The government silences whistleblowers while beavering away--squandering public money -- &-- The Whistleblowers

They also have allowed the major crooks to operate quite freely with no consequences.

From a reader

If westerners want the Conservatives to become the government, they should work hard at the constituency level to make sure their MP's get back into the House of Commons, while relieving some of the better known MP's to campaign in Ontario.

Harper should be pounding the roads in Ontario especially in the last few days of the campaign. He disappeared too early in the last election and a couple of free spirits made matters worse with some outlandish remarks that were exploited a few days before the election.

Jason Kenny, Stockwell Day, Rona Ambrose, Diane Ablonczy and a few others who have safe seats should be beating the bushes in Ontario during the campaign. There are plenty of citizens in Ontario who are ticked with the corruption.

The media pick and choose who they will put on air in order to support their agenda of aiding the Liberals, to make it appear that most people are against the Conservatives and are "afraid " of Harper's hidden agenda. The Liberals' hidden agenda has been to steal taxpayers' hard earned money to remain in perpetual power. Kyoto is the Liberals' hidden agenda--the costs, that is. Kyoto will make the costs of the gun registry look like child's play.

There are 30+ seats available to the Conservatives in Ontario if they get their act together and act as if they know how to run a government instead of sniping at each other. The Liberals will take advantage of the sniping. They have daggers in the back for their own.

The money that's been falling off the government Brinks truck across the country consists mostly of back ended, future promises, such as the $10 billion for security ( which is complete hogwash -- How many were hired in security services with that $10 billion?) and $13 billion for the military ( where about 80% will come in years 4 and 5) It's mass communication with most of the media siding with the Liberals. The Conservatives just have to get over it. There are ways of bypassing them -- door to door literature, talk shows,blogging.

Many in Ontario have been anaesthetized by the Liberal-friendly press. They'll be doing all in their power to demonize the the Conservatives. Here's the bottom line. With gas prices so high, government services ( healthcare ) down and taxes up, many people don't have time to spend on politics. They are doing everything to keep their heads above water -- which is the way the Liberals like it. Knowing that the Liberals poured their hard earned money down the toilet, while they have had to go without for some things, a new car, a vacation, child's university education, et cetera, is going to make them furious. If the Conservatives can get this message out, they'll be the next government. Forget the hard core Liberal supporters; there are about 40 % of Canadians who don't bother voting. Maybe some of them will make it to the polls this time when they see their money evaporating through corruption.

To sum up, the Liberals tossed out billions before the last election ( just after the Auditor- General's report on ADSCAM -- (which the government stalled with some slick manoeuvering). They ended up with only a minority. This time, people know much more about how their money was squandered and they are not going to be too happy, no matter how the media spin it.

Remember, the government is pulling billions of $$$ out of thin air. -- Where did this money come from? -- Overtaxation. By the way, those involved in Adscam seemed to have been living pretty high off the hog with taxpayers' money. Let's not forget that the sponsorship was only 1% of the Public Works budget. The deals with their friends would make the sponsorship would look puny if some media types got off their butts and bothered to look at the rest of the Public Works Dept.

Just look at what happened to Jon Grant from Canada Lands when he objected to the shenanigans. What happened with the sponsorship wasn't an aberration, it was systemic. Just look at what happened to whistleblowers in the government who were trying to protect Canadians? Then understand why the government hasn't passed any effective whistleblower protection in 13 years.

They prefer the public be kept in the dark when it comes to the way their money is handled.

Those in the West should be volunteering to get their candidates elected and free up the MP's so they can be making the rounds in Ontario. There are 30 seats+ just waiting for a competent, honest government. Those 30+ seats, plus a few more additons across the country, will make the Conservatives the next government. The campaign is underway so don't wait for the official notice.

It is time to roll up the sleeves and throw a government that's long in the tooth and corrupt out of office.

Before casting a vote, every Canadian should be aware of the testimony of these whistleblowers if they want to go beyond the media spinning and see how their government really operates. Let's not forget what happened to Beaudoin at the Business Development Bank when he tried to protect taxpayers' money. The bottom line in all of the sponsorship testimony -- the Liberals taught Canadian children that it's OK for people to steal. There is nothing more reprehensible than that.

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Thanks to the reader for that. Now, to remind everyone of some of the whistleblowers . . . . .

I wrote about some whistleblowers here: Robert Read ex-RCMP: "Triads had infested Canada's immigration system" -- "a political silver bullet" -- NATIONAL SECURITY February 15, 2005 in Frost Hits the Rhubarb, week of Feb. 13-19, 05

Search the page for the headings below:

The Report: 38th PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION -- Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates -- EVIDENCE: ex-RCMP Corporal Robert Read, ex-foreign service officer, the blunt ex-foreign service officer Brian Adams, Joanna Gualtieri, Canada's expert on whistle-blowing, civil servant Allan Cutler, et cetera, February 3, 2005 -- you may download it. -- or copy and paste this into your browser -- ( http://www.parl.gc.ca/committee/CommitteePublication.aspx?SourceId=100732 ).

