This Monday, as many in the past, the document dispute in the Afghan detainee controversy continues to dominate accountability news. Where things stand now is that the federal government has hired retired justice Frank Iacobucci to review documents which it claims are too sensitive to release unedited to Parliamentarians. The Opposition, meanwhile, is having none of that: it wants to see the documents now, not at some undefined point in the future, and it’s threatening to put several Ministers in contempt of Parliament if it doesn’t get its way.
Someone has now proposed that a limited number of Parliamentarians with security clearances review the documents. Several experts have endorsed this approach.
The agency Rights and Democracy is also still in the news as the Conservatives are attempting to block the widow of the late President Remy Beauregard from testifying in Parliamentary committee, claiming, essentially that it would be too emotionally charged. They also want to block the testimony of some employees who were fired for their dissidence. Hmm. Not very transparent.
Expenses of MPs and top bureaucrats are coming under closer scrutiny. Or rather, the lack of scrutiny is coming under scrutiny. The Halifax Chronicle-Herald, following up on its extensive coverage of Nova Scotia’s recent MLA expenses scandal, ran a long piece on MP expenses being immune from outside audit and reported some self-serving justifications and disingenuousness on the part of MPs. Meanwhile, the Hill Times reports that a certain Drew McPherson has developed a website that compiles ministers’ and bureaucrats’ travel and hospitality expenses. Great work, Drew – I tip my hat to you. Now all we need is for someone to do an audit of reported versus unreported expenses…
On to Chander Grover. You remember him, don’t you? Well, you can be forgiven if you don’t. Chander was run out of the National Research Council some 23 years ago. He has won multiple rulings in tribunals and courts since then, but the NRC continues to stonewall. Why? Because it’s not their money they’re spending to defend the indefensible – it’s yours, so the joke’s on you. In any event, the South Asia Mail ran a number of pieces on him this week.
Three international stories show the importance of whistleblowers, and how they are still being persecuted even where laws exist to protect them. The first involves a study about to be reported in the The Journal of Finance that shows that whistleblowers are the biggest source of information on corporate malfeasance in the U.S. (about 17%), followed closely by short-sellers and stock analysts. In contrast, the Securities and Exchange Commission – the regulatory authority – only accounted for 6% of cases. This, I think, is the result of bureaucratic incompetence and the willingness of regulators to trust people who appear to be respected authority figures. That is, they’re easy dupes.
Two other cases provide evidence. In one, a letter has surfaced showing that a whistleblower tried to stop the abuses and chicanery that led to the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings – the largest corporate collapse in U.S. (and probably world) history. His reward? A summary firing. Meanwhile, in the U.K., The Guardian reports that whistleblowers are still being hammered by employers for reporting wrongdoing 10 years after passing laws intended to protect them
Here in Canada, where we lag both countries in both attitudes and laws regarding whistleblowers, I just wish we had some party would take this up as an issue. Sigh.
See you Thursday.
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Afghan Detainee Documents Dispute Continues
Rights and Democracy under Scrutiny in Parliamentary Committee
Calls for Closer Scrutiny of MP Expenses
The South Asia Mail Denounces Treatment of Former NRC Scientist Chander Grover
Efforts to Keep Tommy Douglas File From Public Criticized
Study – and Stories – Show that Regulators Much Less Effective than Whistleblowers
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Afghan Detainee Documents Dispute Continues
Opposition threatens contempt motion over Afghan torture documents
The Star (Toronto), March 18, 2010
Summary: The opening volley was fired Thursday over what could become a protracted constitutional war over Parliament’s right to know versus the government’s right to keep secrets. Fed up with months of government foot-dragging on their demand for uncensored documents related to the alleged torture of Afghan detainees, opposition MPs sought a formal ruling from the Speaker of the House of Commons that their parliamentary privileges have been breached.
Farewell, soon-to-be-former Deputy Attorney General John H. Sims
CBCNews, March 19, 2010
Summary: Yes, according to the Department of Justice, earlier this week, Deputy Minister John H. Sims — a three-plus-decade veteran of the civil service — gave notice, via widely-distributed letter, that he would be leaving his post, effective April 1. The news apparently provoked mild-to-middling surprise on the mandarin circuit, since generally speaking, the imminent departure of such a senior official would have been telegraphed months in advance, and not announced in a brief note just two weeks before his last day on the job. The timing is especially curious given how deeply enmeshed in the Afghan detainee controversy his soon to be former department has become, particularly given yesterday’s Questions of Privilege. (Blog posting)
Security-cleared parliamentary panel could review Afghan detainee documents: experts
Winnipeg Free Press, March 21, 2010
Summary: Setting up a special committee of senior parliamentarians to examine sensitive documents about Afghan detainees could help defuse a brewing political crisis over access to the information, intelligence experts say.
