The Liberal government’s decision to make administrative fixes to Canada’s whistleblower legislation is the target of a House of Commons petition which is calling for the implementation of a parliamentary report that called for revisions to the law.

The petition, sponsored by Conservative MP Kelly McCauley, asks the government to implement the unanimous report of the Commons government operations committee, which would have substantially changed the 10-year-old Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act.

McCauley said testimony showed that existing law is too weak, doesn’t work and needs to be fixed — for the sake of whistleblowers and Canadians. He said MPs tackled the review of the legislation with “open minds” and all parties agreed the existing law doesn’t adequately protect whistleblowers.

“Unfortunately, the Liberal government’s response to this report was to completely ignore the committee’s well-informed recommendations, and was instead limited to minor, internal changes,” said McCauley.

“Public servants who come forward to do the right thing and disclose wrongdoing in the interest of Canadians should not fear for their job security, intimidation, or lengthy and costly litigation periods by their employer.

The committee tabled its report last June, recommending a package of 15 legislative changes. The petition has been gathering signatures since it was tabled last week. It needs 500 signatures to be presented to the government for a response.

Liberal inaction on the report has already drawn sharp criticism from whistleblower advocates, as well as the ‘disappointment’ of Public Service Integrity Watchdog, Joe Friday, for missing an opportunity to change the culture of fear that stops bureaucrats from coming forward with allegations of possible wrongdoing.

The legislation allows public servants to confidentially expose possible wrongdoing in government to disclosure offices in their departments, or take them to Friday to investigate. The regime, however, has faced an uphill battle in winning the trust and confidence of public servants.

Friday proposed changes to build more trust in the system were, which were included in the report’s recommendations.

He wanted the law to ensure public servants who face reprisal have a “reverse onus of proof.” This would shift the burden to the employer to prove that the employee was not retaliated against for speaking up, exposing a wrongdoing or taking part in an investigation.

He also pressed to remove the ‘good faith’ requirement for a whistleblower or reprisal complaint which he argued put oo much emphasis on the complainant’s motivation rather than on the wrong being exposed.

Some argued the long-overdue review of the law had become a test of the Liberals’ commitment to open and accountable government.

The committee heard from a parade of international experts, some describing Canada’s law as out of the “dark ages” and little more than a “paper shield” when protecting whistleblowers. Many recommended blowing up the existing act and starting over rather than trying to fix weak legislation.

Instead, Treasury Board President Scott Brison said the government will improve the internal disclosure process – which requires no changes to the legislation.

Last month, McCauley was unable to get a motion passed calling for Brison to appear before the government operations committee to explain his decision to largely reject the committee’s report. While testifying on the supplementary estimates, however, Brison said he was holding discussions with federal union leaders and the integrity commissioner on how to strengthen the whistleblower regime.

He said heads of human resources have also been instructed to ensure employees and managers know their rights to whistleblower protection and get the proper tools and training.

“I want to tell you that this is an issue that is important to me,” Brison told MPs. “It’s one I know the committee has worked hard on. I intend to sit down with the public sector unions to discuss further what we can achieve on this in terms of strengthening the protections.”