Transport Canada inspector falsified safety reports but details under wraps

OTTAWA – A Transport Canada inspector was dismissed for falsifying inspection reports but the department refuses to say anything more about the misdeeds in order to protect the former employee’s privacy.

The department says that divulging even the mode of transport involved — rail, road, air or marine — would compromise the wrongdoer’s rights.

A bare-bones description of the case was posted on the department’s website for the fourth quarter of 2012-13 and additional information about a related “systemic problem” was mentioned in a report recently tabled in Parliament.

But details remain sketchy, prompting a pro-democracy group and the official Opposition to call for greater transparency.

New Democrat MP Mathieu Ravignat, the party’s Treasury Board critic, says it’s important to have full information about transportation safety cases in light of the July rail explosion in Quebec that claimed dozens of lives.

He says the transport minister must take swift action to ensure the correct tracking and reporting of essential information.