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I have nothing to hide:

Dave Stewart Sgt (retired) RCD & 8CH
Years of service Sept 1978 - Oct 2001 (23+)
Rehabilitation Training 2001-2004 at College and obtained my engineering Design & Drafting Technoligist diploma.
Currently working as a BC Hydro Construction Offier (all brain and no brawn).
work e-mail: david.stewart@bchydro.com

Zero'd out from SISIP by fall 2002 and file archived by fall 2003 due to the stupid request for a medical for something I was not receiving in the first place!

No offence to anyone but between me (lay person) and those in the know (or think they do) having more info in bio would lend to less he said, she said....thoughts?

Navrat, re your last. Correct!
Publisher VVi

Thanks , that info is good news and i eagerily await more info on this. Once again thanks. Also i heard they can lower your pension and i wonder if they use this perceived threat of lowering just so everyone goes along with the home visits and the other crap.?I went on the Royal Canadian Legion website Ontario command under veteran services and they have a shit load of info about pensions. They state the same but also states in the pension act if you have hit the age of 55 and have had the same pension rate for 3 or more years your pension rate stablizes and even if you improve they can not touch your pension by law. Also i heard if you have appealled your pension rate all the way throu the appeals and are successful it is very hard for VAC to lower your amount. Thanks again Navrat out

Navrat my initial conversation with VAC is that you can refuse an inhome and that they cannot withold your pension. VAC is working to get me documentation to post.
One thing though if your pensioned condition improves they can reduce your pension after complete medicals from both your doctor and a VAC doctor.
Will stay on top and make sure I get the documentation for you, for all of us.

Had my visit, she wanted to assure me that nothing was wrong with my file(ATI request) and that Vac is there to help. She mentioned that alot of things were going on in the department and a new section was going to be set up to administer those new benefits but nobodys going to see them until oct 2011. She also said that these new benefits are for post 2006 and probably will not apply to pension act veterans. She asked alot of questions and i just gave very limited answers. She said to me I don't feel like were clicking and i told her after everything that has been in the news regarding how vac uses personnel information would you tell them yours. She sat there with her mouth wide open. ha ha just another day dealing with big brother. Navrat out

Thanks for thinking of me teetian, I got her coming tomorrow.maybe she will have my Ati request with her. I am going to ask about those new benefits but any time I ask for anything it's always the same answer( u fall under the old system, u do not quaify) oh well bullshit sailing my way oh around 0930 tomorrow.navrat out

navrat wrote:Question, can you refuse a home visit???what r your rights and can they deny pension payment???

Still looking for an answer to your questions navrat.

With regards to the article on Sean Bruyea..
It's disturbing enough that VAC violated Sean and Tom Hoppe and who knows how many other advocates but the most disturbing piece of information in this article is this

"In another email, department officials discussed getting material to “our friends in the Veterans organizations” so they could counter what Bruyea was saying about the charter and other issues."

If these veterans organizations did recieve this email and agreed to VAC's demand it has to make one wonder are these Vet Organizations working for vets or are they Vet Organizations working for VAC?
I want to believe they did not recieve these emails but if they did and refused to co-operate with VAC why did they not go public with the email? Did they contact Mr. Bruyea? If it does come out they responded to VAC's request then they have some serious problems that they must be held accountable for.

Veterans Affairs ‘broken,’ says advocate concerned with privacy breach
David Pugliese, Postmedia News: Monday, October 4, 2010

Sean Bruyea is a veterans advocate. Veterans Affairs gave his personal and financial information to federal ministers and the case is now being investigated by the Privacy Commission.

Sean Bruyea may not seem like an enemy of the state but when he leafs through the 14,000 pages of documents that Veterans Affairs Canada compiled on him, he sometimes gets that impression.

Veterans Affairs bureaucrats monitored the Ottawa man’s media appearances and his advocacy activities before Parliament, in which he called for a better deal for the country’s retired and injured military personnel.

A top military officer at National Defence headquarters received a briefing about Bruyea’s activities. Veterans Affairs employees circulated details of Bruyea’s psychiatric reports and other health issues to political staff members and Conservative Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson and former Liberal veterans affairs minister Albina Guarnieri.

His confidential financial and medical files, held in Veterans Affairs computers, were looked at more than 4,000 times by 850 individuals over a nine-year period. Most of those occurred in the past four years, when he was most active in advocating veterans’ rights.

Thousands of emails circulated within the department about Bruyea.

Bruyea, a retired military officer who served in the first Gulf War, had become such a thorn in the side of Veterans Affairs that a senior bureaucrat wrote in March 2006 that it was time “to take the gloves off” in dealing with him.

