Veterans’ advocate Sean Bruyea called the payments “to senior managers at Veterans Affairs Canada way out of whack with reality.”
Photograph by: CHRIS WATTIE, REUTERS
By David Pugliese, The Ottawa Citizen May 25, 2012 6:59 PM
OTTAWA — The senior managers at Veterans Affairs Canada received almost $700,000 in bonuses and extra pay last…
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…
2012 Pension Act Rates including Disability Pension, Exceptional Incapacity Allowance and Attendance Allowance, click on this sentence.
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2012 Lump Sum rates for the Canadian Forces Members and Veterans Re-establishment and Compensation Act (a.k.a. NVC), click on this sentence.
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…
The responsibility for designating a Special Duty Area (SDA) and a Special Duty Order (SDO) lies with the Minister of National Defence. The process also involves advising the Minister of Veterans Affairs due primarily to the fact that service in either is “integral to the provision of benefits” [1]
SDA’s and SDO’s require two basic criteria…
The reality is that the senior mandarins are the ultimate arbiters of power in Ottawa, not the politicians. And the oft-criticized hyper-centralized culture is centered not in the PMO but in Treasury Board and the PCO.
By Sean Bruyea
The Hill Times: Published September 19, 2011
OTTAWA—We …
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…
Kenneth Young is an articulate and persistent advocate for the rights of disabled veterans and their families. Today, Kenneth drafted profound commentary on the current lack of debate at the public and national level as to how veterans and their families are being (mis)treated (see below).
I am honoured that a single line of my article posted on VeteransofCanada.ca…
By Sean Bruyea
Exclusive to VeteranVoice.info and VeteransofCanada.ca-Published July 15, 2011.
Far too many veterans shoot the messenger instead of aiming their sights on government. This is worsened by the impulsiveness which the internet encourages in instantaneous messaging. Veterans have much to contribute to determining their own destiny. The question is how to focus that energy…
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 Sean Bruyea-THE HILL TIMES-March 21, 2011.
In a most bizarre déjà vu, history repeated itself on March 11 when the House passed Bill C-55. The bill was sold as the fix-for-all that ails veterans’ legislation originally passed in 2005, legislation which replaced lifelong payments for pain and suffering for injured soldiers…
By Perry Gray-THE HILL TIMES-November 15, 2010.
Cynthian Münster, The Hill Times
Time for a royal commission: Perry Gray is a retired Canadian Forces intelligence officer and a chief editor of veterans.info.
OTTAWA—Considering the national outcry against the so-called “New Veterans Charter” and the lump sum these past few months, it is interesting to note…
By Sean Bruyea- THE OTTAWA CITIZEN-November 06, 2010, p. B.7
Serving and retired soldiers know all too well what a wonderful country we have. We know this more than most because we promised to die unquestioningly for Canada and Canadians.
Those of us Canadian Forces veterans who survived the missions to the Persian Gulf,…
The five year controversy about veterans’ benefits has reached critical mass in 2010. I and a handful of veterans and our families stood up on May 10, 2005 and publicly pointed out the poor judgement in programmes which were created in secrecy, replaced lifelong compensation with a one-time lump sum and in spite of a an…
By Ian Bron-THE HILL TIMES-October 18, 2010
Jake Wright, The Hill Times
Whistleblower: Sean Bruyea, pictured on the Hill.
OTTAWA—For the past few months the media have been making revelation after revelation about the management of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The first issue to hit the headlines dealt with the misrepresentation of the…
By Jack Granatstein-THE HILL TIMES-October 18, 2010
The Department of Veterans Affairs has a proud record. Founded in 1944 to care for and reintegrate into civil society the more than one million men and women who served in the Canadian Armed Forces in the Second World War, DVA was an ornament of …
Only a non-partisan public inquiry will fix this profoundly flawed department. A judicial royal commission would guide Canada to re-establish its commitment to injured military, veterans, and their families.
