Bill Seeking to Strengthen Whistleblower Protections for Public Servants Passes Second Reading

Liberals MPs abstained from the 172-0 vote in the House of Commons

The West Block of Parliament Hill is seen through the window of the Sir John A. Macdonald building in Ottawa on May 11, 2022. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

A bill that seeks to reform federal whistleblower protections for employees who report on corrupt practices has passed second reading in the House of Commons.

The Liberal government abstained from the vote, which passed by 172-0 on Feb. 15.

Bill C-290, An Act To Amend The Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act, would expand whistleblower protections to federal employees, particularly reprisals against them, when they report cases of abuse of authority, breach of conduct, mismanagement and political interference, among several more.

The protections include extending the complaint deadlines, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

“This legislation would also provide fines for reprisal against a whistle-blower, which would increase from $10,000 to $200,000 for indictable offences and from $5,000 to $100,000 for summary convictions,” said Conservative MP Stephanie Kusie in Parliament on Nov. 2, 2022.

Bloc Québécois MP Jean-Denis Garon who sponsored the bill, said the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act (PSDPA) that came into force in April 2007 under the Harper government has not kept up with the times.

“Obviously, the world has changed a lot since then, but this law has not changed and has not been improved, amended or corrected in 15 years,” Garon said in his speech to the Commons on Nov. 2, 2022.

“Now the time has come to do the right thing for our competent public servants and protect whistle-blowers.”

‘Nearly Entirely Dormant’

The Commons operations committee in a 2017 report noted that the PSDPA “does not sufficiently protect whistleblowers from reprisals as most of them face significant financial, professional and health-related consequences.”

“Public servants and external experts lack confidence in the adequate protection of whistleblowers under the Act, notably due to the potential conflicts of interest of those administering the internal disclosure process,” said the report, titled “Strengthening The Protection Of Public Interest Within The Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act.”

The committee made numerous recommendations to the federal government but none was acted on. According to the International Bar Association in a 2021 report, “it is concerning that the [PSDPA] is nearly entirely dormant.”

Garon said his bill seeks to address the shortcomings of the original act.

“In the current situation, turning to the people in charge of receiving complaints can be extremely formal, difficult and intimidating for a public servant,” he said.

“What is more, the commissioner who deals with these matters has a limited budget. He barely has the necessary resources, expertise, or knowledge of the departments. As a result, often the investigations go nowhere. It is possible to refer the case to the police, but, again, there needs to be an investigation first and that generally does not happen.”

“Bill C‑290 proposes to allow the auditor general to investigate such cases,” the Bloc MP added.

‘The Reality’

In addition, he stressed that the definition of wrongdoing in the original act needs to be broadened and updated.

“The act covers serious cases of wrongdoing and illegal acts, but it does not cover cases of political interference in administrative decisions, even though it should,” Garon said.

“If a public servant discloses an incident of political interference, their complaint will simply be rejected. It cannot be processed or even considered by the public servants in the department who deal with complaints or by the commissioner.”

A report prepared for the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner noted that fear of reprisals is not the only reason why public servants are hesitant to report wrongdoings they see in their workplaces.

“The reality is that the workplace culture is dominated by an attitude that no one should ‘rock the boat,’” said the report, titled “Exploring The Culture Of Whistleblowing And The Fear Of Reprisal In The Federal Public Sector,” published on March 25, 2022.

The findings were based on five focus groups conducted with non-management employees and four groups with executives and managers between March 3-10 of that year.

“In describing how their attitude has changed, participants described themselves as having ‘become less naïve’, ‘more pessimistic’, ‘more cynical’, ‘more jaded’, ‘less bright-eyed’, and ‘more disillusioned’ about the process of reporting wrongdoing,” it said.