{"id":2924,"date":"2025-06-30T05:21:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T12:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ccpo-ccop.ca\/?p=2924"},"modified":"2025-06-30T05:24:04","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T12:24:04","slug":"autonomy-security-of-tenure-key-principles-for-ensuring-ombudsman-independence-council-says-law360-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ccpo-ccop.ca\/fr-ca\/2025\/06\/30\/autonomy-security-of-tenure-key-principles-for-ensuring-ombudsman-independence-council-says-law360-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Autonomy, security of tenure key principles for ensuring ombudsman independence, council says (Law360 Canada)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Law360 Canada<\/a>
\nBy Ian Burns
\nJune 26, 2025 –<\/p>\n

The Canadian Council of Parliamentary Ombudsman (CCPO) has endorsed a set of key principles designed to ensure the independence, effectiveness and accountability of ombuds institutions across Canada.<\/p>\n

The principles adopted during the council\u2019s June meeting reaffirm the essential role of ombudsman offices in upholding good governance, protecting individual rights and reinforcing public trust in democratic institutions. The CCPO is a collaborative body representing 11 provincial and territorial ombudsman offices across Canada.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0document<\/a>\u00a0outlining the principles contains seven principal themes \u2014 independence and autonomy, appointment and security of tenure, mandate, powers of investigation, transparency, accountability, and interpretation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese principles reflect our collective commitment to ensure ombudsman institutions across Canada remain robust, impartial and accessible to all,\u201d said CCPO chair Sandy Hermiston. \u201cThey are also a clear signal to legislators and the public that effective oversight is essential to a healthy democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parliamentary ombudsman offices across Canada serve as independent bodies that receive and investigate public complaints about government services. They help resolve issues of unfairness, improve public service delivery and protect the rights of individuals \u2014 all while being independent from political or administrative influence.<\/p>\n

Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dub\u00e9 said the recommendations \u201care all important\u201d but pointed to security of tenure as being a key one.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn ombudsman should be safe knowing they can do their job without fear or favour, as they say, and not have to look over their shoulders and worry about being removed from office because they put out a report that might counter the narrative of a government or contain some inconvenient truths,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat politicians have told me over the years is that we love you when we\u2019re in opposition, but you\u2019re a pain in the butt when we\u2019re in government.\u201d<\/p>\n

And another key concern for an ombudsman is having adequate powers to do what they need to do, said Dub\u00e9.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need powers to compel witnesses and documents, so the ombudsman has to have legal access to any document through data or materials \u2014 even those that are usually confidential,\u201d he said. \u201cJust having that power to do the job and be given the tools to serve the public interest in doing the kind of work we do, independently and impartially, and coming down on the side of fairness and the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CCPO is calling on all Canadian legislators and public authorities to recognize and uphold these principles to ensure ombudsman institutions can continue serving the public with integrity, fairness and independence.<\/p>\n

Jay Chalke, Dub\u00e9\u2019s counterpart in British Columbia, said as trust in public institutions continues to decline across Canada it is more important than ever that people have access to strong, independent oversight.<\/p>\n

\u201cOmbuds offices play a vital role in protecting fundamental rights, including the right to access justice, education, health care and fair treatment in public services,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are here to ensure that government treats people fairly and that public services are accountable, transparent and responsive to everyone\u2019s needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dub\u00e9 said that most ombudsman legislation across Canada is largely in compliance with the<\/p>\n

principles but bringing them out is \u201ca matter of being proactive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s saying let\u2019s make sure these powers are never in peril, and let\u2019s be proactive in order to prevent \u2014 rather than respond \u2014 to threats to our independence and our operational capacities,\u201d he said. \u201cLet\u2019s be proactive and prevent the threats from ever happening.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Law360 Canada By Ian Burns June 26, 2025 – The Canadian Council of Parliamentary Ombudsman (CCPO) has endorsed a set of key principles designed to ensure the independence, effectiveness and accountability of ombuds institutions across Canada. The principles adopted during the council\u2019s June meeting reaffirm the essential role of ombudsman offices in upholding good governance, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223427967,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1390],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-en"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe6sPj-La","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccpo-ccop.ca\/fr-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccpo-ccop.ca\/fr-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccpo-ccop.ca\/fr-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccpo-ccop.ca\/fr-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223427967"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccpo-ccop.ca\/fr-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2924"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ccpo-ccop.ca\/fr-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2929,"href":"https:\/\/ccpo-ccop.ca\/fr-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2924\/revisions\/2929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccpo-ccop.ca\/fr-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccpo-ccop.ca\/fr-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccpo-ccop.ca\/fr-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}