C2 Submission En

Canadian Federation of Students’ submission to the

House of Commons Legislative Committee on Bill C-2
May 29, 2006

National Ofﬁce • Bureau national
500-170 rue Metcalfe Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K2P 1P3
613 232-7394
www.cfs-fcee.ca

The Canadian Federation of Students
86 Member Students’ Unions
500,000 University and College Students

British Columbia
University of British Columbia Students’ Union-Okanagan
Camosun College Student Society
Capilano Students’ Union
Thompson Rivers University Student Union
Douglas College Students’ Union
Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design Students’ Union
King Edward Students’ Union
Kwantlen University-College Student Association
Malaspina University-College Students’ Union
College of New Caledonia Students’ Association
North Island College Students’ Association
Northern Lights College Students’ Association
Northwest Community College Students’ Association
Okanagan College Students’ Union
College of the Rockies Students’ Union
Selkirk Students’ Association
Simon Fraser Student Society
Vancouver Community College Students’ Union
University of Victoria Students’ Society
University of Victoria Graduate Students’ Society

Prairies
Alberta College of Art and Design Students’ Association
Brandon University Students’ Union
Graduate Students’ Association of the University of Calgary
First Nations University of Canada Students’ Association
University of Manitoba Students’ Union
University of Manitoba Graduate Students’ Association
University of Regina Students’ Union
University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union
University of Saskatchewan Graduate Students’ Association
Association étudiante du Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface
University of Winnipeg Students’ Association

Ontario
Algoma University Students’ Union
Atkinson Students’ Association
Brock University Graduate Students’ Association
Carleton University Students’ Association
Carleton University Graduate Students’ Association
Association étudiante de la Cité collégiale
Student Association of George Brown College
Glendon College Student Union
University of Guelph Central Student Association
University of Guelph Graduate Students’ Association
Continued . . .

Members continued:
Lakehead University Student Union
Laurentian Association of Mature and Part-time Students
Laurentian University Students’ General Association
Association des étudiantes et étudiants francophones de l’Université Laurentienne
McMaster Graduate Students’ Association
Nipissing University Student Union
Ontario College of Art and Design Student Union
Graduate Students’ Association des étudiant(e)s diplômé(e)s de l’Université d’Ottawa
Queen’s University Society of Graduate and Professional Students
Continuing Education Students at Ryerson
Ryerson Students’ Union
Saint Paul University Students’ Association
Scarborough Campus Students’ Union
University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union
University of Toronto Students’ Administrative Council
Association of Part-Time Undergraduate Students of the University of Toronto
Trent Central Student Association
Trent University Graduate Student Association
University of Western Ontario Society of Graduate Students
Wilfrid Laurier University Graduate Students’ Association
University of Windsor Graduate Students’ Society
University of Windsor Organisation of Part-time University Students
University of Windsor Students’ Alliance
York Federation of Students
York University Graduate Students’ Association

Québec
Concordia Students’ Union
Concordia University Graduate Students’ Association
Post-Graduate Students’ Society of McGill University

Maritimes
Acadia Students’ Union
Cape Breton University Students’ Union
Dalhousie Association of Graduate Students
Holland College Student Union
University of King’s College Students’ Union
Mount Saint Vincent University Students’ Union
University of New Brunswick Graduate Students’ Association
Student Union of NSCAD University
University of Prince Edward Island Student Union
University of Prince Edward Island Graduate Student Association
Association générale des étudiants de l’Université Sainte-Anne

Newfoundland & Labrador
Grenfell College Student Union
Marine Institute Students’ Union
Memorial University of Newfoundland Students’ Union
Graduate Students’ Union of the Memorial University of Newfoundland
College of the North Atlantic Students’ Union

