Possible Topics for Whistleblowers Workshops Below is a list of Whistleblowers who have attracted national or international attention. But there are many more. Select one of the names listed below, and follow up with a more complete description of who they are, what they did, and the results of their whistleblowing actions. If you prefer to select a different whistleblower, or want to do a position paper about whistleblowing, just let us know. Although you do only one presentation, we suggest that you select 3 in order of preference because presentations will be assigned on a first come first serve basis. If your first choice is taken we will move to your second choice, etc. Whistleblowers List
1. Edward Snowden. One of the world’s most famous whistleblowers, currently living in Russia where he cannot be extradited to the United States. He released massive documents from the U.S. government files revealing intrusive and illegal tactics used by U.S. government agencies, especially related to indiscriminate “snooping”. The book No place to hide by Glenn Greenwald tells his story. It is available from Toronto Public Library. There is also a Documentary film titled, “Citizen Four”. 2. Jeffrey Wigand . Wigand became nationally known as a whistleblower on February 4, 1996 when he appeared on the CBS news program 60 Minutes and stated that Brown & Williamson had intentionally manipulated its tobacco blend to increase the amount of nicotine in cigarette smoke. Wigand claimed that he was subsequently harassed and received anonymous death threats. He was portrayed by Russell Crowe in the 1999 film “The Insider” directed by Michael Mann, which also stars Al Pacino and Christopher Plummer. Since Quebec courts just fined 3 Canadian tobacco companies 1.5 Billion $, this topic is once again of current significance. 3. Ralph Nader is a lawyer who first came to prominence as an automobile safety activist when he wrote Unsafe at any speed criticizing the automobile industry .When GM tried to discredit him, Nader sued General Motors for Invasion of Privacy and won. How this issue developed is an eye-­‐
opener. Many books by Nader are available from Toronto Public Library. 4. Mark Felt was a whistle blower known as “Deep Throat” who aided in the discovery of the “Watergate” scandal of 1972 that led to the downfall of Richard Nixon. His name was not revealed until 2005, 33 years later. But many insiders guessed who he was. His book, A G-­‐man’s Life is available at Toronto Public Library. 5. Daniel Ellsberg is one of the best known whistleblowers, who leaked the Pentagon Papers (along with Anthony Russo) to the New York Times in 1971. Possible Topics for Whistleblowers Workshops 6.
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Cheryl Eckard – blew the whistle on the drug company Glaxco Smith Kline when they would not respond to her revelations about quality control of their drug manufacturing factories in Puerto Rico. When they fired her, she continued to insist that the shoddy factories be closed down. When no action was taken, she went to the FDA with her information and also sued the company personally under the U.S. False Claims Act. One of the more daring whistleblowers, she was the subject of a segment of the tv program “60 Minutes” Julian Paul Assange is an Australian publisher and journalist. He is known as the editor-­‐in-­‐chief of the website WikiLeaks, which he co-­‐founded in 2006 after an earlier career in hacking and programming. WikiLeaks published U.S. military and diplomatic documents leaked by Chelsea Manning. Assange has been under investigation in the United States since that time. He has spent 3 years in the Ecuador Embassy in London, England eluding prosecution. His biography The most Dangerous Man in the World is available from Toronto Public Library. He is also portrayed in a docudrama film, “5th Estate” starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Cynthia Cooper is a native of Clinton, Mississippi who formerly served as the Vice President of Internal Audit at WorldCom. In 2002, Cooper and her team of auditors worked together and often at night and in secret to investigate and unearth $3.8 billion in fraud at WorldCom. At the time, this was the largest incident of accounting fraud in U.S. history. Her book Extraordinary Circumstances, the journey of a corporate whistleblower is available at Toronto Public Library. Mark Hodler – Olympics Scandal Whistleblower. Hodler is best known for having exposed
