Whistle-blower advocacy group calls for COVID-19 accountability watchdog

A group of whistle-blower advocates is calling on the federal government to appoint a special COVID-19 ombudsperson to probe pandemic-related problems, including possible fraud in Ottawa’s stimulus spending and the mistreatment of residents in long-term care facilities.

The Canadian COVID-19 Accountability Group, an organization that was formed about three weeks ago, has drafted a list of recommendations that it says will help insiders in government or the private sector report concerns without fear of retaliation.

“While it is understood that the need for haste leaves governments little choice but to act swiftly and decisively, the inevitable fraud and profiteering should not be written off as an acceptable cost,” the group’s report states.

The report was authored by a collection of advocates, many of them connected to the Centre for Free Expression Whistleblower Initiative based at Toronto’s Ryerson University, which has urged governments to enact stronger laws and protections for individuals who wish to report wrongdoing.

The advisory board for the Centre for Free Expression includes experts in civil liberties, media law and journalists, including The Globe and Mail’s editor-in-chief David Walmsley.

The CCAG’s report is a response to a challenge that was issued by the Global Legal Hackathon, an international contest sponsored by the Financial Times, which encourages legal thinkers to “develop solutions to problems created by the coronavirus pandemic.” The deadline for submissions was last Friday.

Sandy Boucher, a former police officer with the Royal Hong Kong Police who now works as a Toronto-based investigator for accounting firm Grant Thornton LLP, helped author the report. In an interview, Mr. Boucher said the pandemic highlights many of the holes that have long existed in Canada’s patchwork system of whistle-blower protections.

Speaking specifically about the many problems in long-term care facilities, where residents and staff have been overwhelmed with infections, Mr. Boucher said there was “pretty much nothing” in law that would help a potential whistle-blower sound the alarm without putting them at risk of retaliation, such as the termination of their employment.

“I’m sure there are people out there in the long-term care system who knew, who could see [what was happening], and we want to create a situation so they can come forward," Mr. Boucher said.

The group’s report, which also includes contributions from lawyers and academics, calls for a number of legal changes that are similar to other jurisdictions. For instance, the group says whistle-blowers who help the government collect lost revenue should be entitled to 10 to 30 per cent of the recovered funds – a law that is similar to incentives in the United States.

In 2012, the United States government paid a record US$75.8-million (after taxes) reward to Bradley Birkenfeld, a former banker with the Swiss financial giant UBS, who disclosed widespread tax evasion on the part of many wealthy Americans.

The CCAG report also recommends a number of changes in law, including placing an onus on employers who fire whistle-blowers to prove that the move was not retaliatory, and another that would include exceptions for whistle-blowers to defamation claims.

The report also recommends that governments should be required to release a broad assortment of COVID-19-related records, such as inspection reports, within 15 days of completion.

The group says its “most immediate recommendation” is the creation of a special ombudsperson tasked with examining concerns about COVID-19. In his interview with The Globe, Mr. Boucher said that whistle-blowers typically have difficulty navigating the various channels for disclosing their concerns, and a dedicated ombudsperson would provide them with a clear path.

Those people need someone they can turn to who can cut across all the various jurisdictions in Canada and ensure that “the whistle-blower won’t get squished,” he said.

Mr. Boucher said the hackathon generated 240 submissions, with 11 that were specific to whistle-blowing in various jurisdictions. It’s not clear how the judges will evaluate the submissions, Mr. Boucher said, but regardless, the group will be lobbying various levels of government to implement its suggestions.

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