There are many cases of privacy violation at Veterans Affairs. Those that have gone public have two things in common: they have all spoken out about VAC policy and they are all veterans. Some can prove the Minister was given their information. Some can only prove that Ministerial staff was reading their files. Why is this happening?
We all have unlimited responsibility to look after for those who serve when those damages occur. They agree to take personal damage up to, and including, giving their lives in service to us all. Yet we have been evading this responsibility for decades. Perhaps a century. If you ask around, you will find that military and police services are still largely family businesses -- the children of members will likely enlist themselves. Our recruitment forecasts count on that. So what happens when we short-change the veterans?
In a blog post, NDP MP Irene Mathyssen claimed the government isn't doing enough to support veterans. Yet while we have doubled the number of Operational Stress Injury (OSI) clinics, Mathyssen's party voted against this measure. I find it difficult to reconcile the idea of calling for more support while voting against those initiatives.