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Our countrie's leader never even showed up?

nonothing

Well-known member
Families welcome home fallen Canadian soldiers
Updated Wed. Apr. 26 2006 9:09 AM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

The bodies of four Canadian soldiers killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan arrived home Tuesday in a repatriation ceremony that was banned to all but families and officials.

Families lined up on the tarmac of CFB Trenton in eastern Ontario Tuesday evening to honour the flag-draped caskets of Bombardier Myles Mansell, Lieut. William Turner, Cpl. Matt Dinning and Cpl. Randy Payne.

The roadside bomb that took their lives was the single worst day for Canadian military combat casualties since the Korean War more than 50 years ago.

One by one, an honour guard removed the coffins from the military aircraft and carried them to waiting hearses. The bodies were later taken to Toronto for autopsies to be performed.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and Gen. Rick Hillier, the Chief of the Defence Staff, attended the ceremony, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean did not.

CTV's Roger Smith told Newsnet that he had contacted Jean's office. "I was told that these decisions are made in consultation with the government, and it's our understanding that the government felt it was better if she did not attend."

Media coverage of the event took place from a distance after Harper's Conservative government banned the media from covering any more repatriation ceremonies.

CTV's remote TV truck used a camera on top of its mast to capture images of the event from outside the fence at CFB Trenton.

The decision to ban the media mirrors a practice that is controversial in the United States and has prompted opposition critics to accuse Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government of trying to hide the human cost of Canada's mission in Afghanistan.

In the Commons Tuesday, Opposition leader Bill Graham said allowing the media to cover Tuesday's ceremony would let Canadians mourn the deaths and "ensure respect" for the fallen soldiers.

NDP leader Jack Layton also slammed the ban, saying it was "very important that the opportunity (to mourn) be shared" among all Canadians.

However, in an interview on Newsnet Tuesday, O'Connor said the government was "not denying media" coverage.

"This is a three-stage process. In the first stage, the bodies are loaded on a ramp at Kandahar where all the local soldiers are there to give their respects and the media is there to record the event.

"The second stage is when the bodies arrive here in Trenton, where for the first time the families come face-to-face with the reality that their loved one is dead. And this is a private moment of grief.

"The third stage is where you have memorial services and you have religious ceremonies at which time the families can choose to make them public to the media or not."

He said the policy wasn't intended to play down coverage of casualties in Afghanistan.

"We're not doing anything to suppress the news. We're trying to offer a private moment of grief for the family when the bodies return."

However, Jim Davis, the father of Corp. Paul Davis who was killed in Afghanistan last month, described the media ban as "a terrible mistake."

"They are definitely going the wrong way with this," he told CTV's Canada AM Wednesday.

"When I was there and I saw Paul come off the plane and the Governor General and all the other dignitaries were there, I remember thinking, wow, this is a beautiful moment.

"I was thinking of Paul. I thought, gee Paul, you'll be so proud to see the fuss that everybody's going through for you."

And Marie Leger, the mother of Sgt. Marc Leger who was killed in Afghanistan in 2002, also rejected O'Connor's reasoning.

"Whatever the Harper crew is talking about, it's not trying to help the families. Whatever reason they decided to do this for, it's not for us," she said.

"If people don't want to listen to this, they can turn their TV off. But by golly, I think Canadians are smart enough and tough enough to understand what's going on in Afghanistan."

By seeing coffins come off the plane, "they'll understand what war is all about," Leger said.

Other politicians

Meanwhile, at least two Tory MPs have come out swinging against their own government.

Ontario MP Garth Turner said he's been "besieged" by angry phone calls from constituents about the caskets and the government's new flag policy.

"There's a great deal of concern, confusion and uncertainty about why the government has adopted the position that it has," Turner told reporters Tuesday.

And eastern Ontario Tory MP Daryl Cramp, whose riding neighbours the Trenton military base where the soldiers will be returned, said media should have been allowed in for Tuesday's event.

"I think it's just unfortunate personally," he told local radio station CJTN.

However, Alberta Conservative MP Myron Thompson said if it were his son coming home from Afghanistan in a body bag he'd "shoot the first media" covering the arrival.

The debate took a deeply personal turn in the Commons Tuesday when Liberal MP Paul Steckle read a letter sent by Lincoln Dinning calling for the Peace Tower flag to fly at half-mast when soldiers die in the line of duty.

Dinning is the father of Cpl. Matthew Dinning, one of the four soldiers killed on Saturday. The letter was written before Matthew's death.