the Olympic bid scandal for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter games in December 1998. In the
light of the recent World Cup Soccer scandal, this sports story has new relevance. FBI agent Coleen Rowley was on the cover of Time magazine as one of their Persons of the Year in 2002 after she arrested one of the 911 conspirators, but was refused a warrant to search his computer. After 911 she wrote the director of the FBI and testified in a Senate hearing about what might have happened if she had not been refused. Enron whistleblower Sherron Watkins was Vice President of Corporate Development at the Enron Corporation. She is considered by many to be the whistleblower who helped to uncover the Enron scandal in 2001. The book Power failure by Mimi Swartz is available from Toronto Public Library and it covers the whole scandal. Grigory Pasko is little known in Canada, but this Russian whistleblower revealed that Russia was dumping nuclear waste in the Sea of Japan in 1993. He was arrested and tried several times, eventually going to jail from 2001 to 2003. Amnesty International named him as a “Prisoner of Conscience”. Possible Topics for Whistleblowers Workshops 13. John Gravitt in 1984 sued the GE Aircraft Engines for falsely billing the U.S. government for work not done. When he complained to management, he was abruptly fired. The suit led to exposure of corruption at GE. 14. Mark Whiteacre – Price fixing scandal in Agribusiness. Mark got caught in his own web and was himself indicted and charged with price fixing in 1995. He was the subject of the film “The Informant” featuring Matt Damon. Kurt Eichenwald also wrote the book The informant; a true story, which is available at the Toronto Public Library 15. Frank Serpico – blew the whistle on corruption in the New York Police Department in 1971and got shot in the face for his efforts. The very popular movie “Serpico” told his story and author Peter Maas published the book, Serpico, which is available at Toronto Public Library. 16. Peter Buxtun, a 28-year-old employee of the Public Health Service, was shocked to learn
that his colleagues were withholding proper medical treatment from poor, black syphilis
patients so that they could conduct experimental medical treatments on their unwitting
patients. In 1972 Buxtun leaked the story to the Associated Press The Outcome: Buxtun
testified before Congress, helping to bring the decades-long experiment to an end 17. Thomas Andrews Drake (born 1957) was persecuted by his employer at the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) for challenging the Trailblazer project which was not the preferred choice of his bosses. When he insisted and was ignored, he released some unclassified documents to the press. His superiors alleged in 2010 that Drake mishandled documents and charged him with 10 counts under the Espionage Act. Drake's defenders claim that he was instead being persecuted for challenging the Trailblazer Project. On June 9, 2011, all 10 original charges against him were dropped. Drake is one of the 4 whistleblowers featured in the film “Silenced: the War on Whistleblowers”. 18. John Kiriakou (born August 9, 1964) is a former CIA analyst and case officer, former senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and former counterterrorism consultant for ABC News, and whistleblower. He is notable as the first official within the U.S. government to confirm the use of waterboarding of al-­‐Qaeda prisoners as an interrogation technique, which he described as torture. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison on January 25, 2013. He is one of the 4 whistleblowers featured in the film “Silenced: the War on Whistleblowers”. 19. Jesselyn Radack is a former ethics adviser to the United States Department of Justice who came to prominence as a whistleblower after she disclosed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) committed what she believed to be an ethics violation in their interrogation of John Walker Lindh (the "American Taliban") captured during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan without an attorney present. Radack alleged that the Department of Justice attempted to suppress that information. The Lindh case was the first major terrorism prosecution after 9/11.[7] Her experience is chronicled in her memoir, TRAITOR: The Whistleblower and the "American Taliban". After the Possible Topics for Whistleblowers Workshops 20.
