Oct 8/10 - Pt 1: Psychiatric Records

PART ONE

It's Friday October 8th.

Statistics Canada says the crime rate is dropping, but Public Safety Minister Vic Toews says Canada still needs bigger prisons.

Currently... statisticians have to go somewhere.

This is The Current.

Psychiatric Records - Sean Bruyea / Michel Drapeau

We started this segment with a clip from Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Canada's Minister of Veterans Affairs. And before that, Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The report they're talking about, of course, is from Canada's Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart. Yesterday she ruled that officials in the Veterans Affairs department broke the law by sharing the sensitive medical records of one of this country's veterans.

The veteran in question is Sean Bruyea. He's a retired intelligence officer. And his medical and financial records ended up in the hands of a whole lot of government officials as well as in briefing notes written for two former Veterans Affairs Ministers. Sean Bruyea has been a vocal critic of the government's policies on veterans issues.

And he has maintained his psychological records were being circulated as a way to undermine his credibility. Michel Drapeau is a Retired Colonel. He now teaches in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa. And he specializes in privacy issues. They were both in Ottawa.

We requested an interview with Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn. He wasn't available this morning.

Psychiatric Records - Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg knows what it's like to have his psychiatric files used for political purposes. He was a military analyst with the U.S. Defence Department. Then, in 1971, he leaked the now infamous Pentagon Papers ... the top-secret Pentagon study that showed the U.S. Government had intentionally misled the public about the war in Vietnam. Daniel Ellsberg was in Berkeley, California.

CBC does not endorse content of external sites - links will open in new window