Date of Award

2010

Publication Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Department

Communication Studies

Keywords

Mass Communications.

Supervisor

Wittebols, James (Political Science)

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

The international community is increasingly becoming aware of the consequences and the risks involved with blowing the whistle on organizational misconduct. Subsequently, there has been a growing trend within the international community of developing legislation designed to protect whistleblowers against retaliation. This study performs a Critical Discourse Analysis on The Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act of 2005, the first bill in Canadian legislative history to offer federal government whistleblowers protection. The author argues the primary aim of this Act is not to protect whistleblowers from retaliation or to eliminate wrongdoing from the public service, but rather to control the context under which whistleblowing can occur. It is thus an instrument of oppression serving not to protect whistleblowers, but suppress them.

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