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By Laurie E. Adkin

The Centre for Free Expression (CFE) announced today that eight leading experts have agreed to join a new CFE working group on whistleblower protection in the Canadian private sector.

On 11 May 2024, in the predawn hours, members of the Edmonton Police Service walked onto the campus at the University of Alberta dressed in riot gear to execute the direction of the University of Alberta’s president, Bill Flanagan, that they clear away a Palestinian solidarity encampment that had been set up just two days before. Flanagan’s choice to exercise coercive force against the protestors, whose encampment was peaceful, so outraged the University of Alberta community that there were numerous calls for Flanagan’s resignation.

CFE Intervener Factum in the Ontario Court of Appeal This case concerns the Government of Ontario law, Security from Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act, 2020, and associated Regulation whose stated purpose is to prevent trespass, protect animal safety, protect biosecurity of the food supply chain, protect those working with animals and prevent the adverse economic effects that these risks can create. The CFE intervention addresses how the Act and Regulation penalize employees who are prospective whistleblowers engaging in expressive activity in pursuit of truth and social discourse. The Act and Regulation also compel employee expression by mandating and controlling the timing of whistleblower disclosure. And although the Regulation purports to provide an exception for whistleblowers, it is so narrow as to be illusory.