Before the appointment of a Veterans Ombudsman in 2007, Mr. Bruyea was one of the most recognizable faces on the issue of care for injured soldiers. He also spent 14 years with the Canadian Forces.
Mr. Bruyea was a vocal critic of the Conservative government's New Veterans Charter, especially before it was enacted in the spring of 2006.
According to federal documents, it was his determined opposition to the charter that raised the ire of Veterans bureaucrats, who wanted nothing to interfere with the newly elected Conservative government's implementation of the system overhaul.
In a March 13, 2006, exchange of e-mails, officials talked about plans to brief Mr. Thompson on Mr. Bruyea's opposition and about his operational stress injury.
Minutes from a conference call among officials show their intent was to make sure the new charter, which fundamentally overhauled the way veterans received benefits, was implemented on April 1, 2006, on schedule.
“Folks, it's time to take the gloves off here,” wrote Darragh Morgan, a senior Veterans official.
“It [is] not that this person is spreading misinformation for his own purposes[,] it is that this is … by now creating grave doubts among soldiers who now need to know their government backs them. Snooze ya lose comes to mind. Let’s do something here.”
Mr. Bruyea said his opposition to the Veterans Charter had nothing to do with his battles with the department over his treatment.
On Sunday, two cabinet ministers announced an additional $2-billion to address flaws and shortfalls in the new veterans compensation system. Some of the fixes involve Mr. Bruyea's long-standing complaints.
An analysis by the Veterans Ombudsman's office last year determined that ordinary soldiers wounded in the line of duty, veterans with families and the most severely disabled of troops are the biggest losers under the new charter.
The privacy documents show 614 people within Veterans Affairs accessed Mr. Bruyea's computer file between 2001 and 2010, records that are kept in a password-protected computer database. Of those, 156 exchanged varying amounts of personal information, according to a trail of internal e-mails.
The material appears to have been shared with an additional 243 individuals, including both Liberal and Conservative political staffers, through briefing notes and e-mails during the 2006 transition between governments.
The document path even went as high as the Prime Minister's Office when, on March 21, 2006, a mid-level staffer called Mr. Bruyea and urged to him call off a news conference slated for that day where he publicly urged the Conservatives to hold off enacting the charter.
Outgoing Veterans Ombudsman Pat Stogran complained bitterly in the summer about federal bureaucrats who run Veterans Affairs, accusing them of being more interested in guarding the public purse than helping wounded soldiers.
Mr. Stogran said he was shocked to learn about what had been written about Mr. Bruyea. He said the security officer at the department told him around the time of his appointment in 2007 that his own file had been accessed at least 400 times.
Mr. Stogran said he thought it was just routine curiosity, but is now wondering.
“I never imagined it would be anything insidious,” said Mr. Stogran, whose had his own public spats with both Mr. Thompson and bureaucracy before the Conservatives decided not to reappoint him.
“I know anonymous e-mails and Facebook entries were made trying to defame my character. I'm wondering now what was going on.”
The Canadian Press
