Privacy - The 2 Year Rule on Document Destruction

I received a letter yesterday from the, Senior Privacy Investigator. The reason I heard from him was to update me on lost documents.

These documents that went missing, proved my VAC case. VAC looked for all the relevant documents from DND but never quite got around to asking me if I thought they had everything needed before application.

I realize that this will be a shock to you all but, my first application was refused due to lack of evidence. The less than detailed rejection letter came back with no information as to what they looked at.

I quickly realized that the person forwarding in the information, or lack there of, had overlooked a few detailed documents. I compiled a 100+ page filler to VAC. This small mountain of documents seemed to have not been available to VAC. Two documents missing were somewhat insignificant. The first was from the CDS and the other from the Queen. Hidden and unavailable I presume.

I thought I would file a complaint with the Privacy Commission reference these missing documents (CDS & Queen ). Not having these for my initial application, caused a significant delay in myself, receiving much needed treatment ( Approx 1 year delay ).

Getting back to the letter from the privacy commission, they state that Grievance and Harassment files are retained for 2 years, then destroyed ( IAW Government Retention Policies ). Some RCMP members might want to look into this because they destroyed my documents, I hope they didn't destroy yours.

My final entry for today is reference the documents written by the CDS and on behalf of the Queen, reference myself and my treatment within the military as it pertained to a Base Commander. DND found only an unsigned draft of the CDS's letter and nothing about that Queen person. So to recap.

We don't keep records of letters sent from Canada's top General. Especially if they pertain to the conduct of a Base Commander. They probably have nothing on Russ William's either.

Now that Queen person that nobody seems to be concerned about. Her Letter to me reference the treatment I received was not able to be located by anyone. Shame how these things just slip away.

The letter back I received from the Privacy Commission indicated that proudly DND had released an unsigned draft copy of a CDS letter to me. This lead me to think that in some way that this was somehow significant. An unsigned draft letter is garbage and treated as such. They destroyed all the meaningful stuff after two years but, they kept this trophy of an unsigned draft letter. I am getting used to the responses from the Government reference anything of substance. I therefore knowing by experience that the type of letter I received from the Privacy Commission would be, undetailed as it was. I sent a request to the Governor General about this situation and the missing documents from that Queen person. I hope he has better luck than the Privacy Commission did on their first try.