Intégrité publique au Canada : description, critiques et observations des réformes proposées par le projet de loi C-290 à la Loi sur la protection des fonctionnaires divulgateurs d’actes répréhensibles

Abstract

In 2007, the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act came into force to protect, with a few exceptions, all federal public servants in Canada. This law quickly became outdated and ineffective, as it is inadequate to effectively guarantee the confidentiality of the identity of the whistleblowers and to effectively protect them against retaliation. Canadian law is also inefficient compared to the law of international counterparts. Faced with the inaction of the Canadian government to make the necessary amendments to this act, an opposition member took the initiative, in June 2022, to present Bill C-290, to amend the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act and to amend to the Conflict of Interest Act. This bill was passed in the House of Commons on January 31, 2024 and is expected to come into force by the end of 2024. This article sets out firstly the various provisions of the 2007 Act; secondly, the criticisms to which it has been subject; and thirdly, the various modifications that the bill proposes to the current act. Although this bill includes significant improvements to the disclosure and protection of whistleblowers, there still remains many shortcomings that we will analyze.