Bureaucrats had veteran's personal files

LAURA PAYTON, Parliamentary Bureau : September 22, 2010 Toronto Sun: OTTAWA - Hundreds of federal bureaucrats accessed the private records of a long-time veterans' rights advocate and went as far as briefing the minister on his psychiatric records, the man revealed this week. Sean Bruyea, who served in the Canadian Forces from 1982 to 1996, has been fighting for veterans' rights since 2005. He requested his file under Canada's Access to Information law, and in December, 2008, discovered six people had accessed his confidential records. That led to two more requests that eventually revealed at least 614 different people have accessed his file 4,131 times over a 10-year period. "I had completely lost control of the most sacred information in my life," Bruyea said Wednesday. "It felt like my heart stopped...I didn't realize the government could do this to me."

Prior to a March, 2006, press conference, veterans' affairs bureaucrats prepared briefing notes for then-minister Greg Thompson on Bruyea's psychiatric conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder and depression following service during the first Gulf War. Bruyea calls them "absurdly detailed." "I've admitted I have PTSD, but there's a far difference from saying I have PTSD than knowing what's being said in the psychiatric report. There's a huge difference," he said. "They even went to the extent of finding out and documenting all the pharmacies from where I receive drugs in preparation for briefing notes," he said. "There's a very clear paper trail where they clearly knew they were including my psychiatric and mental health concerns, as well as other financial and physical health concerns, they clearly knew they were using it at times when they shouldn't have."

Bruyea says he complained to Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart more than a year ago. A spokeswoman for Stoddart confirmed there is an ongoing investigation into his complaint. Bruyea says the bulk of the access happened after his first appearance at a parliamentary committee in May, 2005. A call requesting comment from a spokeswoman for Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn wasn't immediately returned.