* Bill C-11 Whistleblowers and Quotations: Cutler, Selwyn, Read (RCMP), McAdam (Foreign Service Officer)

* Bill C-11 Whistleblowers, Introduction: Mr. Leon Benoit CPC -- EVIDENCE-Quotes from Mr. Allan Cutler, Mr. Selwyn Pieters, ex-foreign service officer in Hong Kong, Brian McAdam and ex-RCMP Corporal Read

[. . . . ]


You may
read the parliamentary record here: EVIDENCE Thursday, February 3, 2005

[Recorded by Electronic Apparatus] via Prime Time Crime Whistleblowers

Try to read the whole thing. It is lengthy but you will know more about whistleblowing and what happens to whistleblowers when you have finished. Four people gave evidence:

Mr. Allan Cutler: . . . .

[. . . . ] In the mid-1990s, I became aware of persistent irregularities in the procurement of advertising and related services
within Mr. Guité's group at PWGSC. At first I didn't think of myself as a whistle-blower. I simply thought there was a serious abuse of the contracting rules that needed to be rectified.

What I observed going on was totally outside my experience as
a long-time procurement officer at PWGSC. [. . . . ]

In my case, it was clear that my immediate supervisors did not appreciate my raising concerns. In April 1996 I was told I would suffer the consequences and pay the price if I continued to refuse to sign the documents that were improper.

Because there was no established procedure for reporting wrongdoing within the department, I approached my union, the Professional Institute of the Public Service, for advice. The union wrote to my ADM outlining my concerns about contracting irregularities. I was asked to go to the internal audit branch within PWGSC.

When I reported the situation to internal audit, I was promised protection from retaliation. I knew I would quickly be identified as the source of the disclosure; that went without saying. For that reason, I considered the promised protection from retaliation to be essential. Unfortunately, the promised protection wasn't there when I needed it. Shortly after I went to internal audit, Mr. Guité called me in and told me I would be declared surplus.

When the Auditor General made her initial report public in 2002, she stressed that any public servant who had relevant information should come forward. In May 2002, I sent an e-mail to PWGSC requesting permission to go to the Auditor General and asking for confirmation that there would be no reprisals for doing so. The next day I was told that I would have to meet with the manager of internal disclosure at PWGSC. I was informed this authorization would not be granted for me to provide information to the Auditor General until managers in the department had an opportunity to vet the information. Nothing at all was said about protection from reprisals. [. . . . ]

Mr. Selwyn Pieters, . . . .

Mr. Chairman, I am employed as a refugee protection officer at the Immigration and Refugee Board, and I'm currently on a leave of absence for a year without pay. This leave of absence directly relates to my coming forward with allegations of wrongdoing in the reasons-writing and decision-making process at the Immigration and Refugee Board. [. . . . ]

Where should a person go when they have to make a complaint of wrongdoing? My view is that an employee should be able to go directly to a neutral third-party entity to make that disclosure. There should be no requirement of internal disclosure as a prerequisite for external or public disclosure. [. . . . ]

Here is the type of thing that happens to a whistleblower.

Mr. Brian McAdam (As Individual): Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to present my views regarding Bill C-11.

When I was appointed a foreign service officer, I never thought as myself as a whistle-blower, I thought I was simply doing my job. I now know that telling the truth about something someone else does not want others to know about is called whistle-blowing.

My 30-year foreign service career ended, taking a huge toll on my health, reputation, and credibility. I wrote and spoke about the negligence and corruption at the Canadian consulate in Hong Kong and the threat that Chinese organized crime groups, known as triads, and the Chinese government posed to Canada. This was actually part of my job description, but I apparently was not supposed to do it. Telling the truth in the Canadian bureaucracy can be career suicide and dangerous.[. . . . ]


Hong Kong was the world centre for heroin trafficking. . . . Only a few minor players were ever prosecuted, and everything else was quickly covered over again. At that time, one in six people in Hong Kong was a triad member. The Canadian mission was warned in the early sixties and seventies that many in the Royal Hong Kong Police were triad members. Those warnings were ignored, and Canada accepted many Hong Kong police, some joining the RCMP. However, in 1977 a scandal dubbed The Quiet Dragons was aired on the CBC. It revealed that at least 40 corrupt policemen who were also triad members were living comfortably in Canada, with tens of millions of dollars gained from bribery and drug trafficking. Requests for a royal commission were dismissed.


