QUEBEC — More than six years after it came into effect, most public employees are unaware of the law on whistleblowers, according to the latest special report from the province’s ombudsman.
“The methods of disclosure are not well known enough and many people fear reprisals if they decide to make a complaint,” Marc-André Dowd said at a news conference at the National Assembly on Thursday.
Article content
Article content
The report also said several state employees affirm that “their workplace is under the influence of a “culture of silence where the duty of loyalty towards the employer is overvalued.”
Some say they have the impression of living in a “hostile” environment for whistleblowers who put themselves at “risk of being ‘hunted,’ ‘tracked’ and possibly punished, particularly if the denounced act involves a superior or high-ranking official.”
According to Dowd, this type of practice goes against the spirit of the whistleblower law.
“The spirit of the law is to create safe spaces where people can feel confident, in complete confidentiality, to come and disclose a wrongdoing,” he said.
“So practices that would consist of searching for emails, doing an active search to find out who gave the information, that does not appear to me to be compatible with the spirit of the law.”
The problem also comes from the fact that those responsible for monitoring disclosures in public bodies (known as RSDs) are too often “highly placed people in the institutional hierarchy,” which goes...
KUALA LUMPUR: Two senior officers from the Survey and Mapping Malaysia Department (Jupem) are expected to be charged over allegations of abuse of power next week, says Tan Sri Azam Baki. The duo we...