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2024-2025 Annual Report
Listening to citizens: an essential duty and challenge for public services
The Protecteur du citoyen tabled its Annual Report at the National Assembly. Discover its main findings for the year 2024-2025.
Frequently Asked Questions
Make a complaint
This helps us process the information and match the documents with the right complaint file. Similarly, we ask that you provide your Protecteur du citoyen file number, if you have one.
Are you a government department or health and social services employee? Please add your title, extension number, given name and surname. This will make it easier to process the file.
The Protecteur du citoyen cannot intervene when complaints concern municipalities. However, some cities have their own ombudsman, including Montréal, Québec City, Laval, Gatineau, Sherbrooke, Longueuil and Saguenay.
Do you want to disclose a wrongdoing within a municipality? Contact the Commission municipale du Québec (CMQ).
Not sure? Contact us. We will help you find the right resource.
Denounce a reprehensible act
The Act respecting protection against reprisals related to the disclosure of wrongdoings prohibits reprisal and threats of reprisal, in particular if:
- You have disclosed a wrongdoing;
- You have cooperated in an audit or investigation related to a disclosure or a reprisal complaint;
- You have advised or encouraged someone to make a disclosure or shown them how to do so;
- You have a personal or family relationship with someone who has made a disclosure.
You are protected against reprisal if you have made a disclosure to the Protecteur du citoyen or cooperated in an investigation related to a disclosure or reprisal complaint handled by the Protecteur du citoyen.
Protection against reprisal also applies if you have made a disclosure to a person (manager, co-worker, etc.) within the public body where you work. The Act also protects you if you have made a disclosure about a municipality to the Commission municipale du Québec. The same applies if you have made a disclosure involving the Protecteur du citoyen to the National Assembly’s Ethics Commissioner.
If you disclose wrongdoing publicly or through the media, the Act will not protect you against reprisal, except in emergency situations and under certain conditions.
For more details, see How am I protected? and Disclosure in the media: am I protected?.
The Protecteur du citoyen may release information in a report if it deems it to be in the public interest or appropriate, regardless of whether a wrongdoing has been committed. Likewise if it considers that the public body concerned by its recommendations has failed to take satisfactory action within a reasonable time, even though the minister responsible for the body has been notified of the situation.
Information may also be disclosed in our activity report or in a special report submitted to the National Assembly, or in public comments. The information may include the name of the public body concerned, the period during which the wrongdoing was committed, the recommendations made, the action taken and any information likely to help prevent a wrongdoing.
No names are mentioned. The Protecteur du citoyen takes the necessary measures to protect the identity of the whistleblower, witnesses and the person implicated. This means that a report is published after a reasonable assessment of whether identities can be protected. The same applies if we decide to comment on an audit or investigation, deeming the situation to be in the public interest.
See the How am I protected? section for information about the protection you are entitled to when you disclose a wrongdoing.