and I shared all of my experiences and observations, positive and negative—as everyone in the office did—respecting that.

Government Operations committee  I don't know if a piece of legislation could actually address that fully. When we are talking about cultural change, for example, the paper we just produced on the fear of reprisal I think highlights some of those very issues.

Government Operations committee  Yes. I feel very strongly about the removal of the good faith requirement.

Government Operations committee  I'm not sure what that international best practice looks like in terms of how it would appear in legislation. Are you talking about the change to the legislation, or does this go broader, to the organizational culture?

Government Operations committee  The current act does speak in terms of statutory prohibition on reprisal. It's both a criminal offence as well as a—

Government Operations committee  The act is based on a responsive model.

Government Operations committee  I think it needs to be reviewed and amended, certainly.

Government Operations committee  That's where we have the Therrien case in abeyance. We'll wait for that decision to see if there is any action we are able to take following the adjudication of her grievance.

Government Operations committee  If I could intervene just on that point, and we fully accept and respect, of course, the Federal Court of Appeal's decision. The result of that, from a practical perspective, is that we have had to put our investigation in abeyance until the grievances were dealt with, so we're not really able to even continue until the other process is finished, which to me raises an issue that we've all been concerned about, which is the speed of the process by our office.