Introduction Research Integrity produced in 1995 a Whistleblow-
er Bill of Rights observing:1
The billions of dollars of cuts to federal post-sec- The public record demonstrates that good-faith whistle-
ondary education funding over the last decade has blowers, some publicly vindicated, have experienced harm
had a dramatic impact on the quality and acces- or ruin to their professional careers through threats, cen-
sorship, physical isolation, retaliatory investigations, ac-
sibility of post-secondary education in Canada.
cusations of racial bias or of the very misconduct they
Education is consistently identified as a priority challenged, academic expulsion, denial of access to their
by the Canadian public and it invests significant data and laboratories, and even threatened deportation or
funds into high-quality research through universi- physical injury.
ties and government research institutions. The pub- High-profile Canadian case history suggests that
lic expects, as it should, appropriate return on this whistleblowers in this country are not immune to
investment, through job creation and high-quality retaliatory attacks. The interest of the Canadian
artistic, scientific, literary and socio-political inno- government in these matters is no different from
vation. Canada’s aspiration to be a world leader in that of its United States counterpart:
the global knowledge-based society requires that The federal government’s interest in research misconduct
the Canadian post-secondary education system be stems from its funding of research and, in the biomedical
sphere, its interest in the collective health of the citizenry.2
dedicated to high-quality and ethically sound re-
search.
Safeguarding the Public Interest
Previous governments have been somewhat mis-
A key component of the government’s research
guided in their approach to research by imposing a
strategy has included increased funding to univer-
dangerously careless agenda to commercialise uni-
sities and researchers through the federal granting
versity research. This agenda has placed significant councils and programs such as the Canadian Foun-
pressure on federal granting bodies, research insti- dation for Innovation (CFI) and Genome Canada.
tutions, and individual researchers to please private Between 1999 and 2005, public investments in the
donors. From time to time, this leads to pressure to CFI totaled $1.5 billion, $223 million was invested
skew research results for private gain, at the public’s in Genome Canada, and $670 million in the Indi-
expense. Without appropriate safeguards for indi- rect Costs of Research Fund.
viduals who speak out in defense of research in-
In the 2006 federal budget, an additional $100
tegrity, Canada will lag in its ability to espouse the
million was granted to research and development
highest levels of international research excellence. programs and a modest $40 million increase was
Several other countries have acted to protect those allocated to the federal granting councils for a total
who speak out against research misconduct, in order of close to $1.6 billion in annual core funding.
to ensure that ethical standards of research are up- The Federation has consistently supported increased
held. In so doing, they have implemented policies federal funding for public research and recognises
to protect academic whistleblowers. For example, in the necessary role of the federal government in ad-
response to highly-publicised cases of misconduct vancing Canada’s role in the global knowledge so-
by American researchers, the Ryan Commission on ciety. Further, given the significant public interest

Submission to the Legislative Committee on Bill C-2 Page 1

and investment in the advancement of research, it These whistleblowers have experienced retaliation
is imperative that such research be transparent and ranging from threats of defamation suits to the
accountable. This requires appropriate mechanisms withholding of key research data required for them
for the federal government to account for funds to complete their studies. This atmosphere threat-
spent on post-secondary education and research. ens Canada’s ability to foster a future generation of
researchers.
There currently exists a near total absence of pro-
tections for those who speak out against research Bill C-2, the Federal Accountability Act, provides
misconduct, and students are particularly vulner- the structure and the opportunity for the federal
government to ensure research integrity in publicly
able. As witnesses to research misconduct they are
funded research and education. This can be done
afforded little protection or credibility within exist-
through simple amendments to the Public Servants
ing university and granting council guidelines
Disclosure Protection Act and the Access to Informa-
The Federation has been called by both individual tion Act.
students and their representatives to lend support
and advocacy to cases in which students have suf-
fered retaliation for speaking out in good faith.

Summary of Recommendations

1. Extend the protections offered by the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act to researchers,
including students, in public post-secondary and research affiliated institutions.

2. Rename the revised Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act to the Public Interest Disclosure
Protection Act, with a Commissioner known as the Public Interest Integrity Commissioner.

3. Amend the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act to create the position of Deputy
Commissioner of Research Integrity to advocate enhancements to research integrity and ethics.

4. Expand the reprisals and wrongdoings described in the revised Public Interest Disclosure Protection
Act.

5. Recognise explicitly that the overarching principle of the remedies available to the Tribunal is to
make the whistleblower “whole”.

6. Expand the specific remedies described to meet whistleblower statutes in other jurisdictions.

7. Amend the Access to Information Act to include the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the
Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation.

