(November 2025)
There are several systemic problems with the lack of effective whistleblower protection for both the public sector and the private sector, across Canada, in not only the Public Sector Disclosure Protection Act (PSDPA) but also all other federal, provincial, territorial and municipal laws.
The federal House of Commons Government Operations Committee called in its unanimous June 2017 report for many key changes to change the law and enforcement system to strengthen protection for whistleblowers who report wrongdoing by people in the federal government. However, then-Treasury Board Minister Scott Brison rejected the Committee’s recommendations in an October 2017 letter – committing the government only to reinforcing the internal disclosure process. The Liberals’ Bill C-65 in 2018 did nothing to change the Canada Labour Code’s requirement that federal workplace victims file complaints with their boss, who is often the harasser, and so it left political staff and other whistleblowers essentially unprotected. In February 2021, the House Committee voted to send its June 2017 report back to the House of Commons and requested that the Cabinet respond to it again, but the Cabinet did not respond.
Bill C-86 in 2018 added sections 979.1 to 979.4 to the Bank Act to create a right for bank employees to blow the whistle on wrongdoing, but did not establish an independent enforcement agency or process to protect them. In 2021, an international report ranked Canada tied for last out of 62 countries with whistleblower protections (See pp. 10 and 75 of PDF of report). MPs from opposition parties supported private member Bill C-290 which proposed several key changes to the federal PSDPA, but unfortunately the bill was derailed by the prorogation of Parliament in January 2025 by then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Provincial governments across Canada have failed to protect government and business whistleblowers fully and effectively, although the Ontario Securities Commission took a big step forward in protecting securities law whistleblowers with a new program launched in July 2016 which offers up to $5 million as a reward for whistleblowers whose claims are proven (which led to calls to reward securities law whistleblowers in other provinces and to reward Competition Act whistleblowers).
All of the following 17 changes are needed to strengthen whistleblower protection laws and enforcement systems to ensure everyone who blows the whistle on abuse, waste and law-breaking in government and business is fully and effectively protected:
1. All whistleblowers must be effectively protected from retaliation, including politicians, political staff, government employees, suppliers and contractors, and members of the public, and in business all executives, employees, suppliers, contractors, customers and members of the public;
2. Whistleblowers must be allowed, in all cases, to file their complaint directly with an integrity commissioner or similar enforcement agency;
3. Everyone who witnesses or receives evidence of wrongdoing by anyone in politics, government or business must be required to report it to an integrity commissioner or similar enforcement agency (with the commissioner strictly and strongly required to keep their identity secret, and with everyone allowed to submit evidence anonymously);
4. All whistleblowers must receive funding to pay for full legal advice (or a specialized, fully independent, publicly funded legal clinic should be established to provide this advice for free to all whistleblowers);
5. Any person nominated and chosen to be the integrity commissioner or similar whistleblower protection commissioner must be required to have legal experience and a strong record of enforcing whistleblower protection, ethics rules or similar accountability laws;
6. The process for choosing an integrity commissioner or similar commissioner for the public sector or private sector must be conducted by an independent committee of individuals from outside government and politics whose members have no ties to any political party, with the members chosen by all political parties represented in the legislature, and the committee must conduct a public, merit-based search for candidates, and submit one nominee to an all-party committee for appointment approval;
7. The integrity commissioner or similar commissioner must not be eligible for a renewal of their fixed term in office (to ensure that the commissioner does not act as a lapdog to try to get re-appointed for another term);
8. The integrity commissioner or similar commissioner must be clearly designated as the trainer (including by issuing interpretation bulletins), investigator and enforcer of all government policies and procedures, and must be required to conduct training sessions, conduct regular, unannounced, random audits of compliance and to investigate whistleblower complaints about violations of these policies, and the same powers must be given to an overall enforcement agency to protect business whistleblowers in every jurisdiction;
9. When the integrity commissioner refers a whistleblower complaint about the violation of another law, regulation or policy for which a designated investigative and enforcement agency exists, the commissioner must be required to ensure that the agency investigates the complaint within 90 days, and if an investigation does not begin within this time frame the commissioner must be required and empowered to investigate the complaint;
10. The law must require employers to prove that no retaliation against a whistleblower has taken place (as opposed to requiring the whistleblower to prove that retaliation has occurred);
11. The integrity commissioner or similar commissioner must be given the power to order chief executives/heads of government departments and businesses to take corrective action, and chief executives/heads must be required to report to the commissioner and publicly on corrective actions taken;
12. The integrity commissioner or similar commissioner must be given the power to penalize any chief executive/head with a fine, suspension or firing if the chief executive does not comply with the commissioner’s order, or if anyone retaliates against a whistleblower or does not maintain a system that complies with the law;
13. The minimum fine for retaliating against a whistleblower must be $50,000, with a maximum range of fines from $100,000 to $200,000 for government officials, and 40% of total annual salary for business executives, and loss of any severance payment, and partial clawback of any pension payments;
14. The integrity commissioner or commissioner or other enforcement agency must be required to identity publicly everyone in politics, government or business found guilty of wrongdoing or violation of any law, policy or code;
15. Government whistleblowers whose allegations are proven must receive an immediate payment of at least one year’s salary from the government general revenue fund (and for business whistleblowers a payment of one year’s salary from the business) so that they can, if they want, seek another job if the whistleblowing process has left them completely alienated from all their co-workers (and they should also be given priority in switching jobs in the government or business);
16. Whistleblowers, and members of the public, must be allowed to appeal to court for a review of any ruling by the integrity commissioner or similar commissioner or whistleblower protection enforcement entity, and;
17. At least every 3 years, it must be required that an independent audit of the entire whistleblower protection system be conducted by the Auditor General or other independent body.