Red boxes higlight protection frameworks that are exact matches to your search. Results also include other protection frameworks (in grey boxes) that might apply due to their federal jurisdiction or unrestricted scope.
Canada Private sector
The Canada Labour Code (RSC 1985, c. L-2) protects employees who have reported a violation of health and safety working conditions under the Code or have contributed to any health and safety inquiry to a health and safety inspector. Any reprisals made against employees are prohibited, including reports on violations regarding wages, hours of work, annual vacation or conditions of work of an employee (including sexual harassment). The Code also protects employees who have contributed to any inquiry made by the Minister of Labour or an inspector. In 2007 the Ontario Superior Court found that employees disclosing any wrongdoings under the Code in the prescribed way and to the prescribed officials, were also protected under the unjust dismissal provisions, including financial penalties. In 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada decided that those provisions applied to both unionized and nonunionized employees.
Workplace conditions
Canada Unrestricted
The Canadian Environmental Protection Act (SC 1999, c. 22) allows for a person to disclose information about the release, or likely release, of a substance into the environment that is in violation of a regulation. These disclosures should be made to an enforcement officer or to a designated person. This Act also prohibits employers from disciplining employees who have made these reports.
Environment
The Competition Act (LRC 1985, c. C-34) provides protection for employees who disclose information to the Commissioner of Competition regarding a past or potential offence of the Act. Any person who has reasonable grounds to believe that a person has committed or intends to commit an offence under the Act, may notify the Commissioner of the particulars of the matter and may request that his or her identity be kept confidential with respect to the notification.
Unrestricted
The Criminal Code (RSC 1985, c. C-46, s. 425.1) protects employees from threats and reprisals for disclosing an offence to a law enforcement officer that they believe to have been, or is in the course of being committed.
The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (SC 2000, c. 5) protects employees who, on reasonable grounds, notifies the Privacy Commissioner of a potential privacy breach. During this process, employees can request for their identity to be kept confidential. The Act prohibits reprisal against an employee who acts in good faith and on the basis of reasonable belief when disclosing information about a person contravening any of the Act’s provisions. The Act, and therefore this protection, does not apply to organizations operating exclusively within Alberta, British Columbia, and Quebec. The Act does not apply in the health sectors in Ontario, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia that are governed by their respective provincial health privacy legislations.
Privacy and Data Protection
Canada Public sector
The Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act (SC 2005, c. 46) provides civil protection for disclosure of wrongdoing made by public sector employees. The protection only covers disclosure made to specifically designated people and entities, except if the disclosure relates to a wrongdoing that is a serious offence or poses an imminent risk of danger to the life, health and safety of an individual, or to the environment. Members of law enforcement, military and intelligence communities are subject to specific derogatory regimes.
The Security of Information Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. O-5) provided for a “public interest defense” for people permanently bound to secrecy that would have disclosed special operation information in case where the public interest in the disclosure outweighs the public interest in non-disclosure. However, except when necessary to avoid grievous bodily harm or death, prior disclosure is required to some specifically designated authorities. The National Security Intelligence Review Agency, and other members of the national security and intelligence community, have highlighted the uncertainties and limitations of the framework calling for legislative reform.
National Security and Intelligence