Page 2 Canadian Federation of Students

I. Whistleblower Protection for review” and whistleblowers. Through “peer review,”
the University Community academic peers are asked to critically review a study
before its publication.
If Parliament were to establish adequate protections for [C]learly peer review is deficient ... Studies so far have
those who disclose safety concerns then scientists would no shown that it is slow, expensive, ineffective, something of
longer face the ugly alternatives of keeping their mouths a lottery, prone to bias and abuse, and hopeless at spotting
shut, or losing their reputations and jobs. errors and fraud.7
Nancy Olivieri and Arthur Schafer, “The perils of whistle-
blowing.” Toronto Star, Aug. 6, 2004, p. A17
The importance of whistleblowers to research integ-
rity is therefore vital:8
The federal Office of Research Integrity in the Unit- The complainant is an essential element in the effort to
ed States of America provides protection for those protect the integrity of [government] supported research
individuals who speak out in good faith against because researchers do not call attention to their own mis-
conduct.
research misconduct. In the absence of such pro-
tections, Canadian researchers—particularly stu-
Retaliation
dents—are vulnerable in exposing misconduct.
A study commissioned by the United States federal
Although the Canadian federal granting councils
Office of Research Integrity reveals a disturbing pat-
outline ethical guidelines for research in public in-
tern in institutional responses to whistleblowers:9
stitutions, there exists no provisions for protecting
whistleblowers from reprisals. [These findings] confirm that whistleblowers frequently
face the prospect of significant hardship for their efforts...
The most serious negative consequences—loss of position,
Research Misconduct in Universities
loss of research resources or opportunity, and denial of ad-
Occasionally, cases of research misconduct attract vancement—simply do not happen without substantial in-
media attention. From Ranjit Kumar Chandra of volvement and direction by institutional officials ...
Memorial University in Newfoundland to South Lesser negative consequences—hassles, pressures and de-
Korean stem-cell researcher Hwang Woo-suk, high- lays—also frequently come from institutional officials.
profile cases of research misconduct have garnered Institutional officials were found to have been in-
public interest.3 volved in 88% of the cases where the whistleblower
Focusing solely on those cases that attract media, experienced the “most serious negative consequenc-
the Canadian public might believe that such in- es”.10
stances are rare. However, such is not the case.4 With formal whistleblower protection in the Unit-
Most cases are probably not publicized. They are simply ed States, the study concluded that:11
not recognized, covered up altogether; or the guilty re- ... to prevent the most serious consequences of whistle-
searcher is urged to retrain, move to another institution, or blowing, [Office of Research Integrity] regulations and en-
retire from research. forcement approaches will need to be targeted primarily at
Surveys and case histories demonstrate that stu- institutional officials.
dents and faculty are witnessing or knowledgeable Without any federal whistleblower protections in
on a range of serious ethical violations occurring place, Canadian institutional officials have engaged
in university research, many of which occur under in aggressive and vicious attacks against whistle-
pressure from a research sponsor.5 With increasing blowers.12 This behaviour, manifest in documented
incentives for researchers to engage in the com- cases and reported internationally, severely under-
mercialisation of research, pressures to conform mines the credibility of Canadian research.13
to private interests or participate in other forms of
conflict of interest, some suggest that research mis- The Federal Accountability Act
conduct has become “endemic.”6 With only minimal amendments, the Public Ser-
The research system, predicated on trust and hon- vants Disclosure Protection Act is a sound framework
our, has only two defenses against misconduct: “peer under which individuals who are engaged in pub-


licly-funded research can be protected from repri- fact, after significant delay, after whitewashing, and after
sals. By extending the scope of the Act beyond pub- punishment of the whistleblower.16
lic servants to include researchers receiving federal Complainants must believe that a fair system is in
funding, the Government of Canada will increase place to address their concerns. It is evident that the
the protection of the public interest and enhance Canadian system requires an overhaul.
domestic and international confidence in the integ-
rity of Canadian university research. Deputy Commissioner
To reflect this expanded scope, we recommend To advise and oversee institutional procedures for
that the title of the Act and its commissioner be responding to complaints regarding reprisals, the
renamed to the Public Interest Disclosure Protection Federation proposes the establishment of a Deputy
Act and the Public Interest Integrity Commissioner, Commissioner on Research Integrity. The Deputy
respectively. Commissioner would work closely with public
Recommendation 1: Extend the protections of- research and affiliated institutions and the federal
fered by the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act granting agencies and foundations to ensure that
to researchers, including students, in public post- the highest standards of research integrity are pro-
secondary and research affiliated institutions, who moted.
are frequently important witnesses of misconduct To develop comprehensive guidelines for the scope
in publicly-funded research. of the Deputy Commissioner’s duties, a review
Recommendation 2: Rename the revised Public should be initiated along the lines of the current
Servants Disclosure Protection Act to the Public Inter- commission in Australia.
est Disclosure Protection Act, with a Commissioner Recommendation 3: Amend the Public Servants
known as the Public Interest Integrity Commis- Disclosure Protection Act to create the position of
sioner. Deputy Commissioner of Research Integrity to ad-
vocate enhancements to research integrity and eth-
II. A National Advocate is Required ics.
In surveys of the federal civil service in the United States,
employers give as the primary reason why they do not re- III. Reprisals
port misconduct, the belief that nothing will happen as a
result of their disclosures. Fear of retaliation is the second Sometimes, whistleblowers who have called atten-
most common reason for failing to disclose.
tion to misconduct have suffered severe reprisals.
Robert Vaughn (2005) “Report on the World Bank’s whistle- Negative consequences were categorised in a report
blowing procedures.” 14
commissioned for the United States Office of Re-
Currently, disclosures of misconduct to the federal search Integrity as:17
granting councils are deferred to host institutions • Loss of position (fired, not renewed);
for investigation. However, institutions “live in fear
• Denial of advancement (denial of salary increase,
of adverse publicity associated with misconduct,
denial of promotion, denial of tenure);
and have an inherent and glaring conflict of interest
in pursuing an internal inquiry.”15 The reactions of • Loss of research resources/opportunity (reduc-
institutions to whistleblowers have thus been large- tion in research support, reduction in travel funds,
ly unsurprising: loss of desirable work assignment, reduction in staff
In all of the examples discussed above of misconduct in support);
medical research, it was necessary for the whistleblowers • Hassle/pressure/delay (pressure to drop allega-
to go outside the academic institutions to address the mis-
conduct and punish the guilty parties because their own
tions, counter allegation, ostracism, lawsuit threat-
institutions preferred sweeping their dirt under the rug ened, delays in reviewing manuscripts, delays in
... Responses came after action from the outside, after the processing grant applications).


