Our Mission:

Protecting Whistleblowers Who Protect The Public Interest

FAIR (Federal Accountability Initiative for Reform) promotes integrity and accountability within government by empowering employees to speak out without fear of reprisal when they encounter wrongdoing. Our aim is to support legislation and management practices that will provide effective protection for whistleblowers and hence occupational free speech in the workplace.

Next: Why This Is Important...

Top Stories

New Alberta law won’t protect whistleblowers, report says

Topics: 
Alberta, Legislation
Rating: 
0
Alison Redford

Karen Kleiss – May 21, 2013

A University of Alberta think-tank warned public servants Tuesday they are not protected by Alberta’s new whistleblower legislation, and urged them to exercise caution if they choose to disclose wrongdoing after the law comes into effect June 1.

A 25-page report from the left-leaning Parkland Institute calls the province’s new Public Interest Disclosure Act a “shameful” and “outdated” piece of legislation that “sets a new low, even within Canada.

Shooting The Messenger: The Need For Efffective Whistleblower Protection In Alberta

Topics: 
Alberta, Legislation, Research, FAIR
Rating: 
0

Executive Summary

In late 2012, Alison Redford’s Progressive Conservative government passed the Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblower Protection) Act. Presented as making good on a longstanding promise, the government argued this legislation offered meaningful safeguards to Alberta whistleblowers.

Unfortunately, this claim does not stand up to scrutiny. The Alberta law does not protect those who blow the whistle on incompetence or corruption, nor does it ensure that such allegations will be properly investigated.

Canada’s top whistleblower watchdog missing in action

Topics: 
PSIC, Mario Dion, Integrity Commissioner, Dr. Shiv Chopra, Public health & safety
Rating: 
0

David Hutton – May 6, 2013

Canada’s Integrity Commissioner Mario Dion has been in the news twice recently—for what he is doing, and also for what he is not. What he has done is to report his office’s finding a fifth case of wrongdoing uncovered by his office: the egregious and sometimes bizarre misbehaviour of Shirish Chotalia, former head of the Human Rights Tribunal of Canada (HRTC).

What Dion has not done—and still refuses to do—is to investigate allegations, originally made in 2002, of misbehaviour by Health Canada in the approval of drugs for use in our food supply. Dion’s refusal was the subject of a judicial review hearing before a Federal Court judge on April 23.

Dion says confidence in whistleblower office up; opposition tables amendments to fix ‘weaknesses’ in act

Topics: 
PSIC, Integrity Commissioner, Mario Dion, Watchdogs
Rating: 
0

Jessica Bruno – May 6, 2013

Whistleblowers’ confidence in the Integrity Commissioner’s Office is rising, says Integrity Commissioner Mario Dion, leading to dozens of new people coming forward, but watchdogs and opposition parties say serious changes to the office and its legislation are needed to protect vulnerable public servants.

“Disclosures made to my office have doubled in the past three fiscal years, and I believe this is attributable to our increased profile as well as a growing sense of confidence within the public service and the public sector at large, as to our professionalism, discretion, and efficiency,” Mr. Dion told the Government Operations Committee May 2.

Public service wrongdoing could number in the ‘thousands’

Topics: 
Government Operations Committee, PSIC, Mario Dion, Integrity Commissioner
Rating: 
0
Mario Dion

Kathryn May – May 2, 2013

Canada’s public sector integrity commissioner said he suspects “thousands” of wrongdoings are going unreported among the 375,000 federal workers covered by the whistleblower legislation he enforces.

Mario Dion told MPs on the government operations committee Thursday that the 113 cases of wrongdoing he investigated last year are likely a drop in the bucket in a workforce as large and varied as the federal public sector which operates under legislation with such a sweeping definition of what constitutes wrongdoing.

NDP private member's bill will protect whistleblowers

Topics: 
PSDPA, Legislation
Rating: 
0

May 2, 2103

New Democrat Treasury Board critic Mathieu Ravignat (Pontiac) tabled a private member’s bill to strengthen the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act today in the House of Commons.

“Public servants who witness wrongdoings must be able to report them without fear of reprisals—whether those reprisals come from a colleague or superior, or even from the government,” said Ravignat.

Contractor whistleblower in fight with Public Works after asbestos exposure

Topics: 
Prisons, Workplace conditions, Public health & safety, Public Works, PSIC, Mario Dion, Asbestos industry, Audio
Rating: 
0

Julie Ireton – April 25, 2013

Don Garrett says it should have been one of the simplest construction jobs he'd ever done. Instead, the British Columbia contractor said he was exposed to high levels of asbestos, almost lost his business and has been fighting with federal government bureaucrats for more than three years.

"I was taking this material home, it was on my clothes. I didn’t know I was dealing with asbestos so it entered my household," said Garrett. Garrett owns a construction business in Hope, B.C. In 2009, he was contracted by Public Works Government Services Canada to replace 160 sinks and toilets inside the Kent Institution — a maximum security, federal prison in B.C.'s Fraser Valley.

Cornwall whistleblower speaks out, files suit against city

Topics: 
Ontario, Whistleblowers, Municipalities
Rating: 
4

April 11, 2013

Cornwall's deputy fire chief is one of two whistleblowers going after the city and Mayor Bob Kilger with allegations of contravening the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act.

Rob Hickley issued a media release where he comes clean as the whistleblower."I have filed an application in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice against my employer, the City of Cornwall and Mayor Bob Kilger," Hickley said in the release.

Health Canada Whistleblowers Move their Fight to the Federal Court

Topics: 
Health Canada, Whistleblowers
Rating: 
5

PIPSC – April 23, 2013

The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) supports the application for judicial review to be heard this morning at the Federal Court and made under the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act (PSDPA) in the case of the now-notorious federal whistleblowers Drs. Shiv Chopra, Margaret Haydon and Gerard Lambert.

The application addresses the failure of the Public Service Integrity Commissioner's office to fully investigate Drs. Chopra, Haydon and Lambert's serious concerns about the impact of certain veterinary drugs on the health and safety of the Canadian public.

Canadian pipeline whistleblower testifies in Keystone hearing

Topics: 
Oil & gas industry, Whistleblowers
Rating: 
5

Andrew Nikiforuk – April 24, 2013

Evan Vokes, a former TransCanada employee and pipeline whistleblower, testified last week before a raucous State Department hearing on the controversial Keystone Pipeline in Grand Island, Nebraska. Wearing a suit and tie, Vokes, a materials engineer, brought hundreds of opponents to the $7-billion project to their feet with dramatic testimony about TransCanada's operating practices.

Last year Vokes lodged a complaint with federal pipeline regulators in Canada and the U.S., the prime minister's office and the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGGA) that alleged that TransCanada, Keystone's proponent, had failed to uphold rules on weld inspections. Shortly afterwards TransCanada fired him without cause in May 2012.

Pages

Subscribe to Front page feed