Ethics officer: I'm powerless
Integrity watchdog says he can't protect whistleblowers, calls for strong new agency

Kathryn May
The Ottawa Citizen

Tuesday, September 16, 2003
Canada's first whistleblower watchdog says his office doesn't have the credibility it needs and should be replaced by a new independent agency that reports to Parliament and can legally protect anyone who exposes wrongdoing and corruption in government from reprisal.
Edward Keyserlingk, the first Public Service Integrity Officer hired to investigate allegations of wrongdoing in government, issued his long-awaited report yesterday. He called for a "radical" overhaul of the feeble whistleblowing policy for governing bureaucrats which he says is stopping them from coming forward with the kind of allegations he expected.
Mr. Keyserlingk said he and his investigators have been unable to do the job they were hired to do because of the office's structure and the weak policy that governs it.
He said public servants are rightly skeptical about his office's ability to protect them from reprisal, which he says has cost the office the credibility and trust needed to investigate and protect whistleblowers.
"We are, in fact, not getting the cases that this office was set up to deal with," he said. "I don't know if I'd go to this office myself. I would hesitate going."
Mr. Keyserlingk said he knows there are accusations out there because of the string of allegations of wrongdoing and mismanagement that have rocked the Chrétien government in recent years, but no one has filed complaints about them at his office.
He said, for example, the office never received a single complaint about the advertising and sponsorship scandal or about the management practices at the Privacy Commission.
A whistleblower's revelations about former privacy commissioner George Radwanski1s conduct sparked the parliamentary committee investigation that led to his resignation.
Instead, he said many of the 105 complaints he received last year were about personnel or employee problems, such as harassment and other grievances that can be handled by other tribunals and agencies. Of those, 20 files were closed after a preliminary review; 47 were referred to a different agency; eight cases were investigated and no wrongdoing was found; seven cases were outside the office's jurisdiction and five probes are ongoing.
But Mr. Keyserlingk said he doesn't think anything will change until the government replaces it's "internal disclosure" policy with a whistleblowing law that will cover all federal workers, including those at Crown corporations, agencies and commissions.
The law should also offer protection to any Canadian, advocacy group or union who comes forward with allegations of government waste and wrongdoing.
Under the policy, Mr. Keyserlingk can only take complaints from the "core" public service of about 168,000, which is half the federal workforce
"Until the office is based on legislation that ensures functional independence from government, it will not attract the credibility it needs to encourage public interest disclosures of wrongdoing," Mr. Keyserlingk said.
"Despite considerable effort to demonstrate that my office is functionally independent from government in the investigation and disposition of cases, skepticism persists, and is in fact, increasing," he said.
He said the new agency should have powers similar to one of the five agents of Parliament, such as the auditor general or information commissioner. He said the agency should report through a minister, but report to a committee and directly to Parliament.
Parliament should also appoint the head of the new agency, he said.
Mr. Keyserlingk, an ethics expert and former head of the Biomedical Ethics at McGill University's faculty of medicine, said the government has to encourage or reward whistleblowers and send the message that rooting out waste and wrongdoing is a professional duty and service to Canadians.
He suggested, for example, the Privy Council clerk hand out awards to whistleblowers.
Mr. Keyserlingk acknowledged he had reservations about the policy's effectiveness from the day he took the job 22 months ago.
His office reports to Treasury Board, which he knew wouldn't sit well with many bureaucrats. He said, however, his office has never faced pressure or interference from Treasury Board in doing its investigations.
Mr. Keyserlingk's report comes at a time when the government is facing unprecedented pressure for whistleblowing legislation. The issue gained new momentum this summer when the Commons committee that investigated the Radwanski affair called for tougher whistleblowing laws.
The Senate finance committee, which is studying Bill C-25, the bill to reform the public service, is calling Mr. Keyserlingk to testify today. Some have called for an amendment to the bill to beef up the whistleblowing protection for bureaucrats, but Mr. Keyserlingk wants separate legislation.
Until now, Treasury Board President Lucienne Robillard has said whistleblowing legislation should be a last resort and she would make no changes to the policy until she received Mr. Keyserlingk's report.
It's widely expected Ms. Robillard will bend to pressure for legislation, especially after she acknowledged last week the policy wasn't working as it should and she would do "whatever it takes" to protect bureaucrats from reprisals.
The latest revelation of a police investigation at Human Resources Development Canada further turns up the heat on the government for stronger whistleblower laws. More than a dozen employees at a Toronto area office were fired or suspended last week following a police investigation into projects funded by one of the department's 60 grants and contributions programs.
Opposition MPs attacked the government in the House of Commons for failing to clean up the mismanagement that led to the HRDC job grants scandal three years ago.
"It's been three years since the première of HRDC boondoggle and it looks as though it is continuing," said Canadian Alliance MP Brian Pallister. "This is Billion Dollar Boondoggle Two, the sequel, and it is a tragedy."
But HRDC Minister Jane Stewart said the department's beefed up tracking and control system is working and the probe is focused on "individual wrongdoing" and "employees who have chosen to thwart and cheat the system."
Mr. Keyserlingk's proposed reforms go farther than even union leaders expected.
Steve Hindle, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, said Mr. Keyserlingk's proposal would virtually transform the whistleblowing in government from the "cloak and dagger" world of brown envelopes and secrecy to "rewarding and recognizing" people who expose wrongdoing.
Nycole Turmel, the president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said Mr. Keyserlingk's report "hit the nail on the head" and laid out the needed reforms so no time should be wasted on further study.
"The time for study is over and the time for Parliament to consider legislation is overdue."
© Copyright 2003 The Ottawa Citizen