Students are particularly vulnerable to retaliation, 4) adjudication expenses, including representation
and may be subject to legal threats, denial of gradu- fees, costs of expert witnesses, travel and other costs
ation, delayed theses reviews, withholding of data, associated with the claim of retaliation (These costs
refusal to provide reference letters, threats to VISA should be automatically paid to a prevailing whis-
status, and the withholding of funding and awards. tleblower);
Students are rarely in a position to afford their own 5) transfer upon request of the prevailing whistle-
legal counsel in their own defense. According to blower to another part of the Bank;
the American Office of Research Integrity, “One-
6) intangible benefits, including public recognition
in-seven complainants reported being threatened
of the vindication of the whistleblower, and in ap-
with or actually facing a lawsuit” (RTI study for the
propriate circumstances public recognition of the
ORI, p. 53).
contributions of the whistleblower to the Bank.
Reprisals and wrongdoings in the Act would need The remedies offered in the Act achieve or come
to be expanded to respond to misconduct and re- close to several of these recommendations. Mini-
prisals in academic settings. mal revisions to the Act, such as provisions for pay-
Recommendation 4: Expand the reprisals and ment of “special damages,” would demonstrate the
wrongdoings described in the revised Public Inter- Government’s abhorrence of retaliation and resolve
est Disclosure Protection Act. to fully support whistleblowers.
Recommendation 5: Recognise explicitly that the
IV. Making the Whistleblower “Whole” overarching principle of the remedies available to
the Tribunal is to make the whistleblower “whole,”
Many whistleblower statutes, such as the whistleblower
provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, have the remedial Recommendation 6: Expand the specific remedies
principle that the whistleblower should be made whole. described to meet whistleblower statutes in other
Robert Vaughn (2005) “Report on the World Bank’s whistle- jurisdictions.
blowing procedures.” 18

The Federation applauds the depth of remedies V. Public Accountability
proposed in the Accountability Act. The underlying Requires Transparency
principle of such remedies shouldbe stated more ex-
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the United States recog-
plicitly: that of making the whistleblower “whole.” nises two classes of safeguards for reported financial
To achieve this principle, the remedies proposed by data: preventive and detective.20 Formal whistle-
the Act should be expanded to meet those recom- blower protection in the Act bolsters both classes.
mended in a World Bank commissioned report:19 Additionally, a powerful preventive safeguard is
Such remedies should include the following: transparency, recognised implicitly in the Federal
1) reinstatement to the same or comparable posi- Accountability Act through proposed amendments
to the Access to Information Act.
tion in salary, responsibility, opportunity for ad-
vancement and job security; In 1998, the Millennium Scholarship Foundation
was endowed with $2.5 billion of public funds,
2) back benefits and pay, considering the likely ad-
under the legislative mandate to work with the
vancement and salary increases that a staff member
provinces to finance needs-based student financial
would have received;
aid. The Foundation has strayed from its original
3) compensatory damages, including all financial mandate, to become one of the most vocal apolo-
losses linked to the retaliatory action by the Bank gists for the previous government’s post-secondary
and significant emotional distress, including any education policy failings, even launching its own
physical aliments [sic] suffered as a result of that public relations effort using $10 million in scholar-
distress and related medical costs; ship funds. Also of particular concern are the un-


