The Ontario government’s decision to run an environmental awareness ad aimed at young people playing on their all to often use of the phrase “f*ck off” or “go f*ck yourself” has angered the opposition parties. Personally, I think if that is the worse they can come up with, it’s going to be a really boring election this fall.

The ads replace the offending word with ‘FLICK’ in reference to encouraging young people to turn energy burning lights off…. a lament I’ve heard kids told since I was one of them. If this campaign can get through to kids and they have some fun with it, then the opposition parties need to take the broom handle out of their derriers.

While the opposition parties are railing against the language, the fact is that kids are smart enough to know it is a play on words and not necessarily the government condoning the use of the original language. A lot of kids will appreciate the ad meeting them on their level rather than a ‘preaching’ level.

Who knows, maybe it could become popular enough to replace the cruder language with this… yeah right, dream on Patti.

The longer this detainee issue goes on, the worse Harper’s handling of it gets. His unwillingness to admit any error on his part is really making this drag on a lot longer than it needs to. At minimum the Minster of Defense needs to go. Some are hollering for Hillier’s head, well the agreement he worked out initially was not a good agreement, the question is, what was the Chief of Defense doing being authorized to do what should have been handled by either the Minister of Defense of Foreign Affairs?

Sometimes a strong leader needs to do their mea culpa’s and get on with fixing what’s wrong. Obviously Harper hasn’t learned that because he’s not a leader, he’s a bully. He is more engaged in trying to bully the opposition into silence than really giving a damn on fixing the problem. The release of the heavily blacked out report points accusingly at Harper’s office if not Harper himself knowing about this issue long ago. He did nothing.

What is going to suffer here is that the small majority of Canadians currently supporting the mission in Afghanistan are going to slide towards disapproval. Not because Canadian soldiers did anything wrong. In fact, the detainees claiming abuse are quick to point out that they were well treated by Canadian soldiers, Amir Attaran’s claims earlier this year notwithstanding.

Harper needs to move swiftly to resolve the situation not to try to bully others into silence, well except maybe his ministers who can’t seem to get their stories straight. Let’s see, we have:

O’Connor on Wednesday suddenly announcing a ‘new’ deal being worked out with the Afghans allowing Canadian oversight of detainees, announcing first that military officials would have the access and then when Hillier stated it was not an area of expertise for the military, O’Connor changed that to ‘government officials’.

The court jester of the Conservatives, Day first weighed in that some of those people who were detained were killers. Gee, ya think Stock? In a war when you capture detainees, it stands to reason that some of them have been engaged in killing. That doesn’t make it ok to abuse or torture, that behaviour makes you no better than the detainees.

Rosie Dimanno of the Toronto Star writes a piece about an Afghan dubbed ‘the Mad bomber’ who has been caught by the Canadian forces for making IEDs. She notes:

Could be in the Kandahar City jail, where detainees have long complained of torture inflicted by their Afghan custodians. Or, if the right bribe exchanged hands, if tribal loyalties were brought to bear, it could be that Omar has already been released.

Yet another reason why detainees should be under the direct oversight of Canadians or NATO forces while they train Afghans in the appropriate handling and treatment of prisoners. If detainees like this are being released then they are a clear and present danger to Canadian, Afghan and other NATO troops.

Meanwhile, yesterday Harper tells the Commons that the deal O’Connor claims has been made has not yet been formalized (so it’s not really a deal) and the court jester announces that Canadians have been accessing the detainees all along. Day must operate on a planet the rest of us haven’t caught up to.

Harper is going to lose this mission in the court of public opinion as long as the stink of this is attached to it. He needs to admit the problem and move to resolve it.

A month ago I was willing to cut Defense Minister Gordon O’Connor some slack in regards to the treatment of detainees after being turned over to Afghan authorities. I’m not now.

After misleading parliament either deliberately or through sheer ignorance of his own portfolio he traveled to Afghanistan and worked out an agreement with the head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, that they would inform Canada of any reports of torture of detainees handed over by Canadian troops.

Isn’t that a bit like asking the perp to report on the other perps? What is known about this person other than O’Connor thinks he can trust him? Considering the less than structured governmental situation there, O’Connor should have come up with a solution which saw Canadian troops in closer scrutiny of the fate of detainees until such time the Afghans could show they deserved to be trusted with them.

