Beyond The Commons

 Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

Supporting the troops

by Aaron Wherry on Wednesday, September 22, 2010 10:14am - 0 Comments

CP reports on what seems a particularly dark turn in the discussion about how we care for veterans of armed conflict.

Confidential medical and financial information belonging to an outspoken critic of Veterans Affairs, including part of a psychiatrist’s report, found its way into the briefing notes of a cabinet minister.

Highly personal information about Sean Bruyea was contained in a 13-page briefing note prepared by bureaucrats in 2006 for then minister Greg Thompson, a copy of which was obtained by The Canadian Press. The note, with two annexes of detailed information, laid out in detail Bruyea’s medical and psychological condition.

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  • ChrisWPG

    "Among other things, he found his file had been accessed by hundreds of federal bureaucrats, including policy-makers."

    Disgusting. "Particularly dark turn" does not begin to describe the horribleness of this.

  • Mike T.

    Sometimes when you stand behind someone it's because its easier to knife them in the back.

  • John D

    Well, that's creepy.

  • bennji1977

    This government is SICK.

    The bureaucrats will be thrown under the bus on this one – after all, it is their fault for including this information in the briefing note.

    • john g

      Rightly so.

      The privacy documents show 614 people within Veterans Affairs accessed Bruyea's computer file between 2001 and 2010, records that are kept in a password-protected computer data base. Of those, 156 exchanged varying amounts of personal information, according to a trail of internal emails.

      If this story is even remotely true and not just another cherry-picked collection of facts, this department needs a thorough house cleaning.

    • Jenn_

      But this one isn't a partisan issue. It is the civil service in Veterans Affairs. One could say the Minister who received the briefing documents should have realized, and come down hard on said bureaucrats for the appalling privacy lapse, but that is all.

      • Jan

        It's the bureaucracy that he Ombudsman has the trouble with. Maybe if the government listened to him instead of going into defensive mode.

        • Jenn_

          Completely agree.

      • john g

        Agreed. And for all we know he may have done so; he would not have done it through the media.

        • Jenn_

          Yes, possibly. Although, the treatment of Stogram would appear to indicate that's not the case. However, that could also be because they have a policy of not renewing mandates (which I don't have a problem with) and less to do with the fact that all the mandates appear to be up for renewal at the exact moment the person becomes a pain.

          • Blue

            —Or maybe he`s always been a pain but nobody has told us he was a pain when he had a mandate, and then at the exact moment that his mandate has not been renewed, he lets us all know what a pain he`s been.

          • Jenn_

            Yup, that's a good point, too. Which came first and all that.

  • Kat

    Fire. Them. All.

    This isn't just creepy, it's terrifying.

    These bureaucrats are government employees who clearly think they don't have to listen to the elected officials.

    I sincerely doubt that the Martin Government (when this all began) or the Conservative government now wanted these vets to be treated this way.

    Let's hope the bureaucrats will be thrown under the bus…without the benefit of a huge severance package. Let's hope someone has the balls to pull a Reagan and…

    Fire. Them. All.

  • Emily

    And just how did they 'find their way' into a minister's briefing notes?

    We need an immediate investigation ….and a firing of anyone connected with such a dirty thing…even if it's the whole dept.

    • Reverend_Blair

      Usually the information included in briefing notes has been requested by somebody in the minister's office. The bureaucrats need to be held to account because they know better than to include it, but if it was there, then there's a pretty high likelihood that somebody at the political level requested it.

      • Emily

        I agree. This stink goes all the way to the top. Anyone with an ounce of sense knows you shouldn't be looking at private medical records.

  • danby

    I'm not sure who it is, but somebody sure does hate the troops.

  • John

    The departments know exactly when this info is going to be released. I would imagine the announcement for veterans the other day was a feeble attempt to blunt the impact of this story.

  • Mike T.

    At the very least the minister has known for several years this practice was going on. What, if any, steps were taken to correct the practice?

    I suspect direct culpability.

