Robert Shepherd (Carlerton University) , Evert Lindquist (University of Victoria)
This panel would bring together colleagues who regularly give ethics courses as part of their graduate programs. The panel would address the question: Is giving a course on ethics in government and administration requiring a change in approach, since the 1995 Tait Report? In other words, have our approaches to teaching ethics shifted over time? If so, in what ways, and have our courses kept pace with these changes?
Given the various and more frequent public service breaches in ethics, are our courses conveying concepts or engaging in conversations that are relevant to this moment or are we deferring to more traditional concepts and issues? Cases such as the current ArriveCan app debacle (as shown in the recent Auditor General’s report) are highlighting what appear to be serious problems of management that stem not only from the lack of due diligence and sound process, but a lack of ethical judgement and leadership. The Siddiqui case in PCO shows not only a lack of ethical judgement, but a complete breach of the public trust. What has changed (if anything) in the ethical landscape? Are our courses picking up these changes?
This panel discussion would discuss the challenges of giving graduate courses in ethics for our programs, whether they are relevant to the needs of public service today, and what the CAPPA community can collectively do to make these courses salient. It is anticipated that highlighting some course outlines may be useful as a way into some of these questions.