The Globe & Mail has written an in depth article about 30 Afghans who claim they were tortured after being turned over to Afghan authorities by the Canadians. (I’m linking to another blog who has copied the article as the link at the Globe will likely end up being behind their subscription wall) Now, there is no indication in the article over how long of a period these detainees had been captured or if any of the alleged abuse took place in the last month. That doesn’t make the allegations any less serious and O’Connor should have been aware of the severity when he made this rather tenuous agreement.

It is rare that I can even remotely agree with Taliban Jack Layton but while Harper and O’Connor are dismissing the reports of abuse as “allegations” and “rumours” this is a serious matter involving the treatment of detainees. While NONE of those interviewed reported any abuse by the Canadians, it is against international law for us to be handing over detainees to criminal treatment. Transfer of any detainees needs to be halted immediately and yes, this time round, O’Connor needs to go. So far, Harper is defending him.

Two Canadian professors have been garnering themselves lots of air and press time on this issue, Amir Attaran and Micheal Byers. While many of their points are valid in that the Geneva Convention prohibits turning prisoners over to abuse or torture and that doing so is tantamount to a war crime. There is no specific evidence that Canadian troops and indeed the command structure has knowledge of this happening.

It is interesting to note that Byers appears to have an axe to grind when it comes to Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan and in particular against General Rick Hillier. One that beating hell out of the truth to grind doesn’t seem to bother him, Daimnation has an interesting piece on an earlier torture of the trust by Byer.

As for Attaran, he is a lawyer and immunologist who has written extensively on a range of subjects. It is interesting to note that he has been both a paid and unpaid consultant for NGOs (non governmental agencies), most in siding with NGOs on this issue. The timing seems almost fortuitous that this issue is back before the public at the same time that a controversy between the Afghan government and NGOs is heating up over who knows best what is good for Afghanistan. The Afghans are not happy with NGOs tendency towards paternalism and self serving methods of keeping their recipients dependent on them.

Attaran’s call for Canada to build our own detention facilities in Afghanistan is not necessarily to be rejected out of hand. Doing so could solve several problems in the long run. NATO’s approach of engaging Afghans in taking part in projects in order to learn could be employed here. Locals could be engaged to build the centre and the Canadians could undertake to train Afghan security forces in the proper handling of detainees while keeping those same detainees under careful watch.

We’re training their army, their police, their justice system and even their bureaucrats. It seems pretty obvious that training the jailers how to treat detainees in a democracy is part of the puzzle that needs to be addressed.

I’ve been back to the ISAF Press Releases page and found the following from April 21-23:

50 women graduate from computer training classes
Fifty young women recently graduated from a 10-month long computer training program held at the Department of Womens’ Affairs. Donations from the HELP Non-Government Organization including teacher’s salaries, fuel, and computer maintenance as well as donations of computers by the Farah Provincial Reconstruction Team made the training possible with no cost to the students.

Herat PRT inaugurates school
The Herat Provisional Reconstruction Team (PRT) inaugurated a new $230,000 school April 18 here. The school also received $9,000 in furniture.

Checkpoint for Herat to Qala-I-Naw highway opens
The Herat Qala-I-Naw Highway checkpoint opened recently near Karizak. Attending the ceremony was Col. Pietro Luigi Monteduro, Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) Herat commander, Col. Abdul Latif, deputy commander of logistics section of Herat Security Headquarters, Mohammad Shafiq Fazli, head of Herat Security Headquarters, and local officials.

ISAF’s PRT Herat helps inaugurate 50 public projects
Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) Herat and the Ministry of Rural and Rehabilitation inaugurated 50 public projects valued at 8,830,000 Afghani ($179,365) in several districts. PRT Herat is part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

ISAF’s PRT Herat opens Shindand school
International Security Assistance Force’s (ISAF) Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) Herat recently opened a school in Shindand district.

Apparently as part of Dion’s agreement with Elizabeth May the leader of the Green Party he’s indicated an openness to looking at electoral reform. There isn’t anything wrong with looking at our voting system periodically to consider if the system is fair. Assuming that something needs to be changed is not good though.

Fringe parties and parties with relatively low support seem to be the ones which are engaged in whining that the electoral system is ‘broken’. These parties seem to think that because they have support spread thin across the country that they are entitled to a seat in Parliament and we should ‘fix’ the system. The system is only broken if we decide that representation in Parliament is based on national popular vote and not local voting.

