The government continues to effectively and illegally deduct pain and suffering payments from their LTD income.
DND Photo
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By SEAN BRUYEA
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Published: Monday, 07/02/2012 12:00 am EDT
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OTTAWA—Disabled Canadian Forces veterans and their families breathed a collective sigh of relief on May 29 when Defence Minister Peter MacKay announced the government would not be appealing a Federal Court decision…
This isn’t a game. Pain and suffering payments are often the only thing left for the military to know that their sacrifices meant something to Canada and to Canadians. To continue deducting their value also ‘extinguishes’ the value of military sacrifice.
By Sean Bruyea -THE HILL TIMES
Published: Monday, 05/07/2012 12:00 am EDT
OTTAWA—A…
Medically discharged veterans Ron Cundell (left) and Dennis Manuge (centre) listen as Veterans Ombudsman Col. (ret.) Patrick B. Stogran (right) speaks at a press conference in Ottawa on Tuesday Aug 17, 2010.
Sean Kilpatrick/THE CANADIAN PRESS
Michael Tutton
Halifax— The Canadian Press
Published Tuesday, May. 01, 2012 5:31PM EDT
Last updated Monday, May. 07, 2012 4:22PM…
Retired Canadian Forces intelligence officer, shown during an Ottawa conference on Oct. 7, 2010, warns against aggressive budget cuts at Veterans Affairs.
Chris Wattie/Reuters
Comment
By SEAN BRUYEA
Special to Globe and Mail Update
Published Wednesday, Mar. 07, 2012 7:36AM EST
Last updated Wednesday, Mar. 07, 2012 7:45AM EST
Prime Minister Stephen Harper calls enlisting in the military the …
Just when Ottawa bureaucrats and politicians thought they would have a quiet week following unsuccessful attempts to placate stakeholders in an Ottawa conference room this week (click here for article), all of Hades breaks loose. One conscientious Canadian reader was supportive of my latest piece (click here) . If only Ottawa was as supportive of…
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.
Photograph by Jake Wright, The Hill Times
Veterans files: Veterans Affairs Canada, now led by Veterans Affairs Minister Steven Blaney, pictured on Parliament Hill in…
LINK TO CBC RADIO BROADCAST: DEC 19, 2011 (click here)
Sean Bruyea says veterans should be given more opportunities to enter the public service. (The Canadian Press)
Advocates say departments not hiring from priority list for injured soldiers
CBC NEWS Posted: Dec 19, 2011 6:44 AM ET
Advocates for Canadian veterans say a priority list aimed…
By Jessuca Bruno-THE HILL TIMES-Published August 22, 2011
Today’s vets more educated, know their rights, and need more flexible service than in past generations.
Veterans Affairs needs to start innovating if it’s going to serve the wave of veterans coming home from Afghanistan with a host of needs unique to their generation, says veterans advocate Michel…
Veterans Affairs is trying to slip under the summer radar a sleight-of-hand approval for regulations on injured soldiers’ benefits. We should not be surprised.
By Sean Bruyea
The Hill Times: Published July 18, 2011
OTTAWA—Just as the sun will rise and we all will one day die, Veterans Affair Canada can always be counted upon to pull…
By SEAN BRUYEA-THE GLOBE AND MAIL-Last updated Wednesday, Jun. 08, 2011 3:51PM EDT
Sean Bruyea (REUTERS)
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…
An unnecessary bruise upon the CF’s reputation is the continued practice of deducting pain and suffering payments from injured veterans’ reduced income under long-term disability.
By Sean Bruyea-THE HILL TIMES (Defence Policy Issue)-May 30, 2011.
It is often said that a nation is judged on how it treats its most vulnerable. Canada’s…
By Tim Naumetz-THE HILL TIMES-October 18, 2010
Quebec Liberal Senator Romeo Dallaire says injured Canadian war veterans distrust the Veterans Affairs Department to the point some would rather continue on in the Army as disabled personnel rather than risk an uncertain future dealing with the department’s now-famous bureaucracy.
Sen. Dallaire, perhaps Canada’s best-known…
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=4520027&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=40&Ses=3
For complete testimony, questions and answers, please click here.