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government tried to ruin her career, she became a civil rights attorney. Both Snowden and Drake are her clients. Cathy Harris is a U.S. Customs agent who noted rampant profiling of Black travellers. A former senior inspector for the U.S. Customs Service (USCS) at Hartsfield-­‐Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, she disclosed to the media the USCS practice of discriminatory racial profiling. She verified her suspicions that women of African descent were wrongfully targeted for detention and strip searches as possible drug couriers. It was found that only three percent of those women were actually carrying drugs, whereas drugs were found on 30 percent of white travelers who were detained and searched. Harris' revelations resulted in a damning U.S. Government Accountability Office study of USCS profiling practices, and federal legislation to reform these unconstitutional practices. She has self-­‐published her story online. Bradley/ Chelsea Manning – leaked NSA documents to WikiLeaks in 2009 and is now serving 35 year jail term for breaching the Espionage Act. Lots of media attention given to this whistleblower. Mordecai Vanunu – revealed to the London Times newspaper the Israeli nuclear weapons program in 1986. He was kidnapped, taken to Israel, convicted of treason in a closed-­‐door trial and sentenced to 18 years in jail. A book about this incident is available from Toronto Public Library The whistleblower of Dimona : Israel, Vanunu, and the bomb by Y. Cohen. Karen Silkwood – a whistle blower who was mysteriously killed in a car crash while on her way to expose the theft of nuclear plutonium and point out nuclear dangers. She had already testified to the Atomic Energy Commission about her concerns. Her story was made into a movie featuring Meryl Streep (“Silkwood”) and there are two books about her in the Toronto Public Library. Dr Kim Holt is a British paediatrician punished by the Great Ormond Street Hospital for complaining about faulty practices in 2007. "They tried to push me out simply because I told the truth”. It was all about protecting the name and reputation of the Great Ormond Street brand. She was vindicated 4 years later. In 2013, she was voted among the most inspirational women in healthcare. Michael Woodford, British businessman –who exposed corporate corruption in Japan. The scandal rocked Japanese corporate governance, led to the resignation of the entire Olympus board and several arrests of senior executives, including the previous CEO and chairman, and the company's former auditor and bankers among others, and made Woodford one of the most highly placed executives to turn whistleblower. His book, Exposure : inside the Olympus scandal : how I went from CEO to whistleblower, is available from Toronto Public Library Erin Brockovich. As a law clerk without any real legal training, Brokovich uncovered a series
of mysterious illnesses in the town of Hinckley, California. While conducting research, she
discovered that these health issues were linked to the presence of hexavalent chromium in
waste water from a nearby Pacific Gas & Electric plant. PG&E had denied the chemical
could be toxic, but Brockovich's findings showed that it was linked to many cases of
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cancer. In 1996, PG&E settled for $333 million, the largest settlement in U.S. history at the
time. In 2006, PG&E paid another $295 million to people affected by the toxic
chemical. Julia Roberts starred in the eponymous 2000 film about Brockovich's fight. Kathy Balkovac d iscovered that some of her UN colleagues were involved in human
trafficking. She came to prominence when she sued her employers for unfair dismissal after
she lost her job following her attempts to expose sex trafficking in Bosnia. Her story was
dramatized in the film The Whistleblower.(available from the Toronto Public Library) Also
available as a book from TPL Peter Rost, M.D. Pharmaceutical Executive with Pfizer and other drug companies, who blew
the whistle on corporate malfeasance in two different pharmaceutical company manufacturers.
He wrote a book called Whistleblower: confessions of a Healthcare hitman, available at
Toronto Public Library. Jeffrey Sterling may not be a whistleblower at all, but he was targeted in 2010 as a
Whistleblower in retaliation for bringing a discrimination case against the CIA where he worked
as an agent and was sent to Iran in 1995. This case is so recent that Jeffrey Stirling was only
sentenced in May of 2015. The machinations of the CIA are mind-boggling. Franz Gayl was suspended, reprimanded and stripped of some of his security clearances after
he went to Congress and the media, including USA Today, to raise alarms about urgent pleas
for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) trucks. His concerns were brushed aside by his
superiors until he went public.. Thomas Tamm. Before there was Snowden, there was Thomas Tamm, who blew the whistle on illegal wiretapping of U.S. citizens when he made an anonymous call to the New York Times. From 2007 to 2011 he was hounded, harassed and investigated by the FBI. In 2011 the Justice Department announced that it would not be pressing charges. CANADIAN WHISTLEBLOWERS Dr. Nancy Oliveri -­‐ She is best known for a protracted struggle with the Hospital for Sick
Children and the pharmaceutical company Apotex about the drug deferiprone. Dr. Oliveri’s concern about the safety of the drug conflicted with Apotex wishes to keep the progress of the drug trial confidential until the evidence was completed. The ethical issues involved, the high-­‐handed attitude of Dr. Oliveri, and the actions of prominent organizations makes for an absorbing story. There is plenty of information, but no book or movie. Barry Armstrong – a surgeon and Major in the Canadian Armed forces reported on the murder of an unarmed Somali by Canadian soldiers, thus opening the door to the scandalous behaviour of Canadian soldiers in Somalia in 1993. Possible Topics for Whistleblowers Workshops Douglas Drever – military man who refused to obey his superior’s illegal orders. He was told to refuse to release Freedom of Information requests. But he knew it was breaking the law and he refused to obey his superiors. Allan S. Cutler -­‐ the whistleblower who reported anomalies in a Canadian sponsorship
program designed to raise awareness in Quebec of the Government of Canada's
contributions to Quebec industries and culture. This program was undertaken to
counter Quebec separatism.
