The working group appointed to examine the disclosure of federal wrongdoing is expected to call for Canada's first whistleblowing law to protect anyone who exposes mismanagement and corruption in government from retaliation and reprisals. The long-awaited report, which will be given to Privy Council president Denis Coderre today, is being billed in government circles as a blueprint to overhaul the toothless whistleblowing policy now governing bureaucrats. Critics say the current policy prevented public servants from coming forward with problems, allowing them to escalate. Supporters of such protection say it could prevent problems from growing into the kind of management fiascos and scandals that dogged the Liberals in recent years. The five-member group, headed by political scientist Ken Kernaghan, is expected to urge the government to appoint an independent parliamentary watchdog to administer the new law, which could extend to all federal departments, agencies and Crown corporations. The report is also expected to recommend the law offer protection to all Canadians or advocacy groups that come forward with allegations of government waste and wrongdoing. The report lands in the lap of the Martin government at a time when the RCMP is searching for leaks inside government over the Maher Arar affair, which led to last week's raid at Citizen reporter Juliet O'Neill's home and office. Many worry the incident will only deepen the culture of secrecy within the bureaucracy, putting the chill on bureaucrats talking to reporters as unidentified sources and discouraging would-be whistleblowers from exposing information about wrongdoings or mismanagement for fear of losing jobs or risking careers. However, Mark Dunn, a spokesman for Mr. Coderre, said the report is a "priority" for the government. "The minister wants to move as quickly as possible on the issue and protect public service employees," said Mr. Dunn. But many say the government doesn't have time to consider the report and draft legislation before an expected spring election, so the issue likely won't be addressed until the fall. The working group was appointed by former Treasury Board president Lucienne Robillard to examine the options available to protect workers who expose wrongdoing. Along with Mr. Kernaghan, a professor at Brock University, the committee's members included: Public Service Integrity Officer Edward Keyserlingk; former auditor general Denis Desautels, management consultant Helene Beauchemin and Merdon Hosking, president of the Association of Public Service Financial Administrators. The group's report, which includes more than 30 recommendations, appears to take a page out of Mr. Keyserlingk's annual report, which roundly condemned the existing "internal disclosure policy" as too weak and ineffective. Mr. Keyserlingk's office received 105 complaints last year, but most were about personnel matters or other grievances that should be handled by other tribunals and agencies. His office never received a single allegation about any of the problems at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner or the advertising and sponsorship scandal that rocked the Chretien government. In his report, Mr. Keyserlingk called for legislation that covered all federal workers and an independent agency that reports directly to Parliament. Under the existing policy, Mr. Keyserlingk can only investigate complaints from the "core" public service of about 168,000, which is half of the federal workforce. But Mr. Keyserlingk's report also stressed the government had to break down the culture of secrecy that thrives within the bureaucracy and encourage whistleblowers to come forward out of a professional duty and service to Canadians. It's an approach that was widely supported by federal unions, which have lobbied for such protection for years. The push for whistleblower protection has been debated on and off for years, but leapt to centre stage during the Radwanski affair, when the government operations and estimates committee recommended better protection for bureaucrats who expose mismanagement and wrongdoing. The chairman of that committee is newly appointed Treasury Board President Reg Alcock, who then argued there was no stopping the momentum for whistleblower legislation, which he said would fit within now Prime Minister Paul Martin's "democratic deficit" reforms. NDP MP Pat Martin, who headed the government operations committee's review into whistleblowing, said the government can't ignore the calls for legislation any longer. He argued the "landmines" of the Arar affair, to be followed next week by the Auditor General Sheila Fraser's long awaited report into the sponsorship scandal, will only turn up the heat for legal protection. "If the prime minister can commit to an independent ethics commissioner and whistleblower legislation with teeth, he may mitigate some of the damage of the past couple of weeks," Mr. Martin said.
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