In 1986 an intelligence report prepared by the immigration department said there were no triads in Canada. Quite soon afterwards the Commissioner of the RCMP also said there were no triads in Canada. However, from 1991 to 1993 I reported, in a series of more than 30 extensively detailed reports, that triads had infested Canada's immigration system. Leaders of the largest organized crime groups in the world had established themselves as entrepreneurs in Canada. This really wasn't anything new, but the bureaucrats panicked. [. . . . ]

An Asian organized crime expert wrote that “Canada is rapidly becoming one of the world centres for Chinese organized crime and espionage”. So the problem of Chinese triads, heroin and people smuggling, and corruption that has been going on for over a hundred years has never been resolved. It has only grown larger, causing far greater damage to the country. The typical attitude of bureaucracies to bad news is that we do shoot the messenger: if it happened in my ministry or division, then it's a negative reflection on me, and no news is good news. A disclosure protection act should counter the above mindset.


The problem of corruption at Canadian missions abroad is systemic. Canada's foreign affairs department learned there were 197 cases of corruption by locally engaged staff from 1996 to 1999 at its missions abroad, and many more were discovered later. The Canadian government itself admits that 1.5% of its immigration employees are corrupt, or thieves, or taking bribes, or have other illegal problems.

[. . . . ] The exclusion of the RCMP and over 100 divisions and branches is most curious. One has to wonder why this bill [C-11 termed whistleblower "protection" by the government NJC] excludes RCMP, CSIS, CSE, the military, etc., and, under clause 6, a total of about 63 divisions or branches of government and 49 corporations.


Bill C-11 [designed to protect the government NJC] imposes a 60-day statute of limitations from the date on which the complainant knew, or in the board's opinion ought to have known, that reprisals had taken place. U.S. legislation and other legislation does not have any limitations, because it knows that whistle-blowing activities are not usually a single event happening in a nice, neat timeframe.

This bill does not encourage whistle-blowers in any way, and neither does it value their contributions. In the U.S., whistle-blowers are rewarded and recognized, as it should be . . . .

Most whistle-blowers are 40 years of age and over and are forced to retire early. Most will never be able to be employed again. There has to be not only some restitution for what is lost but also substantial rewards for the persons with the courage to speak truth to power.

Instead, those who do not want the truth to come out use various departments at their disposal to harass those who might reveal the truth. NJC

Corporal Robert Read (As Individual): Good day, sir. Thank you for inviting me here.

My name is Robert Read. I'm now retired, but I was a corporal in the RCMP. In 1996 I was assigned to Mr. McAdam's case and appointed to meet with him, listen to his complaint, and try to find what was actually happening with his complaint, what were the facts of the matter.
Many parts of Mr. McAdam's complaint are detailed, and many were found to be true. I worked on Mr. McAdam's case until 1996, when I was ordered to desist, in September, I guess it was, 1997.


What I discovered was that when Mr. McAdam made his complaint in 1991 and it was investigated by the RCMP in 1992, the RCMP discovered that the computer in Hong Kong was entirely vulnerable, that the safeguards were not put into effect. Anyone and everyone who had access to the system could issue visas in Hong Kong, that is, anyone in the high commission in Hong Kong who had access to the computer, with a little bit of knowledge, could issue visas. It appeared that this had been happening for years, probably from 1986 until 1991. I compare Mr. McAdam to the sheriff in town, because various people in the high commission brought their suspicious pieces of evidence to him, and he gathered them and presented them to the RCMP when the RCMP arrived in 1992.

So after listening to various pieces of the story, I went to the RCMP central file room, got the 1992 files, and sat down and started to read them. After I had been reading them for several weeks, I came across a report called the Balser report, which, in obtuse language, said the computer is vulnerable and showed how it was possible to misuse it. [. . . . ]

There is much more if you go to the source. I included these excerpts for those who have little time.

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Excellent Whistleblower Information on Prime Time Crime

Whistleblowers -- Canada is not a good place to be for whistleblowers.

This webpage has so much information: the names of several whistleblowers with excerpts and links to their stories. Do not miss this webpage! Scroll down to the bottom and you will find all these links.

