Québec City, October 2, 2025 – In its 2024-2025 Annual Report, tabled today at the National Assembly, the Protecteur du citoyen presents its clearly reinforced role in addressing disclosures of wrongdoing and protection of whistleblowers.
A real sign of confidence
Regarding the powers of the Protecteur du citoyen, the objectives of the new roles are to facilitate the disclosure process and better protect whistleblowers:
- The Protecteur du citoyen has a reporting centre that receives and processes disclosures of wrongdoing regarding public bodies and complaints about reprisals.
- In case of reprisals related to the disclosure of wrongdoing, the Protecteur du citoyen offers a free mediation service to try to resolve the situation as quickly as possible, with the agreement of both parties.
- The Protecteur du citoyen may represent people who consider they are victims of reprisals before the courts.
- The Act has instituted the position of a person in charge of ethics and integrity (RGEI in French) in all Québec public bodies. The RGEI has a supporting role and must direct people to the Protecteur du citoyen if they wish to make a disclosure or share a complaint in case of reprisals.
- The Act authorizes the Protecteur du citoyen to give its public integrity reports a greater public reach.
“The legislator is granting us new powers by expanding our mandate in public integrity. I see this as a sign of real confidence in the Protecteur du citoyen, especially since the public is addressing us increasingly. This is evidenced by the new record for grounds for requests, complaints and reports processed by all our services,” Marc-André Dowd commented.
Listening to whistleblowers, assuring them of confidentiality
In its Annual Report, the Protecteur du citoyen particularly insists on the essential duty of the State to listen attentively to citizens. In this regard, the public authorities must really listen to the whistleblower, a key player for maintaining integrity in the public services, and to act effectively against abuses.
“Whistleblowers must have already shown great courage to report an abuse in a public body. They may fear becoming the target of their team, not being believed, and losing their job. Their superiors must therefore pay special attention to them and act on the situations they report. This is an important condition for a workplace to implement a culture of integrity within its ranks,” the Ombudsperson declares.
This year, investigations by the Protecteur du citoyen revealed that whistleblowers attempted to make the authorities aware of unacceptable conduct – inappropriate use of public funds, harmful behaviours, deviations from the legislation – and that they were not heeded. Actions were thus “swept under the rug”, continued to benefit their perpetrators and degenerated into toxic work situations. They required an intervention by the Protecteur du citoyen.
Among other wrongdoings observed during the year
- Employees addressed their manager several times to report the attitude of a contemptuous coordinator at the origin of an unhealthy work environment. The situation had been going on for several years and had contributed to increased staff turnover. The manager remained indifferent to the complaints.. Recognizing the failure to listen, a whistleblower addressed the Protecteur du citoyen, who concluded that this was a serious case of mismanagement. The Protecteur du citoyen addressed three recommendations to the public body to improve the work environment within the unit concerned.
- Due to a lack of resources, the home care department (Direction du soutien à domicile) of a Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux (CISSS) purchased services from a private seniors’ residence (PSR) to offer them to users who lived there. With time, the needs increased, management practices were not followed and mechanisms of control were reduced. Thus, services not provided by the PSR were billed to the CISSS. The Protecteur du citoyen recommended to the CISSS that it exercise the necessary vigilance.
- According to the whistleblowers, a director general within a government department put himself in a conflict of interest by creating a position intended for his spouse within his organization. The investigation by the Protecteur du citoyen revealed various abuses on the part of the director general, including concealing the fact that his spouse would act under his authority and showing signs of favouritism to her. The Protecteur du citoyen saw this as a serious breach of the standards of ethics and conduct. It recommended various changes to the practices of the government department concerned. The director general no longer works for the department.
- A whistleblower reported to the Protecteur du citoyen that a person who held a senior management position was maintaining close relations with some of his clients. In particular, they offered him expensive meals and invited him free of charge to events they funded. The Protecteur du citoyen found that the senior manager regularly disregarded his duty of probity. It therefore made several recommendations to the government department. The manager no longer works there.
Let us remember that the Protecteur du citoyen impartially and independently ensures that people’s rights are respected in their dealings with public services. It also ensures the integrity and improvement of public services. Its services are free and easy to access.
For all information on the 2024-2025 Annual Report of the Protecteur du citoyen, to the Annual Reports section of our website.
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Information:
Carole-Anne Huot, person in charge of media relations
Phone: 418 646-7143/Cell: 418 925-7994
Email: medias@protecteurducitoyen.qc.ca
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