It is easy but wrong to blame the sorry state of whistleblower protection in Canada solely on the conduct of the former Integrity Commissioner.

The three persons who will now speak know well that the legislation which she administered is deeply flawed and shrieks for redrafting from top to bottom.

The first is David Hutton, Executive Director of FAIR (Federal Accountability Initiative for Reform). David took over FAIR from its founder, Joanna Gualtieri, three years ago and has done a great deal of work to help educate the public and parliamentarians about the importance of protecting whistleblowers.

The second is Ian Bron, Secretary of Canadians for Accountability, created by a group of activists to advocate for whistleblowers. He is himself a whistleblower. He is also a veteran who is proud of his service to Canada in and out of uniform.

Haiyan Zhang is from Canadians for Accountability too. She is their Communications and Business Manager.

Finally will be Duff Conacher, coordinator of Democracy Watch and chair of four nation-wide coalitions that Democracy Watch oversees. This includes the Government Ethics Coalition, which is made up of more than 30 citizen groups with a total membership of three million Canadians. It has been pushing for stronger government ethics, lobbying and whistleblower protection laws across Canada for the past decade.