an AI fraud investigator left jobless bankrupt and looking for help after she blew the whistle on her employer as go publics Erica Johnson found out was a blowing can be a pretty dicey business in this country and another article about when you spoke out yes it was big news when Silvie tahun spoke out she used to hold a $60,000 a year job investigating fraudulent EEI claims that was the first one it was really intense but when the conservative government told investigators to each save half a million dollars a year by disqualifying people from benefits she
leaked the story to the media they're each required to find a half a million dollars in front presumes that there's widespread fraud and that they're all a bunch of cheaters and criminals at first the government denied having AI quotas then called them targets the controversy made for a good satire excuse me sir I'm a service canada pjip eyes but it was no laughing matter for TN a few months later she was fired she spent the past five years trying to get her job back she's unemployed and bankrupt it's financially difficult but it's emotionally difficult toffee
n submitted a complaint to the office of the integrity commissioner created 11 years ago to investigate wrongdoing in the public sector and protect whistleblowers they said they couldn't look at her case while the labor board investigated a Federal Court of Appeal ruled the integrity commissioner could investigate but it's chosen not to the process is like you know it's torturous my name is Joe Friday and yes it's my real name the integrity commissioner declined a request to discuss why Joanne's case and dozens and dozens of others are taking years to be addressed this whistleblower advocate says
the system to protect people who speak out is clearly not working no one has ever been protected through this I unders be no changes to the law no attempt to rectify this and these are good honest people who are doing the right thing to protect us to protect the public and they've lost everything Erica joins us now from Vancouver so Erica we just heard of whistleblower advocates say the system designed to protect people hasn't done that at all so how do we quantify that failure well it's not really very good news for public servants that
are hoping for protection if they speak out if you take a look at the stats since the office of the integrity commissioner was created 11 years ago 306 public servants who have suffered reprisals have filed complaints of those 306 only eight people have made it to the tribunal stage and of those only one has received a decision and that decision was not in her favor okay so that there you go there's the chill effect on anyone you know contemplating blowing the whistle when it comes to her original objective of EAJA what's changed inside that system
alright well Phil Vito Han felt it wasn't right to have a target or a quota to disqualify people from e-i benefits simply to save money for the government and we have contacted the now Liberal government and asked if that directive still exists they say there are no longer quotas or targets for individual fraud investigators okay some change listen thanks for this Erica erica johnson in vancouver good to talk to you so the man you just saw on Erica's piece David Hutton who's a longtime advocate for whistleblower protection says that internationally Canada has a reputation as
being the Titanic of whistleblower protection in other words disastrous there's no real protection at all Canada falls behind the u.s. the EU and Australia and how it shields those who are brave enough to blow the whistle on scandals and corruption and wrongdoing by the powerful so in Canada there is a Criminal Code provision for 25.1 it makes it an offence for an employer to threaten or take action against an employee as a way to punish them or steer them away from talking to law enforcement but here's the kicker the law does not apply to employees
who report wrongdoing to the media there was a parliamentary committee hearing in June 20-17 that led to a raft of recommendations for changes but none of them was accepted now there's a letter-writing campaign underway from democracy watch to push for protection for all whistleblowers public or private sector no matter who they're reporting the wrongdoing to
