Whistleblower Awareness Day / Journée des lanceurs d’alerte
This March 24, we hope you join us in supporting Whistleblower Awareness Day!
On Whistleblower Awareness Day, we recognize the invaluable role whistleblowers play in contributing to public sector workplaces that are free from serious wrongdoing. Their courage in speaking out is commendable and deserves our appreciation. As we acknowledge this day, we would like to reflect on how public entities can protect whistleblowers through safe and effective policies and procedures. Over the past decade, the Commissioner’s office has evaluated numerous whistleblower procedures and witnessed firsthand the impact of their implementation.
A good whistleblower policy can help public sector employees and their organizations in several ways. It can inform employees on how to identify and report wrongdoing, address the identified issue, and make employees as well as the public more confident in the organization. However, for these benefits to happen, the policy needs to follow certain criteria.
Organizations can assess whether their policy achieves these objectives, and ensure compliance with the Act, with a simple self-audit. This publication outlines six key elements for an effective whistleblower protection policy.
Five Ways to Participate in Whistleblower Awareness Day
- Recognize Whistleblower Awareness Day through your organization’s social media or website channels.
- Promote Whistleblower Awareness Day with this year’s graphic.
- Issue a public message in support of whistleblower protection.
- Remind employees about their whistleblower protection rights and how your organization safeguards the disclosure process.
- Review your whistleblower protection policy against our six key elements.
Please join us in promoting a workplace culture where whistleblowers are supported and where employees and management share a common goal of detecting and remedying wrongdoing.
The Whistleblower Awareness Day graphic with logo can be accessed here and without the logo can be accessed here.
To access a French version with the logo, please visit us here,and without the logo, please visit us here.