How to blow the whistle? Very carefully

Truth Telling Project

CBC Indepth: Whistleblower

Democracy Watch

BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association -- FIPA-BC

US Government Accountability Project

FIPA's Whistleblower Profiles 2004 .pdf

Whistleblower Canada

World Wide Whistleblowers

Whistleblowers support links

Canadian Law: Whistleblowers

Whistleblowers.org

Background: Shawinigan via Prime Time Crime

Russell Mills, was fired from his job as the publisher of CanWest's Ottawa Citizen when he called for the resignation of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien who had lied repeatedly in the case that has become known as Shawinigate. [. . . . ]

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Canadian Whistleblower Laws

New Brunswick is the only Canadian Jurisdiction Providing Specific Protection for Whistleblowers

Before trusting anything like this, I would read the fine print. It is so easy to malign the work of a whistleblower. For just one example, with so much work on computers, it is so simple to select one word and change the spelling of it throughout -- omit lines, sentences or paragraphs -- remove accents -- and claim incompetence. Then of course, there are short term contracts for anyone but the favoured and they may be terminated prematurely with claims that "the work is done". You should be able to figure out several other ways to thwart and eliminate whistleblowers.

In provinces where government is the source of much employment, and where businesses tied to government take the hint about not hiring "troublesome" people, that is, people who have whistleblown--or tried to--the result is that whistleblowers are virtually unemployable in any good job, even outside government.



Another trip down memory lane -- Je me souviens.

CBC won't remind you in an election season, but some of us will.

INDEPTH: SHAWINIGAN -- L'Affair Grand-Mere Lisa Khoo and Owen Wood, CBC News Online, Updated September 15, 2004

The controversy surrounding Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's involvement in two properties in his riding is rooted in events that are more than a decade old.

But the details were only made public after a series of media reports, a lawsuit and a barrage of questions raised by a united opposition in the House of Commons.

[. . . . ] Auberge Grand-Mère

Four years after opposition members first cried 'foul,' the owner of the Auberge Grand-Mère faces bankruptcy and the former president of the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) is suing his old workplace for wrongful dismissal.

[. . . . ] Here's a timeline of the events: [. . . . ]

François Beaudoin
April 1996
Chrétien phones François Beaudoin, president of the federal Business Development Bank of Canada, about a $2 million loan sought by Yvon Duhaime, who bought the Auberge Grand-Mère. Duhaime wants the money to expand the hotel. Chrétien meets with the BDC president again in May to talk about the loan.

September 1996
The Business Development Bank rejects Duhaime's loan application, saying it is too risky.
Also in September, a company owned by Claude Gauthier, a businessman and Liberal supporter, buys some land beside the golf course for $525,000.

February 1997
Chrétien phones Beaudoin about a scaled-down version of the Auberge expansion plan. The bank later approves a loan of $615,000 to Duhaime. Duhaime also gets a $164,000 grant from the Human Resources Department. [. . . . ]

Feb. 6, 2004
Beaudoin wins his lawsuit against the BDC. The judge orders his $200,000 annual pension and $245,000 severance package reinstated.

Sept. 14, 2004:
The Business Development Bank of Canada reaches a settlement to end its dispute with Beaudoin. The details of the settlement are not released.

Search: Howard Wilson , Chrétien threatens to sue Reform Leader Preston Manning and MP Jason Kenney for alleging , The ethics counsellor rules , The RCMP say there is no basis for , Jean Carle, a former aide of Chrétien, The wrongful dismissal suit of François Beaudoin, former president of the federal Business Development Bank of Canada



Whistle-blowers told complaints stay in-house -- Nova Scotia CBC

HALIFAX - Nova Scotia government employees who want to blow the whistle on wrongdoing or corruption now have new rules to follow. Cabinet ministers have approved a new set of regulations, which require workers to take their complaints up the bureaucratic chain of command. The whistle-blower is not allowed to make the complaint public or enlist help outside the bureaucracy. [. . . . ]

Government fires BDC president Michel Vennat Mar. 13, 04, CTV.ca News Staff

The federal government has fired Michel Vennat from his position as president and CEO of the Business Development Bank of Canada.
[. . . . ] Andre Bourdeau, who has been with the bank for more than 30 years, has been named as acting president and CEO.

Industry Minister Lucienne Robillard met with Vennat, 63, on Monday and said he provided an oral and written defence of his role in the firing of ex-bank president Francois Beaudoin.

[. . . . ] In that case, a Quebec Superior Court judge criticized Vennat -- a longtime friend of former prime minister Jean Chretien -- in upholding Beaudoin's claim that he was pushed out of his job for not approving a $615,000 loan to the Auberge Grand-Mere, an inn located just north of Chretien's hometown of Shawinigan, Que.

That hotel is in Chretien's old riding.

The bank suspended Beaudoin's pension and severance a few months after he left. The judge ordered it to be reinstated.

While the government has been swinging the axe over the sponsorship scandal, Vennat was fired over the Beaudoin affair.

Search: Marc LeFrancois, president of Via Rail , Andre Ouellet, president of Canada Post , Jean Pelletier, former chairman of Via Rail , Myriam Bedard , allegations about irregularities in billing by Montreal company Groupaction Marketing Inc. , close ties to the federal Liberal Party and to Chretien.

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