New report from Interim Ombud calls for fair treatment of Department of National Defence employees

Ombud Message | 12 March 2025

Today, I am very pleased to release Fair decision-making for fair outcomes: A review of the whistleblowing process for DND employees. My office conducted this review to determine whether the Department of National Defence’s (DND) internal disclosure of wrongdoing (whistleblowing) process is properly designed to produce fair outcomes for our constituents.

While this process has faced procedural defects in the past, we acknowledge the department’s efforts to address these deficiencies, and our review highlights the progress made. In this report, we identified recent improvements to this process along with outstanding gaps. Our findings and recommendations relating to these gaps lay down clear markers for the department to act on and will assist in guiding further improvements to the process.

The release of this report completes our analysis of the DND’s internal complaint mechanisms for civilian employees. The first two parts of were released in May 2024, in a report entitled “Fair decision-making for fair outcomes: Complaint mechanisms for DND employees,” which reviewed internal harassment and violence resolution and individual grievances processes.

I look forward to the department taking concrete action to address our recommendations and continue to improve fairness and accountability in its processes and application of the Act.

 

Robyn Hynes
She/her
Interim Ombud