The system we have has been historically based on local voting trends with each riding deciding their party of representation in Parliament. I have yet to see a convincing argument why we should have MPs who can’t garner enough local support to be elected to Parliament on their own merit.

Ontario is currently looking at so called ‘reform’ and has put forward a mixed proportional representation suggestion which we’ll be voting on in October. I’m not the least bit impressed on that suggestion. To date, any of the provinces where some form of tinkering with the process has been put forward, it hasn’t been accepted. Seems to me that we’re wasting time and resources on trying to fix what works.

I started to write an entry here to rail against the Liberals stupidity in demanding a hard deadline on our troops being in the forwarding operational (aka combat) areas in Afghanistan. My anger that they can’t seem to get it that no war is fought on a timetable and without security no rebuilding can happen. Then I went hunting to find out just what has the troops so committed to this mission that politicians are playing partisan politics over when it is the troops who are in harms way.

I went first to Army.ca, I visit that site often, usually lurking but appreciating being able to see the perspective of those in uniform (or formerly in uniform) who are so committed to service of my country. I found a discussion thread talking about the PRTs (Provincial Reconstruction Teams) and in it links to stories written by Marty Klinkenberg from the New Brunswick based Telegraph-Journal.

You can read his pieces, Close Enough to Feel the Heat and Soldiers ‘undoing the devil’s work’ to get a start on learning what the national mainstream media is by and large ignoring in their drive to present a defeatist front on the hard work our men and women in uniform are doing in service to Canada. The links are going to open in new windows as will all the links in this article. I’d really like you read them, if you care to learn the other side of the story.

It was from an article at The Torch about a relay race in Kandahar that the media hadn’t reported on that I hit the motherlode so to speak. The link was to the ISAF site, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force site. There on the Press Release page I found links to stories we’re all too familiar with, the deaths in Afghanistan. What I also found were links to stories that could fill media reports if reporters cared to followup on them and report some good news instead of trying to create a sense of defeat in this war.

While not all the links were about stories Canadians were directly involved in, we have to remember that with Canadians doing heavy lifting in the combat end of operations in Afghanistan and the security they are part of creating, these other stories become possible. And yes, progress is being made. Here are some highlights just from this month alone:

April 1 — US forces deliver school supplies to a girls technical school in Kandahar City.

April 2 — German PRT (provincial reconstruction team) starts project in Kunduz City, Kunduz province to build a girl’s secondary school to include a section for teacher training.

April 2 — Camp Shirzai near Kandahar a class of 86 Afghan National Army members complete a course towards becoming non-commissioned offers. As NCO’s they will be training future Afghan National Army recruits, another vital step towards independence.

April 5 — A girl’s school adjacent to a boy’s school opened in Lakhabie, Ali Abad District, Junduz Province. A German PRT initiated the project after learning girls were about to be ousted from the improvised shelter they had been using near the school by the local elders.

April 8 — Canadian Forces and RCMP personnel have completed the training of 600 Afghan National Police.

April 10 — In an area where Canadian troops were fighting last year, 500 Afghans of all ages took part in a 10km road race in Kandahar City organized by the Kandahar PRT (Canadians).

April 11 — Convoys move supplies into Sangin District Centre in order to start building infrastructure needed for the long term presence of Afghan National Security Forces. This would have been unthinkable months ago.

April 14 — Shura held at Kandahar International Airport draws 20 tribal elders to discuss security issues. The elders state there has been an increase in security throughout Kandahar Province.

April 16 — As the result of improved security in Helmand Province growth and development is beginning to take place. Where local needs are identified ISAF draws up plans and then hires local Afghans to execute the projects giving Afghans a firm hand in their country’s rebuilding and reducing the motivation for young men to join up with the Taliban.

April 17 — Projects are underway in the Daman District of Kandahar Province to repair, upgrade and expand canal systems providing employment for young Afghan males and a much needed supply of water for agriculture.

April 18 — The World Bank publishes a report on the progress of health care in Afghanistan since 2001 (the year the Taliban were ousted) when the country had some of the worst health indicators in the world. Since then, with the increasing security allowing upgrades and additions to medical facilities almost 6 million Afghans now have access to primary medical care — many for the first time.