Flag debate

The move to keep the public from seeing images of flag-draped coffins follows Sunday's announcement that the Peace Tower flag will not be flown at half-mast to mark the deaths of the soldiers.

The Peace Tower flag will instead now only be lowered once a year -- on Remembrance Day.

In an earlier letter to The Globe and Mail, O'Connor claimed it was the previous Liberal government that broke with a long-standing tradition of not lowering Parliament Hill flags every time soldiers were killed.

The previous Liberals favoured a policy that "unfairly distinguished some of those who died in Afghanistan from those who have died in current and previous operations," O'Connor said in the letter.

However, back in October 2004, after submariner Lieut. Chris Saunders died in a fire on HMCS Chicoutimi, it was actually a Conservative MP -- James Moore -- who put forward a motion calling for flags on all government buildings to be flown at half-mast.

The motion was passed unanimously and up to now, has been policy ever since.

Flags lowered in the provinces

Meanwhile, flags at the Ontario legislature will be lowered to half-mast despite the federal government's controversial decision.

"I'll let the federal government make its own decisions," Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty told reporters Tuesday.

The flag on the front lawn of Queen's Park will be lowered on the day of each soldier's funeral.

Alberta Premier Ralph Klein also decided flags at the Alberta legislature should be lowered to half-mast.

Klein said Tuesday that he believed most Albertans would agree with his decision.

The flag atop Toronto City Hall was also lowered in honour of the four fallen soldiers.

Flags have also been lowered at the soldiers' home bases and at National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa.

A total of 15 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have died since 2002, when Canada first became involved in Afghanistan following the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime.

With files from CTV's Roger Smith and The Canadian Press
 

ranchwife

Well-known member
those soldiers who gave their lives deserve RESPECT!!! They deserve flags and to have flying flags lowered to half-mast!! :x I do not know what all is happening in Canada, but here in the states we have a group of protestors who are going from soldier funeral to soldier funeral and loudly protesting that soldiers' funeral....stating that "God hates the u.s. and this soldiers' soul is doomed!!"....simply makes me sick!! These families are grieving and to have the protestors standing within yards of the services is simply WRONG!! Give these brave men and women and their grieving families some respect and some peace!!!!! :!: :!:
 

Southdakotahunter

Well-known member
i tell ya this...if my brother came home in a bag and there were protesters at my bros funeral like that...good chance there would be someone else in a body bag and me in prison.
 

passin thru

Well-known member
When these protestors show up they need to be greeted with one of these manure sludge tankers that just happen to lose their load on these protestors. The bad thing is it would be a waste of good sludge.
 

Mrs.Greg

Well-known member
Damn right our soldiers deserve respect and I'm proad our Premier Klien went against his partys policy and lowered the flags in Alberta!I can understand the media being banned in a way family needs privacy BUT there were families that couldn't attend that were hoping to watch it! I'.m really confused by Harpers stand in all of this :? As for protesters I won't even go there..bunch of $%&#
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
There is a cerain percentage of our society that have lost all respect and reason. It's unfathomable what they are capable of doing. Protesting at soldiers funerals makes me ill. All soldiers are to be honored. That is, after all, the least we can do.
 

Disagreeable

Well-known member
This group going around and protesting at soldier's funerals are not protesting the Iraqi war. They are protesting homosexuality. They claim to be religious people who say the death of the soldier is God's judgment on the US for allowing homosexuals to live in this country. It's the anti-homosexuals on this board gone beserk. Link below:

"Anti-gay activists picketed at a soldier's funeral Tuesday morning in Ogden, though they were required to stand more than 500 feet away from the services because of a bill signed into law the previous afternoon.

The nine protesters, from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., later held a brief demonstration outside the Statehouse to show their anger about the new law. "The wrath of God is coming down on your heads," said Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of Westboro church leader Rev. Fred Phelps."


http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2006/04/19/news/iowa/c0ee535424cd888c86257155000d3447.txt
 

nonothing

Well-known member
why does it seem that nothing good comes from war?Has the life of a hero now become meaningless?Our leader absent for this homecomming is to me,unforgivable,if you send them over to soldier at least respect them when they come home after giving us thier highest price......To those that protest soldiers furnerals,i think its time you all take a look at yourselfs,for your actions are far past sickening....
 

CattleRMe

Well-known member
I think it is of great disrespect to not only the solider but also the family of the fallen hero when people disrupt funerals. I feel the cops should have the authority to pick people up who disrupt a mourning family on their day of mourning and finality. There should be a law against it.
 
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