Canada’s ineffective anti-corruption efforts have made our country a favoured base for criminals whose activities harm not just us but our peers and allies around the world. We urgently need to fix this problem.
The federal government has the responsibility to take the lead on this issue, yet successive administrations have shown that they prefer to avoid the embarrassment and reputational damage that inevitably results when law enforcement reveals serious wrongdoing. The SNC Lavalin scandal in 2019 is just one example.
Similarly, the RCMP has for decades lacked the skills, resources or political will to tackle such crimes. And successive governments have for decades blocked the protection of the most valuable witnesses to crime – whistleblowers.
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In 2021, the PSDPA was found by the International Bar Association to be one of the worst whistleblower protection laws in the world. During 19 years of operation, almost 6,800 reports have been received of suspected government wrongdoing, yet few have been properly investigated and only a handful (22) of mostly minor cases found proven, according to an assessment by the Centre for Free Expression.
During this time, more than 700 witnesses (whistleblowers) have formally reported reprisals for speaking up, yet not a single one has received compensation by the tribunal set up solely for this purpose. And for the past 20 years, every effort to improve the PSDPA has been stymied by government action or inaction.
If Prime Minister Mark Carney wants to make real progress… he’d have put the reccomended measures in this new bill and this article wouldn’t be necessary.
