The union representing federal government scientists says Ottawa needs to bring in measures to protect whistleblowers and offered up some ways to do that during a parliamentary committee hearing on the issue.

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Meanwhile, one of Canada’s most famous whistleblowers said a major problem is that the laws intended to empower people to call out wrongdoing are not being enforced.

The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada’s president Debi Daviau testified in front of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates and released her suggestions to protect whistleblowers Tuesday.

“The process and the laws in place to protect whistleblowers are not strong enough and don’t go far enough,” Daviau said.

The union represents government scientists who conduct research, such as testing products to ensure they are safe for human consumption.

Its suggestions involve the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, who investigates internal complaints within government departments.

Daviau said fixing the commissioner’s investigative process, giving a “direct access role” to a tribunal that hears complaints, and cutting back on outsourcing were a few ways the government could provide better protection for whistleblowers.

She said the current investigative process is often “unfair” and not thorough, with the deck stacked against whistleblowers who are treated as the guilty party when they stand up and expose wrongdoing.

According to Daviau, the commissioner’s current role is as a gatekeeper who gets to decide what complaints are referred to the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Tribunal.

“The tribunal is a body of people, so why would you have one individual deciding whether a case would go to the more objective body of people?” she said. “We see that as a logjam.”

Instead, complainants should have direct access to the tribunal, she said.

Daviau also said the government’s dependence on outsourcing means more private companies doing work for the Canadian government are not subject to whistleblower protection.

The Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act covers government employees, not private employees.

That could mean infractions are going unreported because people working at private organizations are not protected as whistleblowers, she said.

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Meanwhile, Canada isn’t enforcing laws the way it should to protect whistleblowing in the first place, argues Shiv Chopra.

Chopra is a former Canadian government scientist who said the biggest problem with Canada’s whistleblower protection is that current laws meant to protect people are not being enforced.

In his own case, which started in 1999 and is still before the courts, he said he went public with concerns because it was his legal duty. That set off an 18-year battle with Ottawa, which is still ongoing, he said.

Eighteen years ago Chopra and two colleagues at Health Canada decided to go public after they said the Privy Council Office was pressuring them to approve drugs for livestock being raised for human consumption.

He said he blew the whistle because he was being told to bypass the required process to approve the drugs, and therefore had a legal obligation to report that.

“All I’ve been doing is what’s required of the law, because that’s what my job description said I should do – apply the law,” he said.

But in his case, Chopra said, despite doing what he was supposed to he was still punished and eventually fired from Health Canada, where he had worked for 35 years.

He said Canada already has laws that are supposed to protect people when they do their duty and call out wrongdoing in the public service, but they are failing because authorities don’t enforce them.

“It’s a very well set up system,” Chopra said of the potential for whistleblowing protection. “If somebody tells me not to apply the law, then it becomes my duty.”