Veterans Affairs

Canadian Forces tries to stop injured soldier from speaking out

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Corporal Steven Stoesz

David Pugliese – May 6, 2012

An injured Afghan veteran who spoke out a few days ago about the poor level of health services available to troops has been ordered not to talk to the news media. But on Sunday, Corporal Steven Stoesz ignored that order and went on CTV’s Question Period.

He said mental health professionals at CFB Shilo are overworked and soldiers face a lengthy delay in getting help.“Shilo is overwhelmed,” he said.

Vets department and board struggled for years to contain privacy leaks

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Murray Brewster – February 16, 2012

Veterans Affairs Canada and the independent board that reviews claims of ex-soldiers grappled with allegations of leaked personal information long before a privacy scandal blew up in public.

A series of leaked documents show the department and the agency tried — and ultimately failed — in the spring of 2009 to tighten up the system and clamp down on bureaucrats who'd been rifling through the files of veterans advocates and opponents.

Veterans board member says privacy violated

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The Canadian Press – February 12, 2012

A prominent, long-standing member of the country's Veterans Review and Appeal Board had his privacy violated twice in an alleged smear campaign meant to discredit him using his private medical information as ammunition, The Canadian Press has learned.

The behind-the-scenes fight involving Harold Leduc has been so bad and so vicious that the Canadian Human Rights Commission quietly ordered the veterans board to pay the decorated, former warrant officer $4,000, including legal costs, for harassment he'd suffered from other agency members.

Stakeholder Committees and Other Reasons for a Public Inquiry into Veterans Affairs

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Steven Blaney

Veterans need to shed their well-indoctrinated sense of loyalty and sacrifice to a government system that has neither shown them loyalty at the senior levels nor sacrifice.

Sean Bruyea – February 6, 2012

Veterans Affairs claims it wants to do business differently. The big question is: can Parliament, Canada, and veterans trust the bureaucracy? And can veterans trust that the veteran organizations will not just bark but finally bite when Veterans Affairs Canada instinctually and inevitably strays off the path?

Veterans Affairs has a six-decade old habit of keeping a tight leash on CF veterans. The department has failed to fulfill its legal and ethical obligations to Canadian Forces members and their families by denying CF veterans access to similar assistance given to World War II veterans.

Stress injuries a growing problem among vets

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Ian Munroe – Nov 11, 2011

A month after leading seaman Scott Murphy returned from Kandahar, he can go into his local Wal-Mart without having to scan the crowd for suspected insurgents.

In his case, the symptoms of post-traumatic stress were mild, he says. After leaving Afghanistan, mental health experts with the military warned that he might have a short temper in the following weeks, and told him about the more serious signs of psychological injury to watch out for.

Veteran alleges another privacy breach at agency

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Dennis Manuge

CBC News – November 4, 2011

Another veterans' advocate says government officials breached his privacy by unnecessarily going into his medical record hundreds of times, one year after Sean Bruyea settled a similar complaint.

In an interview with Evan Solomon, host of CBC Radio's The House, Dennis Manuge said he decided to look into his own file when he heard Bruyea's complaints. Manuge often appears alongside Bruyea to demand changes to how the government treats veterans, and is leading a class action lawsuit against the government over a claw-back on disability benefits.

CF veterans: now is the time for a public inquiry

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Canadian combat troops

Sean Bruyea – October 24, 2011

Less than two weeks from now, Canadian Forces veterans, many of them disabled, will publicly protest throughout Canada. This is not part of “Occupy Canada.”

However, alienation and abandonment by the Canadian government of its Canadian Forces (CF) veterans has long scarred our noble warriors and their families in a much more profound manner than that motivating the current worldwide protests.

Sleight-of-hand Tricks Once Again at VAC

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Sean Bruyea –  July 18, 2011

Just as the sun will rise and we all will one day die, Veterans Affair Canada can always be counted upon to pull a fast one. The federal department mandated to care for injured and retired military and their families is trying to slip under the summer radar a sleight-of-hand approval for regulations on injured soldiers’ benefits. We should not be surprised.

More than 90 per cent of Canada’s approximately 700,000 serving and retired Canadian Forces members do not belong to any advocacy organization. This is why it is paramount for Veterans Affairs to truly reach out, engage and risk being changed by the needs and perspectives of all veterans and their families.

Why do we neglect our veterans?

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Sean Bruyea – June 9, 2011

For the first time in decades, a federal election witnessed all parties promising assistance for our serving and retired Canadian Forces personnel. Debate on the issue quickly died, but the problems confronting our veterans remain painfully alive.

Those problems escalated in 2006 when a 90-year proven system of payments for lifelong injuries was unilaterally replaced with a one-time lump sum. Studies by Queen’s University and Veterans Affairs Canada’s own advisory groups show that, when all benefits are counted over the lifetime of the injured soldier, the lump-sum program pays out about half of what the lifetime payments provide.

Veterans Affairs Canada has a case of premature closure

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Sean Bruyea – April 11, 2011

OTTAWA—Just prior to the election campaign kick-off, Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn showed just how out of sync he and some in the department are with veterans and Canadians, not to mention Canadian law and Treasury Board policies. He recently made a number of public comments in Alexandria, Ont., ("The Review," March 23, 2011) in response to widespread privacy law breaches by Veterans Affairs bureaucrats.

Last fall, nationwide revelations showed that department bureaucrats had illegally and widely trafficked in my private financial and medical information. To date, 54 individuals have been disciplined mostly with letters of reprimand although some received up to three-day suspensions. It is not known whether these were paid suspensions. The minister justified disciplinary leniency, emphasizing it was as if privacy protection "didn't exist" and that "no one had a system adapted to the new requirements [of the Privacy Act]."

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