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APPOINTMENT OF THE FIRST PUBLIC SERVICE INTEGRITY OFFICER
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, November 8, 2001 – The Honourable Stéphane Dion,
President of the Privy Council and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs,
today announced the appointment of Dr. Edward Keyserlingk as the first
Public Service Integrity Officer. This appointment is made under the Policy
on the Internal Disclosure of Information Concerning Wrongdoing in the Workplace,
which was released on June 28, 2001, by the Honourable Lucienne Robillard,
President of the Treasury Board, and which follows through on the Government’s
commitment to reinforce its ethics framework. The Policy and the
appointment of Dr. Keyserlingk will come into effect on November 30, 2001.
Dr. Keyserlingk has devoted his career to ethics and law issues
particularly in the health sector. He has been head of the Biomedical Ethics
Centre in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University, where he was a professor
for most of his academic career. In 1987, he was elected as the first President
of the Canadian Bioethics Society; he was also the Chair of the Research Ethics
Committee of the Montreal General Hospital from 1989 to 1998. He has been a
Visiting Professor at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin, the Hastings Centre in
New York, and more recently at the University of British Columbia, and has also
been responsible for numerous research projects in Canada and abroad. He is a
much sought-after speaker on the national and international scenes, and has
published many books and articles on ethics issues. Dr. Keyserlingk holds
graduate degrees in theology and law from the Université de Montréal and McGill
University.
The Public Service Integrity Officer (PSIO) will be a neutral, third-party
agent who will be available to deal with disclosures of wrongdoing an employee
believes cannot be raised internally, or have not been dealt with adequately,
within a department or agency. The PSIO will review and investigate disclosures
and make recommendations for action. The Policy on the Internal Disclosure of
Information Concerning Wrongdoing in the Workplace states that disclosure
reports by employees will be treated in an appropriate, fair, timely and
confidential manner. Annually, the PSIO will make a report to the President of
the Privy Council for tabling in Parliament.
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For information:
André Lamarre
Special Advisor
Tel: (613) 943-1838
Fax: (613) 943-5553
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