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Rights and Democracy under Scrutiny in Parliamentary Committee
Tories aim to block testimony from widow of rights group head
The Star (Toronto), March 18, 2010
Summary: Conservative MPs are thwarting the grieving widow of former Rights and Democracy president Remy Beauregard from testifying at a Commons committee. Suzanne Trepanier has requested permission to appear at the Foreign Affairs committee to defend her husband’s record and provide her version of events that she believes contributed to Beauregard’s fatal heart attack in January following an agency board meeting.
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Calls for Closer Scrutiny of MP Expenses
State secrets
The Chronicle-Herald (Halifax), March 22, 2010
Summary: The expense spending of federal MPs has never been subjected to the same kind of audit that uncovered abuses in Nova Scotia and other legislatures, and although MPs from all parties say rules are tighter in Ottawa, they also refuse to open the books to auditor general Sheila Fraser to confirm that there is no waste.
A new website compiles ministers’ and top bureaucrats’ travel and hospitality disclosures, neatly
The Hill Times (Ottawa), March 22, 2010
Summary: When 33-year-old web developer Drew Mcpherson waited in a Halifax doctor’s office in 2007, reading a Maclean’s magazine article headlined, “Your tax dollars at work,” on proactive disclosure in the post-George Radwanski bureaucracy and how senior officials were still spending lavishly, he decided to do something about it. (Note: available to subscribers only)
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The South Asia Mail Denounces Treatment of Former NRC Scientist Chander Grover
State-sponsored Racial Discrimination in Canada: Racial Discrimination of Dr. Grover by the NRC
The South Asia Mail, March 22, 2010
Summary: Dr. Chander P. Grover, a Canadian citizen of South Asian descent, has been the victim of “state sponsored” racial discrimination for 23 years orchestrated by his employer, the National Research Council with the backing of several Central Agencies of the Government of Canada.
An eloquent example of racial discrimination in Canada
The South Asia Mail, March 22, 2010
Summary: Racial discrimination is very much alive in Canada. It is highly prevalent in the federal public service.
Dr. Grover: Where does the truth lie?
The South Asia Mail, March 22, 2010
Summary: The case of Dr. Chander P. Grover against the National Research Council (NRC) and his twenty-two year ordeal for racial equality has been narrated on many occasions and well chronicled in court proceedings, in Parliament Hansards, in academic studies in law and in the media. As we have just observed March 21, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, I ask our honourable Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to restore moral integrity and in the interests of the public and the nation, to end this shameful travesty of justice. (Editorial)
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Efforts to Keep Tommy Douglas File From Public Criticized
Is bid to hide Tommy Douglas’s file insidious or just silly?
The Vancouver Sun, March 19, 2010
Summary: The idea that the disclosure of people and tactics used 40 to 60 years ago or more will threaten continuing business suggests that CSIS is still using methods that, if exposed, would offend not only public sensibilities but perhaps even the law. Given the trust we must have in CSIS, that suspicion is intolerable. (Column)
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Study – and Stories – Show that Regulators Much Less Effective than Whistleblowers
Whistle-blowers find more corporate fraud than regulators, study finds
The Dallas Morning News, March 22, 2010
Summary: I bet cunning corporate pooh-bahs who have stolen from a company, ripped off shareholders or bilked the government fear most a visit from a Securities and Exchange Commission regulator. If so, their worries may be misplaced. The SEC surprisingly is just a minor player on the fraud-busting front. Chances are, any corporate shenanigans coming to light will be from a trusted aide or embittered employee- turned-whistle-blower.
Whistleblower in Lehman Brothers was Ignored before Collapse
Letter: Lehman Accounting Tricks Possibly Illegal
ABC News, March 18, 2010
Summary: A Lehman Brothers whistleblower warned his bosses that accounting gimmicks the bank used before its collapse may have been illegal, his lawyer said Friday. Matthew Lee, a former Lehman senior vice president, was fired days after questioning the accounting tricks in a letter to his superiors, attorney Erwin Shustak said. Shustak gave a copy of the letter to The Associated Press. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. imploded in September 2008, becoming the biggest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history.
The Lehman Whistleblower’s Letter
The Wall Street Journal, March 19, 2010
Summary: Here is the letter that placed the little-known Lehman executive at the center of allegations that Lehman manipulated its numbers and misled investors. (Blog posting)
Report in UK Shows Reprisals Still Common 10 Years After Whistleblower Protection Law Passed
Tenfold rise in whistleblower cases taken to tribunal
The Guardian (Manchester), March 22, 2010
Summary: The number of employees claiming to have been sacked, mistreated or bullied for exposing corrupt practices at work has increased tenfold over the last decade, according to official figures. The figures, compiled for the first time, will increase fears among campaigners that whistleblowers are being deliberately undermined or removed from their workplace, despite repeated promises to protect them. The information was collated by the charity Public Concern at Work in a report into 10 years of whistleblower protection.