Mike Frost, a former agent with The Communication Security Establishment Canada (SCEC, wrote a whistleblowing book, Spyworld, revealing how far this agency has strayed from its original purpose. Jane Shorten risked a great deal when she went on national TV and exposed the truth about Canada’s spying on foreign countries for commercial rather than security purposes. Russel Mills, publisher of the Ottawa Citizen was fired when he called for the resignation of Jean Chretien as Prime Minister, for his behaviour in the “Shawinigate” scandal of 2002. His boss, Izzy Asper was a good friend of Jean Chretien, and freedom of the press became an issue. Dr. Shiv Chopra a senior veterinarian with Health Canada blew the whistle on the drug approval process for animal feed and bovine growth hormones. He demonstrated that pressure from drug lobbyists was preventing rules from being enforced. He wrote a book Corrupt to the Core about his experiences. It is available at Toronto Public Library Dr.Margaret Haydon – a vet with Health Canada who worked with Dr. Shive Chopra and was fired at the same time. She was not supported in her claim because she did not first take her complaints to Health Canada. Edgar Schmidt, a government lawyer with the Department of Justice, sued the Justice Dept. of the Canadian government in 2012 for failing to take adequate steps to verify whether proposed bills violate the Canadian Bill of Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He sued because that was exactly what he was paid to do, but he was not permitted to perform his job. As soon as he filed the suit, he was suspended without pay and barred from his office, which jeopardized his ability to continue the lawsuit. Dr. Peter Bryce, the doctor who reported on the Tuberculosis problem in Residential Schools for aboriginal children. This is an historical whistleblower whose efforts have been little known until researchers found the story buried in their files. Possible Topics for Whistleblowers Workshops Joanna Gualtieri – a Foreign Affairs property manager who was outraged by the wanton spending habits of the department that housed its diplomats. The more she reported the more she was harassed. And when she sued the government for harassment, out came the big guns. Cindy Blackstock – advocate for Native children was initially hired by the government, to advise on better child care for native children, but her report was buried after she submitted it. When she pressed for its release, she herself was investigated and pilloried and the government went to court to block the publication. Sylvie Therrien leaked documents in 2013 showing that investigators had to cut people off
their employment insurance benefits in order to meet quotas. She and other investigators
were given a target to recover nearly $500,000 in EI benefits every year." Therrien leaked
documents to the media anonymously in the spring showing that investigators were ordered
to find $485,000 in savings each year by denying claims. She was fired. Virgil Granfield exposed slave labour in the Canadian Red Cross’ rebuilding projects in
2004-tsunami-struck Indonesia. Workers were hired through middle men, the middle
men were paid, but the workers were not. When he reported this scandal no action was
taken. Someone needs to find out what has happened since he reported this injustice.
Evan Vokes . A former TransCanada engineer says he reported its substandard
practices to the federal energy regulator in 2011 because he believed the company’s
management, right up to the chief executive officer, refused to act on his complaints. He
was fired by the company after raising concerns that the failure to follow code and
regulation was key in the catastrophic failure of a pipeline.
Richard Colvin, a Foreign Service officer serving at the Canadian Embassy in Afghanistan,
warned in 2009 that afghan detainees were being tortured. His reward? Public humiliation
by Defence Minister Peter MacKay and cabinet colleague John Baird who called his
warnings ”preposterous” and hinted that he was spouting Taliban lies. He was later
vindicated, but nevertheless incurred the wrath of the current government.
This is a suggested list only. You may submit another name, provided the person fits the
criteria of a “Whistleblower”
Facilitators:
Sue Kralik: sue.kralik@yahoo.ca
Shirley Lewis : shirleylewis6@yahoo.com