  • Stewart_Smith

    From the timing this went on under both the Liberals and Conservatives so I agree with Jenn above it is not a partisan issue. One thing though…. we now know who should spend a little time in those new prisons.

    • John D

      I imagine some NDP folks will arrive shortly to correct you…

    • Mike T.

      It will be interesting to see exactly how far this goes back. It's not like Afghanistan torture thing, where there's a clear line indicating the guys before had maybe months to act on the matter. Each administration could have been improperly looking at documents for YEARS.

  • BGLong

    Greg Thompson has chosen to not run again. That is a good thing.

  • Amateur Hour

    While your assessment may be correct, the Minister bears ultimate responsibility for the conduct of his Ministry … and should, after establishing a formal independent inquiry, resign. It's part of the job description. Democratic accountability, that is.

    • Kat

      I certainly agree with you. We need to elect people with enough back bone to stand up to the civil service.

      • Holly Stick

        The Liberal and Conservative politicians have to wear this, along withthe Veterans Affairs bureaucrats. But we can't trust Harper to clean it up.

  • D Mitchell

    The true evil lies within Treasury Board, they are all blood sucking vampires whose sole job is maximize income for the government and minimize payouts to the taxpayer. And that’s all taxpayers not just veterans.

  • madeyoulook

    This breach of privacy is incredible. Why is the medical info so easily accessible in the first place?

    Terminations. Jail sentences. Fines. Compensation for damages like crazy. And if the minister didn't raise a stink when he noticed, he deserves to go, too.

    • Mike T.

      I don't think it's objectionable that veteran's affairs would have access to a veteran's health records. It would be useful in determining the nature of care that has to be provided.

      Sadly, the most likely explanation of how it ended up in the hands of the Minister is that the Minister asked for it. Sadly,w e can't all do our jobs with the integrity of the head of Statscan.

      • Jan

        VA sounds like it's being run like an insurance company. Make claimants run the gauntlet in the hopes of reducing benefits.

        • madeyoulook

          But the insurance company has no business feeding clients' medical info to the VP's briefcase. The exposure of personal info is a far greater travesty than the urge to limit exposure to expensive claims and frivolous demands.

          • Jan

            Of course it doesn't, but that's the motivation.

  • KNOWALLSEEALL

    This personal information was included in a presentation to Greg Thompson's because it is the new M.O. by the Harper government. Get anything and everything you can on anybody that may get in your way and then use it to extort them…

    This is how the Harper government operates….

    And now Harper is out to smear the public service and bureaucrats to blame these people for all their woes…blaming the Liberals doesn't wash anymore…and blaming the media is old…so the new bogey man….watch Harper run to protect the watchdogs and whistleblowers…meanwhile stick a knife in their backs.

    • john g

      Hmm, interesting…can you use this airtight theory of yours to explain how the information also got into the hands of the previous Liberal VA Minister?

      Would also be an interesting question for Murray Brewster why he failed to include that bit of obviously relevant information in his report.

  • Sender

    Furthermore, in addition to applications going into the hands of people with no medical training, the medical expertise of the applicant's own doctor's is ignored, once Government contracted out doctor's make sugestions, or invent cures. To appeal any decision, the applicant's private information must go to a tribunal of ordinary citizens with -no medical training. To appeal any further unfair decisions, the applicant's entire private medical file, must also go to a Social Benefits office advocate, or to the Ombudsman's office assistants, who also have -no medical training.
    Of course private,confidential formation is considered free info, how could it not- with that system.

  • Sender

    Of course private medical files can get into Government hands!
    Most people have no idea, that anyone who applies for medical disability benefits, be it with the military or, for long term medical Social Benefits, must all, sign a release form- that allows- their entire private medical & financial file to go, into the hands, of office clerks, who call themselves 'Administrators', but who have absolutely NO medical training. Applicants, also can be forced to go to any Government contracted out doctor or, psychologist, who then can invent cures or treatments such as, physiotherapy & even if they have done 20 years of physio, this can be used as a reason to refuse the applicant and deny benefits- all to save the Government money.

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