“To be accused of being an enemy, that shocked me,” says Bruyea, who is pushing for an inquiry into Veterans Affairs. “There are bigger issues here, such as freedom of expression, that Canadians should be concerned about.”

The incidents regarding the alleged violations of Bruyea’s personal information are now being investigated by Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart. Stoddart is widening her investigation after determining there could be systemic privacy issues with the department’s handling of information.

Bruyea says after he found out about what was going on with his private information he went for help earlier this year to Conservative MP David Sweet, then the acting chairman of the Veterans Affairs committee. He says the MP claimed he was shocked about what was going on and would do something about it.

But in June, Bruyea received an email from Sweet’s office, noting that although the MP was still making inquiries and “He’s found, like many times in his life, that there are always two sides to every story.”

Sweet’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Bruyea, who suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome and depression, ran afoul of Veterans Affairs when he started asking tough questions about various veterans issues. A self-styled veterans advocate, Bruyea has written articles in numerous publications. He appeared on TV and went before Commons committees to advocate for a veterans ombudsman, complain about a clawback of veterans’ funds and highlight problems with the department’s service to retired military personnel.

BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM

One of the key issues Bruyea has raised questions about concerns the New Veterans Charter, legislation that outlines the benefits that new veterans are to receive.

Even though Bruyea wasn’t affected by the charter, he said he was concerned it was designed to save government money and shortchange injured soldiers, particularly those returning from Afghanistan.

The file that Veterans Affairs compiled on Bruyea reveals the full extent of the bureaucracy’s fixation with the 46-year-old. Bruyea has received 14,000 pages of documents concerning him but the department is still withholding another estimated 14,000 pages he requested 16 months ago under access-to-information laws.

Federal bureaucrats didn’t take too kindly to Bruyea’s attempts to highlight what he saw as problems.

“Folks, it’s time to take the gloves off here . . . it’s not that this person is spreading misinformation for his own purposes it is that this is . . . 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,” Darragh Mogan, then an executive director at the department, wrote in early 2006 after Bruyea questioned veterans benefits.

In late 2005, Ken Miller, head of the department’s program policy directorate, sent an email to those involved in providing medical and other services to Bruyea.

“I do not want to second-guess your clinical judgment in any way,” Miller wrote. “However, Mr. Bruyea has been and continues to be extremely active in his criticisms of our programs both present and future, of our efforts to provide him appropriate avenues to comment, and of our not replying to him on points raised.”

In May 2005, department official Jane Hicks wrote Miller to inform him Bruyea was inquiring about his medical travel reimbursements, which had not been paid yet. Bruyea also asked about medical travel claims, she reported to Miller.

Miller responded that Bruyea was continuing to oppose the New Veterans Charter.

Bruyea questions why department staff involved in providing services to clients were providing Miller, a policy official, with updates about his medical activities.

In another email, department officials discussed getting material to “our friends in the Veterans organizations” so they could counter what Bruyea was saying about the charter and other issues.

Bruyea raised his concerns with the department over the past several years about the inappropriate circulation of his private medical and financial information and that staff members were linking his medical treatment to his advocacy work.

Requests for interviews with those involved in Bruyea’s case were declined by Veterans Affairs. But in an email, department spokeswoman Janice Summerby said new measures were put in place in 2009 to safeguard veterans’ privacy. “We would like to assure your readers that protecting the privacy of our veterans is a priority for Veterans Affairs Canada,” she stated.

“Any person who is found to have knowingly accessed veteran information without authorization or disclosed veteran information to others who do not have a need to know is in conflict with the Privacy Act and appropriate action will be taken,” Summerby added.

Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn has indicated he is concerned with what happened in Bruyea’s case. He said veterans have his guarantee that their privacy will be protected.

Since Bruyea raised concerns about the New Veterans Charter, Afghan war veterans and others have spoken out against the legislation, arguing that it fails to take care of those who served the country.

“Veterans Affairs is clearly a broken department,” Bruyea said. “Renovations won’t do anything in that department: It has to be rebuilt.”
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen


Read it on Global News: Veterans Affairs ‘broken,’ says advocate concerned with privacy breach

Ex-soldier shared spotlight -- and bureaucracy's ire
Decorated Bosnia vet says he, too, was targeted over advocacy work
David Pugliese, The Ottawa Citizen: Monday, October 4, 2010

Sean Bruyea wasn't the only former soldier who raised the ire of Veterans Affairs bureaucrats for speaking out about how injured military personnel were being treated by the government.