Mr. Sean Bruyea (Retired Captain (Air Force), Advocate and Journalist, As an Individual):
Thank you, Chair. Good morning, Chair, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you for inviting me back to testify. More importantly, thank you for continuing your extensive study on the new Veterans Charter and the well-being of disabled…
By Dave Pugliese-THE OTTAWA CITIZEN-David Pugliese’s Defence Watch-April 18 2010
Filed under: Veterans Affairs, Sean Bruyea
Editor’s note: Veteran’s advocate Sean Bruyea has written a report titled “Honouring Sacrifice with More than Words: A New Direction for Veterans and Veterans Affairs Canada Through Listening Directly to Veterans, Their Families and Frontline Employees.” It has been presented to…
For complete testimony, questions and answers, please click here
Mr. Sean Bruyea (Retired Captain (Air Force), Advocate and Journalist, As an Individual):
Ladies and gentlemen of the committee, thank you very much for inviting me and my wife here today to testify on the new Veterans Charter.
In many ways, Canada’s veterans were betrayed by the MPs who…
CTV.ca News Staff
Date: Thu. Jan. 21 2010 8:41 PM ET
A group of disabled Canadian war veterans will head to the Supreme Court of Canada today to battle the very country they once served, in an effort to recoup payments they say were unfairly clawed back.
The soldiers are trying to recoup millions of dollars they say…
By CYNTHIA MÜNSTER-The Hill Times- Published January 18, 2010
More Canadian soldiers than ever are publicly talking about the effects of PTSD and it’s unclear how many more will return home from Afghanistan with the stress disorder, but Canadian Forces Surgeon General, Commodore Hans Jung, who was appointed to his post in July, says despite some…
By Michael MacDonald-GLOBE & MAIL-March 3, 2009. pA8B.
HALIFAX — Defence Minister Peter MacKay rolled out a $21-million plan yesterday for a new network of military support centres, responding to reports that Canada is doing a poor job caring for sick and injured members of the Armed Forces, veterans and their families.
The eight centres,…
Sean Bruyea. Edmonton Journal. Edmonton, Alta.: Nov 15, 2008. pg. A.19
Such reflex explanations of sacrifice paint a dim view of the intellectual capacities of our brave men and women who have fought in Canada’s name.
Most Canadians look upon military heroism with a combination of fascination and horror. As such, most of us understandably shy away from the question as to why Canadian men and women are willing to sacrifice their lives.
THE HILL TIMES-March 31, 2008
Re: “Homecoming: a new direction to welcome our soldiers back into Canadian society,” (The Hill Times, March 10, by Sean Bruyea). I merely wish to congratulate The Hill Times and your editor for the kind of effort your newsweekly is making to bring the many issues of importance to veterans; particularly,…
By Senator (General) Roméo A. Dallaire -THE HILL TIMES-March 24, 2008
Re: “Homecoming: a new direction to welcome our soldiers back into Canadian society,” (The Hill Times, March 10, by Sean Bruyea).
Mr. Bruyea’s column was nothing less than an outstanding effort to raise the profile of a very subtle yet essential deficiency in our care for…
We invest millions of dollars and decades into a complex process to ‘transform’ the civilian into a soldier. So why is there so little to help the soldier retransform back into a civilian?
By Sean Bruyea-THE HILL TIMES-March 10, 2008
Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan have been engaged in some of the most intensive combat since Korea. Those Canadians who have never worn a uniform see the military with a vacillating proportion of awe, fascination and incomprehension.
But the soldiers were
Of the 4,260 soldiers affected by what the National Defence ombudsman has called ‘profoundly’ and ‘fundamentally unfair’ deductions, more than 1,500 are currently so disabled as to be unemployable.
By Sean Bruyea-THE HILL TIMES-February 25, 2008
No doubt thousands of cards and good wishes were sent to soldiers on the frontlines in Afghanistan for Valentine’s Day…
by Sean Bruyea and Robert Smol-THE HILL TIMES-January 21, 2008
Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) has a lot on its plate: an unexpectedly large number of wounded soldiers returning from Afghanistan, 2,000 or more World War 2 veterans passing away each month, the appointment of the first-ever ombudsman and introducing the single largest change in veterans benefits in 60 years. While the department paints a rosy picture of effectiveness and client satisfaction, many observers and veterans point to a department in crisis, with top-heavy over centralization, insensitivity to clients and overworked frontline staff.
For complete testimony, questions and answers, please click here.
Captain (retired) Sean Bruyea, as an individual:
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Louise Richard and I are both Gulf War veterans. I would like to introduce my wife. She will not be speaking but is here to support me. Those with operational stress injuries often need support. My…