Whistleblowers Click Here

There are Two Types of Whistleblowing:

Organizational whistleblowing: is a preventive tool for organizations to reduce the risks of malpractice and irregularities. Organizations will put in place mechanisms to enable organisational whistleblowing, such as a secure corporate whistleblowing system or hot line and a whistleblowing policy or guidelines.

Public whistleblowing: In organizations where trust is low, the above mechanisms are not in place, or there is no possibility to be an anonymous whistleblower, the person may be more inclined to blow the whistle publicly. This may include reporting to the police, media or through online social channels.  In some instances, there is a duty to blow the whistle to a professional body or regulator.

So, what counts as a whistleblowing complaint?

• a criminal offence, e.g. fraud or corruption
• a person or people’s health and safety is in danger
• risk or actual damage to the environment
• a miscarriage of justice
• serious forms of discrimination or harassment
• the company is breaking the law
• there is suspicion that someone is covering up wrongdoing

It seems like every day there is another story on the media about healthcare professionals, police officers, academics, scientists, employees and even politicians, getting harassed, losing their jobs and being professionally reprimanded for standing up for what they believe in.

• Stories of doctors and nurses who have blown the whistle on the empty hospitals and emergency rooms not even close to capacity, while we were being told that the ER’s were being overloaded.
• Stories of scientists and academics in the public and the private sector being disciplined for talking about therapeutics that could help people with Covid
• Stories about politicians like Roman Baber and Randy Hillier who have the audacity to question the current governments policies
• Stories of doctors who filed a law suit against The College of Physicians and Surgeons for their draconian and illegal attempt to prohibit doctors from promulgating their own scientific views on treatments and lockdowns

The world needs to hear your story!

Asley Jenkins

Ashley Jenkins is a nurse who was brought in to oversee rehabilitation of the Rosslyn nursing home in Hamilton, Ontario that had just been evacuated after a disastrous COVID-19 outbreak.  Almost all of the 86 residents and staff were infected, and 16 died. Her task was to correct the shortcomings that had caused this lethal outbreak and prepare the home to reopen.  She soon uncovered a litany of shocking problems, ranging from expired medications, missing medical records, bed bugs and vermin, to insufficient and unqualified staff. The basics of proper care and hygiene were absent, let alone the additional measures required to combat a deadly virus.

Yet the owners, the Martino family, evidently wanted the home reopened immediately, regardless of these problems, and instructed Ashley to lie to a health inspector who turned up unexpectedly. She refused, knowing that this might endanger her job, but she was unwilling to be party to a potentially deadly coverup. In the end, the Rosslyn nursing home remained closed, and six other homes, also run by the Martino family, had their licences revoked by the provincial regulator.

https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/2020/09/02/she-blew-the-whistle-to-protect-seniors-at-the-rosslyn-she-paid-a-price.html

Dr. Michèle Brill-Edwards

Dr. Michèle Brill-Edwards is a pediatrician and clinical pharmacologist who in 1988 became Health Canada’s senior physician responsible for the regulation of clinical trials and market approvals of prescription drugs.

In 1996 she resigned from Health Canada to speak publicly against the undue influence of the pharmaceutical industry on the drug approval process, and the resulting unreliable decisions endangering human lives.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b07Cx1Attcs

Dr. Shiv Chopra

In 1998 Dr. Shiv Chopra and two colleagues at Health Canada testified to the Senate that they were being pressured to approve drugs into the food supply without the legally required evidence of human safety.

Their revelations created headlines around the world and led to bovine growth hormone rBGH -- a product used to boost cows' milk production -- being banned in most developed countries except the USA.

In 2004 the three scientists were fired simultaneously for 'insubordination'.

In 2014, Chopra founded the Canadian Council for Food Safety and Health, saying he still had concerns about what he called the “five pillars of food safety” — hormones, antibiotics, slaughterhouse byproducts used in animal feed, pesticides and genetically modified organisms.

https://youtu.be/c_EJgY2oBMY

Dr. Nancy Olivieri

Dr. Nancy Olivieri a scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children and clinical professor at the University of Toronto discovered in 1998 evidence suggesting that a drug she was testing might be life threatening. Apotex Inc. which partly funded her research, insisted that she should not publish her results and threatened legal action if she were to inform the patients in the trials. The U of T refused to intervene, in spite of its responsibilities for public health and for scientific integrity. Critics observe that the U of T was at that time negotiating with Apotex Inc. for a multimillion dollar donation for a new building.

After independent investigations vindicated Dr. Olivieri, she took a leave of absence to pursue her research. In 2004, after six years of legal proceedings, Olivieri reached a settlement with Apotex which included a substantial payment to her. However, the company then refused to pay, claiming that Olivieri had violated the terms of the settlement by 'disparaging' the company or its drug.

http://www.healthnewsreview.org/2012/05/medical-research-ethics-whistleblower-nancy-olivieri-honored-again/

Edgar Schmidt

Edgar Schmidt was a senior Justice Department lawyer who became responsible for the legally-required review of new bills to ensure that they comply with the Canadian Charter and Bill of Rights.

Schmidt found that for the past 20 years the department's instructions to its lawyers had effectively gutted this provision, allowing laws to be enacted that may infringe upon Canadians' fundamental rights.

In 2013 he took his own department to court, calling for clarification of his duty to uphold the law in the face of his bosses' instructions to the contrary.

https://youtu.be/qRRYXiDRdtM

Dr. John O'Connor

Dr. John O'Connor, an Alberta doctor, was startled to encounter several cases of a very rare cancer in Fort Chipewyan, in the Athabasca oil patch. His further investigations revealed unusually high rates of cancers among the residents, and he called for a thorough health review of the community. His findings contributed to concerns that oil extraction operations may be contaminating the environment with carcinogenic chemicals.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/cancer-rate-in-fort-chipewyan-cause-for-alarm-medical-examiner-1.609695