The following is a chronology of events related to the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act (PSDPA) and its implementation by the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner (PSIC) under the leadership of Mario Dion.
Dion's appointment as Public Sector Integrity Commissioner for a 7-year term was confirmed by Parliament on 14 December 2011, following two six-month terms as Interim Commissioner.
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What Dion has not done—and still refuses to do—is to investigate allegations, originally made in 2002, of misbehaviour by Health Canada in the approval of drugs for use in our food supply.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.
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.
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.
A three-year battle by a USGE/PSAC member has led to a guilty verdict of gross mismanagement against the former Chairperson of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. According to the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, Ms. Shirish Chotalia, a Harper appointee as Chairperson of the CHRT, committed acts of harassment, discrimination and abuse of power.
The OPSIC writes that "…she repeatedly harassed and abused employees and members of the CHRT, demonstrated improper behaviour and made inappropriate remarks in the workplace, disregarded essential advice from her staff…"
When a magnitude-five earthquake rumbled through Ottawa on June 23, 2010, employers everywhere ordered staff to leave the building. Everywhere, that is, but at the 11th-floor offices of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal on Elgin Street.
Despite safety requirements and staff concerns, Shirish Chotalia, then chair of the tribunal, ordered her employees to remain inside so she could proceed with her own swearing-in ceremony that she’d organized for that afternoon.
The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal became a toxic workplace as its Conservative-appointed chair harassed, screamed at and spied upon staff from 2009 to 2012, a federal watchdog has found.
Calling it a case of “gross mismanagement,” the report into workplace harassment at the body designed to weed out discrimination describes Shirish Chotalia as a tyrannical boss who struck fear among her staff and failed to follow basic rules of governance.
The former head of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal abused and harassed her employees, a report tabled in Parliament today concludes. Public Service Integrity Commissioner Mario Dion says Shirish Chotalia is guilty of gross mismanagement, improper behaviour, and making inappropriate remarks. The investigation took almost two years to complete.
And Dion, whose role is to investigate public service workplace complaints, says Chotalia's behaviour had a serious impact on the health of workers.
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.
The Public Sector Integrity Commissioner of Canada has submitted his third report since he took office in December 2010. Three reports of "wrongdoing" in two years. Those who think that this is a rather small number should note that the former Commissioner found none during her tenure.
The current commissioner, Mario Dion, is a career civil servant. A distinguished one. He has held assistant deputy minister positions in several departments and had an irreproachable track record. During his long career in the federal public service (starting in 1980), he certainly established good relationships with many of his colleagues and developed a large network in the public service. That is good.
