by matttbastard
Tuesday’s revelation that Sean Bruyea, a vocal critic of Veterans Affairs had his private medical records deliberately compromised by bureacrats in a brazen attempt to discredit his legitimate, extensive complaints about systemic deficiencies within the department has struck a nerve among Canadians across the nation. Rick Mercer’s tweet from yesterday morning succinctly sums up the outrage:
“Bat-shit crazy”? Canadians should be spitting mad — and appropriately chastened by the sobering realization that what happened to Bruyea could happen to any one of us. Add the steamrolling of civil liberties that occurred during the G20 summit in Toronto, and you have a Canadian government that, for all intents and purposes, is acting as if the citizenry represent a hostile entity, simply for the crime of expressing dissent.
In short, once again it seems all too apparent our elected representatives no longer believe that they should answer to the people.
In this specific instance, the naked disregard for personal privacy is unconscionable. The Privacy Commissioner should immediately investigate, and heads must roll, no matter how high up the food chain. But, in broader context, we see yet another example of the contemptuous culture of impunity among the political class that currently reigns supreme in Ottawa, perfectly encapsulated by the arbitrary way the PMO keeps the civil service under heel, and the disrespectful manner in which our Members of Parliament conduct themselves during Question Period.
Hard to defend the virtues of Canadian parliamentary democracy when our leaders act as if they are completely entitled to run roughshod over the people they deign to serve.
bastard.logic 
“you have a Canadian government that, for all intents and purposes, is acting as if the citizenry represent a hostile entity”
that’s the quote of the decade. It is reflected in so much that’s been done over the past few years – false imprisonments, bullying of public servants, limiting access to information, growing control over public servants, extreme message control, undermining of the public service, encouraging the us and them mentality between military and public, between law enforcement and public, assaults and threats on people who speak out and protest peacefully…
really good post.
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Thanks muchly for the kind words, grim as the conclusion may be. Nice to see you about the interwebs again. :)
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