Government Operations committee  In French, especially in France, whistleblowers are called “lanceurs d'alerte”. It's an appropriate expression. The term “whistleblowing” is used everywhere because it's neutral. However, there are still problems on the English side, even in England. I would say that the reward

Government Operations committee  One of the things that the Office of Special Counsel in the U.S. does, which is built into their system and which I think if the Canadian government did would absolutely send the clearest message culturally and would in reality be more effective, is to not only give timely feedba

Government Operations committee  It's on the same lines. If you are raising issues that government needs to take into account, that's not a bar to making another....

Government Operations committee  I think that's partly to do with the weak system of protection they have, because if they are able to have their rights protected then it will not make sense, both for a cost benefit for the government and for the public damage that will be done.

Government Operations committee  At the moment, I would say that the U.K. still has a good, solid base. The Irish law is called the “Public Interest Disclosure Act on steroids” by people around.... The Irish law is like the U.K. law, but on steroids. It actually did make some fundamental and important changes.

Government Operations committee  Yes. It's one of the first to put that in, although original laws that were put forward before as draft bills and haven't passed did have that capacity built in and—

Government Operations committee  It's a very new law, so—

Government Operations committee  Yes, exactly.

Government Operations committee  I was just going to say that's one of the laws, the Irish law is definitely in.... As for the Swedish point of view, we've talked a lot about how there are tiers of disclosure routes that people can go, so that's another way. Also, there's the injunctive relief in both the Serbia

Government Operations committee  Yes. I think there are a range of tools to help someone remain whole, either while an investigation is going on or if there's been an obvious reaction that's negative. Transfers are one of the tools that need to be available. I've had cases where it seems that the whistle-blowe

Government Operations committee  One of the ways you can do it is as a public procurement service. This is where you're actually thinking about the bodies, the federal agencies, that do public procurement. They can have as part of their contract, first of all, that the organization must have their own whistle-bl

Government Operations committee  I think it's in the same—

Government Operations committee  A focus on culture without offering some clear, rational ways in which to raise things leaves a mixed message. I think people are incredibly smart and rational. They will have understood that somebody has tried something and that it didn't work. That's a message that gets around

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much. It's a great honour to be here today. It's an honour also to be in Canada. I'm a trained lawyer and called to the bar in Ontario, but I'm also a lawyer in the U.K. of the Law Society of England and Wales, and my career working on whistle-blowing has been i