| Whistleblowing made easy
People wanting to expose problems at City Hall will soon have a new system to make it easier to do, thanks to a whistleblower policy proposed by the city’s audit committee last week. The main feature of the new policy will be an anonymous hotline open to anyone wishing to complain about waste or mismanagement in city government. While the hotline is open to everyone, it will be primarily aimed at city staff who want to expose problems without fear of repercussions from their higher-ups, says Alderman Madeleine King, who sits on the audit committee that proposed the policy. What’s more, there will now be a new system for investigating complaints. Previously, complaints from city staff had to go through the staff member’s boss.
"It is better to err on the side of caution," says King. The policy has been in the works for months. The committee looked at the private sector and found that companies with whistleblower policies felt the policies had helped their operations. City council will vote on the plan later this month, and King is confident it will pass. It will cost the city approximately $25,000 to set up and between $50,000 to $100,000 to maintain. Once the policy is passed, the hotline should be up and running in two or three months.
Campout to take on the oilsands
Environmentalists will be holding a week-long camp in the Alberta countryside with the goal of organizing against the damage they say the oil industry is doing to the province’s environment. The Global Warming Action Camp will focus on training activists in using civil disobedience, organizing campaigns and dealing with the media. "We want to increase people’s skill level in public advocacy campaigns," says JR Roof, a camp organizer and member of Greenpeace and the Ruckus Society.
While the immediate target of the camp is the expanding oilsands development in Alberta, the organizers are hoping to also focus on international environmental issues and the exporting of Canada’s energy to the United States. Roof says the camp is important because Alberta is allowing oil and gas to proceed unchecked while running coal-fired power lines to Montana. Activists from that state are also concerned about the bitumen being shipped from the oilsands to refineries south of the border and are planning to attend the camp, he adds. The new MacKenzie Valley pipeline will also be on the agenda. Roof is hoping to motivate citizens into taking action on environmental issues and promoting the use of renewable energy.
"We want to see people getting active in the debate about what happens to their resources," says Roof. Organizers expect roughly 50 people will attend the camp each day, with activists from Alberta, Montana, the North-West Territories and across Canada taking part. Members of Earth First!, Greenpeace and the Rainforest Action Network will attend the camp, which runs from June 3 to 8 in the central Alberta countryside near the North Saskatchewan river. People wishing to participate in the camp can e-mail jmsroof@yahoo.com. |
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