BC Needs Effective Legislation to Protect Whistleblowers
Editor, Burnaby Now, Oct. 21, 2010
In the week following the dramatic rescue of 33 trapped workers from a Chilean mine, Chile’s president was pressured to ratify an international convention protecting whistleblowers who bring to light safety concerns at work.
The need to protect whistleblowers sounds like a problem from the developing world.
Surely Canadians have this all worked out. Or have we?
The recent Basi-Virk case, in which the duo pled guilty to breach of trust and accepting benefits relating to the sale of BC Rail, doesn’t just raise questions about the honest dealings of public employees involved in big-money projects.
It also questions the safeguards in place to protect those who may be aware of wrongdoing, but fear the repercussions of going public.
In British Columbia, the NDP introduced Whistleblower legislation in 2007 but it died on the vine. At the federal level, however, the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act was enacted the same year, and is supposed to protect federal civil servants from the repercussions of whistleblowing.
That said, according to a report from the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, the sentiment amongst civil servants is that the law doesn’t do enough to protect people who bring questionable conduct to light.
This sentiment is echoed by the Federal Accountability Initiative for Reform, FAIR.
One FAIR statement rings especially true in light of recent events in B.C.:
“Virtually every scandal—in government or in the public sector—has a whistleblower dimension: either because the story has come to light through information provided by insiders, and/or because the problem was preventable if the organization had listened to these insiders and fixed the problem, instead of covering up.”
One can’t help but wonder if effective whistleblower legislation in B.C. could have prevented the Basi-Virk affair in the first place.
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