By SEAN BRUYEA |
Published: Monday, 10/18/2010 12:00 am EDT
Veterans and all Canadians are grappling with revelations that federal bureaucrats have repeatedly and…
By Michael L. Blais-THE HILL TIMES-October 11, 2010
NIAGARA FALLS, ONT.—The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity on the veterans’ front. Nationally, veterans continue to rally in defence of Veterans Ombudsman Pat Stogran, and the serious concerns he has identified.
Revelations pertaining to repeated VAC violations of retired captain Sean…
Sean Bruyea has strived to work in whatever institution or venue which would help increase the awareness of and improve programmes for the plight of injured soldiers and their families. To that end, Sean has worked with all political parties and all parties have been willing to work with Sean to help injured soldiers and…
Click here for legal claim link (PDF)
Editorial-THE HILL TIMES-October 4, 2010
The Hill Times’ Tim Naumetz last week broke the story that Canada’s Veterans Ombudsman Pat Stogran is under treatment for operational stress injury that dates back to the 1990s and to his time in Bosnia and that he fears Veterans Affairs Canada may have improperly shared his personal medical files and…
by Sean Bruyea-VICTORIA TIMES-COLONIST-September 28, 2010 p. A.12
Canadians learned last week that federal bureaucrats at Veterans Affairs Canada freely offered extensive amounts of my confidential medical and financial information to federal cabinet ministers without my permission.
And at least 850 federal employees, political staffers and politicians exchanged or accessed the most intimate…
By Sean Bruyea, Ottawa Citizen Special-September 25, 2010 10:28 AM
This past week, Canadians learned that federal bureaucrats at Veterans Affairs Canada freely offered up extensive amounts of my confidential medical and financial information to federal cabinet ministers without my permission. And at least 850 federal employees, political staffers and politicians exchanged and/or accessed the most intimate…
By: Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press Posted: 21/09/2010 5:12 PM
OTTAWA – 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…
by Sean Bruyea, (filed in Reports)
The recent announcement by the government of Canada presented by Ministers MacKay and Blackburn included additional benefits for veterans unable to seek full time employment. Although the additional benefits target the group of marginalized veterans who need help the most, these programs are relatively minor compared to the more than…
Mark Iype, Postmedia News. Sunday, Sept. 19, 2010
OTTAWA — Facing criticism it has been shortchanging soldiers hurt in the line of duty, the federal government on Sunday unveiled what it says will be the first in a series of steps aimed at looking after Canada’s new generation of war veterans.
The Conservatives plan to pump $2-billion…
Friday August 27, 2010
By Richard Mostyn-Yukon News
The line of veterans sitting before Stephen Harper on Thursday were conspicuous.
Were they aware about how cleverly they were being used?
This week, Harper has been flying around small communities in the North – Resolute Bay, Tuktoyaktuk, Inuvik, Cambridge Bay and Churchill. Whitehorse represented his first touchdown in a city…
by Sean Bruyea-The Toronto Star-August 26, 2010
The indisputable lightning rod for the cumulative frustration of disabled Canadian Forces veterans and their families has become the replacement of the lifetime monthly pension for military injuries with a one-time lump-sum payment.
Among the rapidly growing population of more than 680,000 serving and veteran Canadian Forces personnel, approximately 60,000…
By: Sean Bruyea- Winnipeg Free Press- Posted: 24/08/2010 1:00 AM
This past week was a difficult and emotional one for disabled veterans and their families. The outgoing Veterans Ombudsman, Pat Stogran, held what will hopefully be the first of many press conferences highlighting the shortfalls with which the Canadian bureaucracy treats (and mistreats) its men and…
CBC AS IT HAPPENS-August 18, 2010 Duration: 00:08:12
One Canadian war veteran put it this way: “When we need it most… we’re kind of hung out to dry and left on our own.”
He and other veterans gathered at a news conference yesterday to voice their disappointment that their ombudsman was losing his job.
Last night on As It…
A veteran is any Canadian who wore a military uniform; their average age is 54 and they are being marginalized
By Sean Bruyea-Special to Globe and Mail Update Published on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2010
As Canada attempts to remain buoyant after the recent economic flood, Ottawa’s rush to cut the cost of government has one very large but often silent group on the chopping block: disabled veterans and their families.