There is a growing body of literature and research on the topic of whistleblowing and other anti-corruption strategies. Here are a few recommended books.
This selection includes self-help for whistleblowers, whistleblower legislation, cases studies, research, and personal memoirs of whistleblowers.
The Whistleblower's Handbook
How to be an Effective Resister
By Professor Brian Martin, University of Wollongong.
"The most common response to the problems facing whistleblowers is to suggest better whistleblower legislation. Yet it is remarkable how ineffectual such legislation is. Far more helpful to whistleblowers are practical skills at understanding organisational dynamics, collecting data, writing coherent accounts, building alliances and liaising with the media...." Published in 1999.
This self-help book, now out of print, can be dowloaded here. Professor Martin's article Illusions of Whistleblower Protection explains the need for whistleblowers to learn self-help skills.
The Corporate Whistleblower's Survival Guide
A Handbook for Committing the Truth
By Tom Devine and Tarek F. Maassarani
Devine and Maassarani detail every consideration potential whistleblowers should weigh and paint a vivid picture of the tactics corporations use to attack whistleblowers and cover up or deny damaging revelations. If you are considering blowing the whistle, this book offers hands-on, practical advice on every aspect of the process--finding information to support your claims, determining who to blow the whistle to, enlisting allies, and taking advantage of what legal options exist. The Corporate Whistleblower's Survival Guide will enable readers to bring vital information to light while keeping their sanity, relationships, and careers intact. Published in 2011.
Available from Amazon.ca and Amazon.com and the publisher Berrett-Koehler (who also sells a downloadable pdf version)
The Whistleblower's Survival Guide
Courage Without Martyrdom
By Tom Devine, Legal Director, Government Accountability Project (GAP)
A detailed road map for anyone considering 'doing the right thing' at work in order to expose wrongdoing and protect the public interest. Based on GAP's decades of experience in this field. Contents include: the decision to blow the whistle; what to expect (retaliation and cover-up strategies); where and how to blow the whistle; choosing and working with an attorney; understanding your legal protections (and their limits). Published in 1997.
Available from GAP, the leading USA whistleblower organization. This book is also available for download as a series of .pdf files
Download: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
The Art of Anonymous Activism
Serving the Public While Surviving Public Service
A joint effort of US whistleblower organizations GAP, POGO and PEER, The Art of Anonymous Activism provides guidance to public employees to enable them to prevent the irreconcilable differences that can occur when one is faced with a choice between conscience and career; and to make responsible choices should those differences arise. The point is that it is possible to fight wrongdoing from within without sacrificing your career.
Available from GAP, the leading USA whistleblower organization.
Concepts and Procedures in Whistleblower Law
By Stephen M. Kohn, Executive Director, National Whistleblower Center
Although written for a U.S. readership, this handbook is also a valuable resource for Canadians, including whistleblowers and for lawyers specializing in this field. As the name implies the book focuses on the legal system, including common law, federal law, environmental and nuclear industry statutes, and occupational health and safety regulations. It also addresses damages, remedies and settlement agreements. Published in 2000.
Available from Amazon.ca and Amazon.com
Whistleblowing Around The World
Law, Culture and Practice
This is a book about governance and accountability in the twenty-first century. It looks at the role of whistleblowing and features four case studies from around the globe. Published in 2004.
Available from Public Concern at Work, the leading UK whistleblowing organization.
The Whistleblowers
Exposing Corruption in Government and Industry
The Whistleblowers provides fascinating accounts of some of the more prominent whistleblowing cases of the 1970s and 1980s by examining the circumstances that led to the subjects' decisions to blow the whistle, their motivation for doing so, the courses of action that they chose, and their thoughts on the outcomes. GAP's expertise informs the authors' treatment of the cases throughout the work. Published in 1989.