Decorated war veteran Tom Hoppe was also in the sights of the department.

In 1994, Hoppe braved sniper fire in Bosnia to rescue three children who were being shot at by warring factions. In recognition of his conspicuous leadership and bravery under fire, Hoppe was awarded with both the Meritorious Service Cross and the Medal of Bravery by then governor general Ray Hnatyshyn.

But Hoppe's association with veterans advocate Bruyea was enough to raise concerns at Veteran Affairs Canada (VAC).

After Hoppe appeared with Bruyea at a press conference in 2006 highlighting questions about new benefits legislation for veterans, Darragh Mogan of VAC fired off an e-mail to various staff members. "Tom Hoppe seems as interested in iomplementation (sic) but when I see him standing by Sean Bruyea at the press conference I am uncertain what his intentions are," Mogan wrote in a November 2006 e-mail.

Mogan also sent out another e-mail about Hoppe's appearance at the press conference to other staff members. "At the news conference with Mr. Bruyea was Tom Hoppe ... food for thought about how reliable certain Vet Orgs will be in all this."

Another employee e-mailed that the deputy minister had just spoken to Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson, who wanted a response prepared to Bruyea and Hoppe's article that included "hard-hitting, frank language." That response was to be a priority for the department.

"I thought I was in a free country," said Hoppe after being informed about the VAC e-mails. "Isn't that what I went overseas to fight for?"

"Am I not allowed to speak out; am I supposed to just sit in my little room and not say anything?" he added.

Hoppe also noted that the bureaucrats who were fixated on him and Bruyea have since been proven wrong. Afghan war veterans are now speaking out about how the New Veterans Charter has failed to provide for those severely wounded in that conflict.

"It's interesting what those bureaucrats said then about me and now, four years later, the government is scrambling to fix the New Veterans Charter," Hoppe added.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen


Read it on Global News: Ex-soldier shared spotlight -- and bureaucracy's ire

Heh heh, yeah strange things happen when you ask for things...

I received a call as well, except mine wasn't from VAC, mine was from the OVO's Office where I guess my file was moved over to this Other person there from who
originally did my 1st complaint there, and she called and said she was going through my file, when she got a call or message that there was a ATI request and she had to send
my file back to VAC.. Apparently she was told it wouldn't take long and she could have the file back..

I kinda chuckled when she said that, it was funny, but when I was talking to her, I said straight out, I had this chat with the last guy who called and said I know there is Nothing you
can do, so, don't worry about it, my file is a nightmare, and I had been fighting with VAC for like 17 year's, and Umm, From my calls to your office, I alway's get the call returned
saying well there is nothing we can do for you.

So, I said to her, no rush, you can look or go through it, but Umm, it'll still be the same, same answer's as before, so... No worries, when ya get the file back then well whatever..

Heh Heh, But chaaa, with VAC last time I talked to them was 07/08 I don't get calls from them, I don't get any other mail from VAC, only thing I get regulary is 2 copies of Salute

So, I also asked her OVO office I said, I know my file is like 3 Inches here of what I have so How think was my file, and she replied it was 3 Volumes and each was about a inch so
thick.. So I dunno who's gonna have more information, me or them.. Find out when it gets here...

Question, can you refuse a home visit???what r your rights and can they deny pension payment???

Actually, it is definitely VIP forms that I receive. I am positive of this because SISIP denied my continued coverage past the 24 months. Actually last year, the form got lost in the mail, and someone from VAC called and did the questionnaire over the phone. I personally, think it's a waste of time, since I'm pensioned for Severe OA in my left knee and chronic pain syndrome with spondlyosis in my cervical spine, and I've had claims in for my right knee and lower back, so it's not likely that I'm getting up and doing a Newfie jig anytime soon. I'm only turning 39 at the end of the month and have had three knee surgeries and have two total knee replacement surgeries and a spinal decompression or fusion surgery to look forward to. I'm already maxed out the VIP coverage for lawn care and snow removal, so I really don't see the need to be annually re-assessed. If my needs grow, I know how to contact VAC.

Bigrex you said you get yearly forms from VAC about your degenerative discs?
Might you have been mistaking VAC for SISIP to keep your LTD?
I know I always had to do the annual paperwork for SISIP, I called it the walk of shame to my doctor.
If your symptoms are only getting worse get ahead of SISIP and apply for CPP disability. I know if CPP is approved it will claw away at your LTD with SISIP but since I've been on CPP disability I don't have to do the yearly paperwork because I don't owe them nothing,so they de-activated my file. But if I can go back to work they have to re-activate my case and help with all the benefits of schooling etc.