Whistleblowers Not Respected by Conservatives
For a government that gave plenty of lip service to improving accountability, one would think it would respect the importance of whistleblowers. Instead the Harper Conservatives tried their best to attack and discredit a public servant who boldly stepped out as a whistleblower on the issue of Afghan torture.
This is of course important in terms of respecting the Geneva convention, human rights in general, but also because of how it reveals the nasty and counterproductive character of a government run by a party that seems incapable of the most basic levels of respect.
According to the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act1 (25 November 2005),
“…it is in the public interest to maintain and enhance public confidence in the integrity of public servants;
confidence in public institutions can be enhanced by establishing effective procedures for the disclosure of wrongdoings and for protecting public servants who disclose wrongdoings, and by establishing a code of conduct for the public sector;public servants owe a duty of loyalty to their employer and enjoy the right to freedom of expression as guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and that this Act strives to achieve an appropriate balance between those two important principles;
the Government of Canada commits to establishing a Charter of Values of Public Service setting out the values that should guide public servants in their work and professional conduct;…”
And so the Act continues to detail responsibilities, procedures, etc. around whistleblowing activities. It clearly says that we need to have effective procedures for protecting public servants who disclose wrongdoings. Richard Colvin disclosed a public wrongdoing so why are the Tories lieing and lambasting him rather than protecting him and following the procedures to investigate?
In case the links above aren’t enough evidence of the Conservatives’ lies and stalling tactics, The Toronto Star2 (16 December 2009) reported on the Tories preventing parliament from delving into Richard Colvin’s account, especially with respect to his rebuttal3 to Conservative counterclaims of the evidence.
“Seven Conservative MPs boycotted a special sitting of the committee probing allegations of detainee abuse, forcing its cancellation and leaving the opposition fuming at the government’s “dismissive” attitude to Parliament.”
In a Toronto Star opinion piece, James Travers noted
“Honesty would have ended the Afghan prisoner abuse controversy now testing the ruling party’s commitment to accountability and the Prime Minister’s campaign to neuter Parliament. Instead of candour, Harper hung the Conservative defence on the suspect argument that there is no proof Afghans tortured Canadian prisoners.”
Even if history proves Colvin’s accusations incorrect, his treatment in this situation is off-base. The Conservative minority government has not protected him and has not tried to maintain or enhance public confidence in the integrity of public servants (quite the opposite), thus the Conservatives are on the wrong side of values set in the Charter.
