Investigations: Staff Blows Whistle on Whistle-Blower Protection Commish

Big kerfuffle over the sudden retirement of Canada's whistle-blower protection commissioner Christiane Ouimet amid an investigation of her office by Auditor General Sheila Fraser. Ouimet was apparently embroiled in an internal staff revolt after she found not one case of wrongdoing or reprisal in the entire 400,000-member federal civil service during her three years in office. I reported on complaints about Ouimet's office in this Montreal Gazette story in August.

The end for Ouimet came when her own staff finally blew the whistle on her. They complained about the working environment in her office and the lack of proactive investigations of whistle-blower complaints. Eighteen of 22 employees in her office quit in the past year, according to one report. Read more in this CBC item.

Da Biz: Why UK Investigative Journalism is on the Ropes

The woes of investigative journalism in the UK are explored in this interesting piece in The Independent. The issues will be familiar to sluggos in other countries.

Da Biz: "Journalism in the Crucible"

An interesting series of articles here from the American Journalism Review titled "Journalism in the Crucible" exploring the future of journalism and the rise of nonprofits doing investigative reporting.