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 Mr. Bruyea's medical and psychological condition.
The documents, for example, contain a quote from a 2005 letter from Mr. Bruyea's psychiatrist that warned his “mental condition is deteriorating and he is now actively experiencing suicidal ideation,” a condition the doctor suggested was the result of the department's treatment of him.
The March 20, 2006, briefing also contained references to Mr. Bruyea's chronic fatigue syndrome and tension headaches, as well as other medical complaints.
And it divulged details about his pension and what Veterans Affairs spends on his treatment, including the number of doctor appointments he had during the previous year.
The note passed through the hands of at least three senior bureaucrats.
Mr. Bruyea uncovered the documents as part of a 14,000-page Privacy Act request about himself. He asked for the information in 2007 to discover why certain medical coverage by the department was denied to him.
Among other things, he found his file had been accessed by hundreds of federal bureaucrats, including policy makers.
Mr. Bruyea, who provided a copy of the material to The Canadian Press and gave the news agency permission to cite the contents, said the more he pored over the documents, the more alarmed he became.
“There is a culture in that department that thinks that they have the monopoly on deciding what veterans – disabled or not – and their families deserve, and they believe they do not have to take any recommendations, consultation whatsoever from the veterans,” Mr. Bruyea said in an interview.
“This arrogance, this paternalism – that they don't have to listen to veterans in my case – has extended to the point where they believe they can manipulate medical files without the permission of the veterans and send it anywhere within the department to whomever in the department.
“They feel they're absolutely right in doing so.”
Mr. Bruyea has filed a formal complaint with the federal privacy commissioner, whose investigation continues. He has also filed a court challenge, claiming a breach under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
His outspoken comments made him a thorn in the side of the former Liberal government, beginning in 2005, when bureaucrats were drafting the New Veterans Charter, the file later inherited by the Conservatives in 2006. Mr. Bruyea raised many concerns to Paul Martin's government about the impact of its plan.
Those concerns, particularly about the replacement of lifetime pensions with a lump-sum payment and qualified monthly stipends, were at the centre of a recent political storm that has dogged the Conservative government.
Retired colonel Michel Drapeau, a lawyer and expert in privacy law, expressed shock on viewing the documents.
Mr. Drapeau said it was the worst breach of privacy he'd seen in decades of practising law, calling it “totally, totally illegal” under the federal Privacy Act, which allows for the collection of information for specific purposes.
“The way I read the briefing note, it clearly comes across that this is a way to impugn his reputation and to come across as someone who is less than stable, less than able to speak confidently and accurately about veteran's issues,” Mr. Drapeau said in an interview Tuesday.
He said the private information was originally collected to determine Mr. Bruyea's eligibility under a disability program, “not for political warfare to try to silence a critic.”
Officials at Veterans Affairs were not immediately available for comment.