Available from GAP, the leading USA whistleblower organization,
and from Amazon.ca and Amazon.com
Whistleblowers
Broken Lives and Organizational Power
By C. Fred Alford, Professor of Government, University of Maryland
An academic strives to understand whistleblowing: whistleblowers and their motives, and the often vicious reprisals of their employers, based upon numerous interviews and attendance at support group meetings. Alford's observations are often disturbing because they contradict some deeply held positive beliefs, e.g. that truth will prevail in the end, that virtue will be rewarded, that doing the right thing will make a difference... Published in 2002.
Available from Amazon.ca and Amazon.com
(Reviews and content can be browsed online.)
Whistleblowers
Opposing Viewpoints Series
Noah Berlatsky, Book Editor
A compilation of articles that argue both for and against whistleblowers, under the following chapter headings: What motivates whistleblowers; Do whistleblowers compromise national security; Does Wikileaks perform a valuable function as a whistleblower; and What consequences do whistleblowers face. Published in 2012.
Note: FAIR's executive director David Hutton contributed a section entitled Organizations often defend themselves by attacking whistleblowers.
Available from Amazon.ca and Amazon.com
Corrupt to the Core
Memoirs of a Health Canada Whistleblower
By Dr. Shiv Chopra
Author Dr. Shiv Chopra is one of three Health Canada scientists whose testimony before a Senate Committee in 1998 triggered headlines around the world. The scientists testified that Health Canada managers had pressured them to release suspect veterinary drugs into the food chain without the evidence of safety required by the Food and Drugs Act.
Published in 2008. Available from KOS Publishing Inc. Disponible en français: Corrompus jusqu'à la moelle des Éditions le mieux-être
Traitor
The Whistleblower and the "American Taliban"
By Jesselyn A. Radack
In June 2002, Jesselyn Radack exposed one of the first cases of torture post-9/11 - being used on an American - in the case of John Walker Lindh. Her sobering book should be required reading for all first-year law students because it shows poignantly how 'national security' is being used to fundamentally bastardize constitutional law, criminal procedure, human rights, civil liberties and legal ethics.
Available from Amazon.ca and Amazon.com
Extraordinary Circumstances
The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower
By Cynthia Cooper, former VP of Internal Audit at WorldCom
Whistleblower Cynthia Cooper recounts the story of her career, culminating in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse as she and her audit team close in on the evidence of massive fraud which would lead to the downfall of WorldCom and its CEO, Bernie Ebbers. Cooper refrains from demonizing WorldCom's leaders, thus making it easier to understand their motives and thought processes, without excusing their actions.
Available from Amazon.ca and Amazon.com
(Reviews and content can be browsed online.)
Nest of Spies
The Startling Truth About Foreign Agents At Work Within Canada’s Borders
By Fabrice de Pierrebourg and Michel Juneau-Katsuya
“Nest Of Spies” provides an intriguing window into the booming business of espionage, the goals and techniques of foreign agencies, and who is doing what to whom. In doing so it paints a disturbing picture of Canada’s failure to protect itself from predatory foreign powers, to the detriment of both our national interests and our citizens’ safety and well-being. This book is of special interest to whistleblowers because it validates former diplomat Brian McAdam’s warnings (dating back to 1993) that Canada has been infiltrated by Chinese agents and organized crime.
Available from Amazon.ca
No-One Would Listen
A True Financial Thriller
By Harry Markopolos
Harry Markopolos is the whistleblower who spent years trying to expose Bernie Madoff and the largest Ponzi scheme in history. This is a gripping, well-written story that becomes more mind-boggling with each chapter, as Markopolos begins to glimpse the vast scope of Madoff’s secretive scheme, as he uncovers more and more evidence that Madoff must be a fraud, and as he repeatedly hands the case to the SEC on a plate – only to have them blow it.
Available from Amazon.ca and Amazon.com
(Reviews and content can be browsed online.)
Books On Other Topics
The Pharmaceutical Industry
Many informed observers see the pharmaceutical industry as a successor to the tobacco industry: enormously wealthy and politically connected, ruthless, and much more concerned about profit than about the health of its customers. Here are six books that set out the questionable practices used by these powerful corporations.
Books About The Pharmaceutical Industry...
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