April 18 — A class of 31 students graduate the basic course towards being Afghan National Police officers from Bamyan Regional Training Centre including 8 female recruits. A New Zealand initiative to increase the number of female recruits has now brought the number of females up to 12 from the 4 when they first arrived last October. Female members of the New Zealand PRT helped to train the original 4 who then undertook to recruit and train others.

April 18 — US servicemen deliver school supplies to a school in Kandahar. The school didn’t exist under the Taliban. It now teaches 500 students including 270 girls from grades 1-11.

April 19 — In response to a request from the Ghowr Province Agriculture Department 3,000 fruit trees have been delivered for planting by local Afghans.

Seems to me it is LONG past time for the media and more importantly politicians to start telling the whole story. I intend to be watching that ISAF site in the future. Check back often.

Angels descending, bring from above echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
– Blessed Assurance, Fanny Crosby, 1873

Three days have passed since the murders of 32 people at Virginia Tech. Several times I have sought to put fingers to keyboard to share some thoughts about that awful day and several times I have moved on to other things unsure what I wanted to share. This morning, as I was preparing Sunday’s service bulletin, the words above start to shape my thoughts into some sense of order.

As I listened to them on the mp3 I was reviewing for the service, I was able to visualize those 32 lives ended too soon, as their shattered bodies breathed their last, the souls rising up to be embraced in mercy and love by a power greater than ourselves. For me, there is some comfort in that image.

The words come from the second verse of the hymn “Blessed Assurance“, written by Fanny Crosby to a tune written by another member of her church, Phoebe Knapp who wrote over 500 hymn tunes in her time. Fanny Crosby wrote some 8,000 hymns during her life, more than any known composer. She was also blind from a very early age.

Sitting hundreds of miles away from that scene, which has been repeatedly brought into my home through the TV and the internet, it is almost unimaginable what impact the actions this young person has imposed on the lives of the survivors and their families. For the survivors the broadcasting of both his image and voice (which few had ever heard) has to be just wrenching.

I remember vividly I was just around their age when I was the victim of an armed holdup by a person wearing a balaclava. Just 2-3 days later I went to answer the door of the house and looked through the peephole to see someone standing there in a balaclava (it was a bitterly cold January day).

I’ve never forgotten the spasm of fear that shot through me. While that was an event with a threat of violence attached, it was nowhere near the cold blooded terror or horror that survivors would be associating with the image of this shooter. Local papers near Virginia Tech have not prominently carried photos of the shooter, although with the massive coverage this has received, they can’t really be avoided.

The story of the class of the Canadian teacher, Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, brought into sharp focus just how determined, methodical and devoid of any sense of conscience the shooter had to have been. Of the 22 students registered in her class, it appears 12 were in attendance on Monday, only two have survived. It is also the classroom where the shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, finally, mercifully ended his killing spree by killing himself.

Unless you have walked in the depths of darkness that a deeply depressed, suicidal person has walked it is difficult to even begin to remotely comprehend what drives the painful desire to commit suicide. Even those who have walked there, will struggle to even begin to comprehend what drove those thoughts and feelings to morph into the drive to not only destroy himself but to take dozens of other strangers with him. It’s mind numbing.

I find a lesson to learn from this, there are probably umpteen lessons to learn but this one we can all put to use. Once again, the bits and pieces of information that have come from this shooter while not particularly coherent or articulate it is not hard to see the voice of a person who has experienced bullying. That in no way is an excuse for him any more than having been abused is an excuse for a pedophile to abuse children.

It does remind us in the starkest of terms that those people who you see as on the fringes, or different, or ‘weird’ do have feelings, they feel the hurt of being teased, shunned or bullied. When it goes on too long and the mind snaps the multitude of little hurts contribute to the stark horrors of what was experienced at Virginia Tech and that pain wont go away any time soon.

If I pause for a moment to be kind to someone I might have previously been less kind with, I’ll never know if I made a difference to that person, but I will know I will have not added to a burden of hurt for another person.

Let’s bring from ourselves “echoes of mercy, whispers of love”.

They shall grow not old, as we who are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We will remember them

In memory of our fallen Canadian:

Anthony Klumpenhower – special forces member –Afghanistan Apr 19, 2007

Always Caring — Always Canadian — Never Defeated

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