Vet alleges government tried to hospitalize him

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Vet alleges government tried to hospitalize him
By Althia Raj, Parliamentary Bureau

Last Updated: October 10, 2010 4:24pm

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Facebook Digg Del.icio.us Google Stumble Upon Newsvine Reddit Technorati Feed Me Yahoo Simpy Squidoo Spurl Blogmarks Netvouz Scuttle Sitejot + What are these? OTTAWA – An outspoken veterans' advocate and Gulf War vet says the federal government tried to hospitalize him after he began speaking out against government policies.

Sean Bruyea told CTV’s Question Period Sunday that two months after he first testified against a controversial change to veterans’ disability payments, Veterans Affairs Canada attempted to discredit him by hospitalizing him and making his advocacy a psychological issue.

“Within two months of that period, they tried to force me to go to their hospital for a psychiatric assessment that they had never asked for before.

Why within two months of my advocacy, did they require that assessment?”Bruyea said.

“You are saying they were trying to hospitalize you?” asked CTV’s Craig Oliver.

“Well, exactly. I was terrified. As an intelligence officer who studied Soviet Russia, I mean I knew about the Gulags in Stalinist Russia, and I thought: 'This isn’t much different. They are trying to make my advocacy a psychological issue'.”

Bruyea said within days of his testimony against lump-sum disability payments, veterans affairs also denied him approval for treatment he had been receiving for his post-traumatic stress disorder, such as meetings with his psychologist and a couple’s therapist.

Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddard found Thursday there had been grave breaches of Bruyea’s personal information at the department and ordered a full audit.

Bruyea had complained after discovering through Access to Information that his file had been accessed 4,131 times over 10 years by more than 600 department officials.

Bureaucrats had briefed former veterans affairs minister Greg Thompson and allowed media relations officials to access Bruyea's sensitive medical information.

Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn said heads could roll and some employees might be fired over the breaches.

Bruyea could not be reached for comment.

[email protected]

-with files from Laura Payton

Glad to see that Canada treats its vets as good as the USA does.