PSIC

Whistleblower protection under Mario Dion: a chronology

Topics:
0
Mario Dion

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. 

Whistleblower protection under Christiane Ouimet: a chronology

Topics:
0
Christiane Ouimet

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 Christiane Ouimet.

Christiane Ouimet's appointment was approved on 19 June 2007. She resigned on 18 October 2011, less than halfway through her 7-year term.

The costs of Canada's failed whistleblower regimes

Topics:
0

Over the past 11 years since 2002, federal whistleblower agencies have cost the taxpayer more than $35 million for very little return, mainly due to toothless laws and faulty administration.

During this time the annual costs have escalated, from about one million per year to more than eight million – for a system that has produced almost no results in spite of receiving hundreds of complaints from whistleblowers.

Canada’s federal integrity commissioner defends office

Topics:
0

Mario Dion – April 30, 2012

Re: “Canada’s integrity commissioner: in full pursuit of the inconsequential,” (The Hill Times, April 23, p. 15).

Last December, I accepted a seven-year term as Canada’s public sector integrity commissioner because I strongly believed in the mandate of the office and felt that I would be able to successfully implement the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act, as Parliament intended it to be.

After reading David Hutton’s opinion piece in The Hill Times, I felt it would be appropriate for me to take this opportunity to explain the mandate of my office and to counter the assertion that we are involved in any inconsequential work.

Canada’s integrity commissioner: in full pursuit of the inconsequential

Topics:
5

David Hutton – April 23, 2012

This is the story of how Canadian authorities suck up to a powerful industry that has a track record of bad behaviour, how public servants who get in the way are punished, and how the watchdog that’s supposed to investigate suspected wrongdoing is turning a blind eye.

Canada’s Integrity Commissioner Mario Dion, who is responsible for protecting government whistleblowers and investigating their allegations of wrongdoing, recently referred his third case to the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Tribunal created to examine alleged reprisals against whistleblowers.

Watchdogs need mandate to name, punish wrongdoers

Topics:
5

Duff Conacher – April 9, 2012

Re: Watchdog rips into F-35 project, April 4

As the federal integrity commissioner did in a recent report, and as many good government watchdogs have done in the past, the auditor-general kept secret the names of wrongdoers in his report on the fighter jet purchase multibillion-dollar boondoggle.

The public has a right to know the identity of its employees - politicians, political staff, appointees or public servants - who break the rules, and so all the good government watchdog agencies must be required by law to identify exactly which person broke which rule in each situation.

Disgraced ex-bureaucrat hired at school

Topics:
4

Mary Agnes Welch – March 19, 2012

A former federal bureaucrat slammed for gross mismanagement and misusing public funds is now working for University College of the North. Geri Knudson is listed as a human resources officer in the university's staff directory.

Jim Scott, the acting external relations director at UCN, said the school is aware of the allegations against Knudson and the damning details of her conduct laid out in a recent report by the federal integrity commissioner.

The Integrity Commissioner Lacks ... Well, Integrity

Topics:
4

Peter Worthington – March 17, 2012

Compared to the last Integrity Commissioner (who was also the first one for Canada), the present commissioner is Diogenes with a lamp, rooting out corruption in High Places. Even so, he's pretty reluctant to nail -- or even identify -- bad guys.

Christiane Ouimet stepped down from the job in 2010 when Sheila Fraser was Auditor-General, and investigated her office and found that of 228 complaints filed in three years, only seven had been investigated, and no wrongdoing was ever found.

Bureaucrat’s ‘gross mismanagement’ revealed in PSIC report

Topics:
4

Sonya Bell – March 8, 2012

Christiane Ouimet’s old office has finally found a public servant whose wrongdoing rivals that committed by its own former commissioner.

A “bully” and an “autocrat” who used federal funds to buy two flatscreen televisions for her home, several $80 water bottles from her private business, and a massage chair that ended up in the men’s washroom has landed an unsavory distinction: being the first person fingered by the Public Sector Integrity Commission for wrongdoing.

Public sector integrity czar finds wrongdoing, HRSDC refers case to RCMP

Topics:
0

Jessica Bruno – March 12, 2012

The results of an investigation by Public Sector Integrity Commissioner Mario Dion into a former Human Resources Development manager who misused public funds and forged another employee’s signature—among a laundry list of other abuses—has been handed over to the RCMP.

“The file was referred to the RCMP in December 2011 for thorough investigation. We also look forward to further parliamentary oversight on the matter,” said Alyson Queen, director of communications to HRSDC Minister Diane Finley (Haldimand-Norfolk, Ont.) told The Hill Times in an email.

Syndicate content