tendered contracts that have flown to former em- Acceptance of the recommended amendments to
ployees of the Foundation. the Federal Accountability Act to address research
Including the Canadian Foundation for Innovation misconduct would be a landmark move by the Gov-
under the Access to Information Act is important for ernment of Canada towards ensuring excellence,
a number of reasons. As a government foundation integrity, and public trust in Canadian research.
entrusted with approximately $4 billion dollars of
public money, it is a public agency charged with
the purpose of distributing funds to research insti-
tutions, including hospitals and universities. There
is a distinct public quality to the creation and man-
date of this organisation and consequently its op-
erations and decisions should be open and account-
able to the public.
Including the Canadian Foundation for Innovation
under the Access to Information Act also ensures that
possible conflict of interest situations can be prop-
erly investigated. As the CFI requires private in-
volvement in the distribution of public funds, cases
of conflicts of interest could arise where officials
within the organisation personally benefit from the
distribution of public dollars.
Subjecting the Millennium Scholarship Founda-
tion to access to information legislation would be
an important step in uncovering previously hidden
information about Foundation contract tendering
and other suspicious activities.
Therefore, the Federation supports Bill C-2’s
amendments to expand the agencies covered under
the Access to Information Act.
Recommendation 7: Amend the Access to Informa-
tion Act to include the Canadian Millennium Schol-
arship Foundation, the Canadian Foundation for
Innovation, and the other federal bodies entrusted
with allocating public funds for research.

Conclusion
Simple amendments to the Federal Accountability
Act would provide necessary safeguards for public
research, serving to protect the public interest while
enhancing domestic and international confidence
in the integrity of Canadian research. Currently,
countries that have federal bodies to oversee re-
search integrity include the United States of Amer-
ica, Denmark, Finland and Norway, with both the
United Kingdom and Australia poised to follow.


Endnotes

1. Ryan, KJ (Chair) et al. (1995) “Integrity documents/consequences.pdf ] Accessed May
and Misconduct in Research: Report of 10, 2006. Emphasis in original.
the Commission on Research Integrity.”
Final report, p. 28. Submitted to the U.S. 10. Ibid., p. 23.
Secretary of Health and Human Services, the
11. Ibid., p. 23.
U.S. House Committee on Commerce, and
the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and 12. Such as Nancy Olivieri, David Healy,
Human Resources, Nov. 3, 1995. References Stephane Mclachlan and Ian Mauro. For
in original text omitted. [http://ori.dhhs.gov/ information on all these cases, see www.caut.
documents/report_commission.pdf ] Accessed ca/academicfreedom
May 10, 2006.
13. Olivieri, N and A Schafer (2004) The perils of
2. Ibid., p. 6. whistle-blowing. Toronto Star, Aug 6, 2004, p.
A17.
3. Couzin, J and K Unger (2006) Cleaning up
the paper trail. Science 312: 38-43. 14. Vaughn, R (2005), p. 18 op. cit.
4. Smith, R (2006b) Research misconduct: the 15. Van Der Weyden, MB [editorial] (2006), op.
poisoning of the well. J R Soc Med 99: 232- cit.
237.
16. Ibid.
5. See Langlais, PJ (2006) Ethics for the Next
Generation. The Chronicle of Higher 17. Research Triangle Institute (RTI) (1995),
Education 52: B11 · Martinson et al. (2005) Table 4, pp. 15-16 op. cit.
Scientists Behaving Badly, Nature, June 2005.
18. Vaughn, R (2005), p. 35 op. cit.
· Swazey, JP, MS Anderson and KS Louis
(1993) Ethical problems in academic research. 19. Vaughn, R (2005), pp. 34-35 op. cit.
American Scientist 81: 542-553.
20. Wagner, S and L Dittmar (2006) The
6. Van Der Weyden, MB [editorial] (2006) unexpected benefits of Sarbanes-Oxley. Harv
Preventing and processing research Bus Rev 84: 133-140, 150.
misconduct: a new Australian code for
responsible research. MJA 184: 430-431.

7. Smith, R (2006a) op. cit. Emphasis added.

8. United States Office of Research Integrity,
Department of Health & Human Services.
[http://ori.dhhs.gov/documents/report_
commission.pdf ] Accessed May 16, 2006.

9. Research Triangle Institute (RTI) (1995)
Consequences of Whistleblowing for the
Whistleblower in Misconduct in Science
Cases. Final report, p. 17 & 54. Submitted
to the United States Office of Research
Integrity, Oct. 30, 1995. [http://ori.hhs.gov/


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