Two educators from a rehabilitation center of the Direction de protection de la jeunesse (DPJ) in Baie-Comeau, considered by their employer to be the sources of a report on the shortcomings in the assistance to young people in difficulty, have been suspended without pay for “breach of confidentiality”.
The Côte-Nord Integrated Health and Social Services Center (CISSS) suspended one of the employees for two weeks and the other for five days, after consulting their emails without their knowledge. The CISSS describes these two educators as sources of a journalist from the To have to who published an investigation into flaws in the youth services of the DPJ in March 2021.
“These employees experienced reprisals from the employer for a so-called ‘breach of confidentiality’ which we are contesting,” said Maude Fréchette, union representative of the Alliance of Professional and Technical Personnel in Health and Social Services (APTS ) and also a social worker by profession.
This story is considered crucial for the protection of whistleblowers who report situations of public interest. The report by journalist Stéphanie Vallet, who heads the investigation team of the To have to, revealed shortcomings in the services for young people at the Baie-Comeau DJP: the Pavillon Richelieu, which welcomes some forty children and teenagers, lacked staff and premises. Some young people were only in school part-time. The instability in the schedules, because of the shortage of personnel, disturbed the young people.
Hunting for journalistic sources
In the wake of the report by To have to, the CISSS de la Côte-Nord has launched an operation to identify the journalist’s confidential sources. The employer notably consulted the emails of three of its employees without their knowledge in 2021. The government body is also seeking to prohibit its workers and their union from disclosing information deemed “confidential”, in the name of the duty of loyalty towards the employer.
“What the employer pleads and invokes is that the motivations of the employees and the union are not those announced. So, it is not necessarily the protection of the public that is at the center of their approach, but rather labor relations, “said Ms.e Carl Dessaints, lawyer for the CISSS de la Côte-Nord, during a hearing before a grievance arbitrator.
The employer believes that it has identified two sources of the journalist by spying on the emails of three employees over a period of approximately one month, in 2021. The union disputes the spying on the employees’ emails, which was done without their knowledge, without a clear and transparent procedure to regulate this practice.
“The emails are considered to have been obtained in violation of the right to privacy and may bring the administration of justice into disrepute,” said Ms.e Sophie Cloutier, APTS lawyer, in front of arbitrator Jean-Yves Brière.
There was no “breach of confidentiality”: the facts brought to light by whistleblowers preserve the anonymity of young people in the custody of the DPJ and are of undeniable public interest, according to the lawyer of the APTS.
The union is also contesting the suspension without pay imposed in May 2021 on two educators considered by the CISSS to be sources of To have to. Journalist Stéphanie Vallet has always preserved the confidentiality of her sources, despite pressure from the CISSS to identify them. For its part, the CISSS de la Côte-Nord refused on Monday to comment on the facts submitted by The duty.
Right to information
The Professional Federation of Journalists of Quebec (FPJQ) denounced the way in which the CISSS de la Côte-Nord manages the file. “It is unfortunate that the people who are attacked in this case are whistleblowers, without first trying to understand the reason or reasons that led these employees to reveal information aimed at bringing to light worrying situations”, declared the president of the FPJQ of the Eastern Quebec section, Johanne Fournier.
“As the law provides, whistleblowers who decide to speak to journalists should be protected. If these whistleblowers turn to the media, it is because they cannot be heard by their superiors. In this case, journalistic work becomes important for the public’s right to information. Whistleblowers are essential to freedom of expression. If the CISSS considers that the information provided to journalists is false, it can always correct it, without however hunting down whistleblowers, whose role is essential to democracy,” added Ms.me Fournier.