Members of the Opposition are insisting on adequate whistleblower legislation as the fall sitting of the legislative assembly began early this afternoon, setting the tone for two months of debate, theatrics and legislative sausage-making on a range of issues.

During the last sitting, the Yukon’s ombudsman urged the government to implement a more effective method to protect whistleblowers from reprisals than what was proposed last spring.

Diane McLeod-McKay voiced concerns about the government’s information package on a possible Public Interest Disclosure of Wrongdoing bill.

“The uncertainty about whether the proposed approach in section 9 will protect employees from reprisals creates significant risk for them,” she wrote in a report last April.

“It has been noted in other jurisdictions with greater experience than Canada with whistleblower laws that without proper protections against retaliation, ‘these laws can serve as a trap for people who believe they are protected from retaliation but are actually not,’” she continues, citing a report on whistle-blowing in Europe.

NDP Leader Liz Hanson agreed.

“The bottom line of what she was saying is that the key and the critical function of whistleblower legislation is that those who access that process in good faith are protected from reprisals,” she said in an interview this week.

She reiterated worries about the government — the employer — acting under the legislation suggested in the last legislative session as “both the defendant and the judge.”

Under rules outlined in the government’s information package last spring, employees would have the option to make a complaint about a reprisal to the commissioner, or through an internal process.

The commissioner, after conducting an investigation, would then have the authority to recommend remedies for the employee for the reprisal.

But McLeod-McKay argued that limiting the powers of the commissioner to simply recommend a remedy would still leave whistleblowers vulnerable to reprisal.

She noted that labour boards have the ability to decide whether a reprisal has occurred and to order a remedy, which “guarantees that employees will be protected from reprisal.”

McLeod-McKay went on to provide three approaches to handling reprisals that differ from the government’s.

First she suggests the legislation could provide the commissioner with the authority to apply to the Yukon Supreme Court for a decision about a reprisal and for a remedy to a reprisal if it is found to have occurred.

The approach is similar to that taken under the Federal Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act.

Hanson saw that as inefficient and ultimately falling short.

“Why would we want there to be more court actions?” she asked.

McLeod-McKay’s second suggestion would give the commissioner the authority to retain an adjudicator with labour expertise to decide whether a reprisal has occurred and to order a remedy for a reprisal.

Her final suggestion was to provide the commissioner with the authority to order a remedy for a reprisal – which she said “appears consistent with what was recommended in the Final Report of the Select Committee on Whistle-blower Protection” as well as successful legislation in Manitoba.

Liberal Leader Sandy Silver saw this as the most logical option.

“If you take a look across Canada, it’s pretty well known that Manitoba’s legislation is the best,” he told the Star this week.

Silver remained anxious about whether any possible whistleblower bills this session would be watered down: “They were going to take the teeth out.”

The government announced today it will table bills amending the Marriage Act and the Pioneer Utility Grant Act, but nothing so far on whistleblowing.

All government bills must be introduced in the first five days of the sitting — by Wednesday.

In the shadow of yesterday’s Ottawa shootings, in which a Canadian soldier and a gunman were killed, the sitting began with a “tribute to democracy and those who protect it.”

Premier Darrell Pasloski was the first speaker to condemn this week’s deaths of the two Canadian soldiers, which he termed “despicable.”