Posts Tagged by Military
Canadian Soldiers Are Both Warriors and Peacekeepers
| 4/14/2009 | Posted by Patti under Afghanistan, Brave Canadians |
The godfather of Canada’s latest fallen hero seems to feel that his goddaughter died for nothing. He believes that Canada’s military should return to its “peacekeeping roots”. Canada’s roots are not in peacekeeping any more than his roots are English instead of French.
In the next few days the remains of Trooper Blais will land at CFB Trenton and like all those who arrived before her, she and her family will travel the Highway of Heroes. On one of those bridges I’ll be standing in my place as a Legion officer to the left of the Canadian flag flying in her honour, saluting her service and sacrifice. I’m assuming her godfather, Mario Blais, will be in one of the vehicles passing under us.
I’d like opportunity to sit down with him and have a quiet talk about the legacy that his goddaughter signed up to. I’d like to talk to him about how his claim (and he’s not the only one to do this) that Canada’s roots are in peacekeeping diminishes the memory of those warriors Karine followed in the footsteps of. I’d like to talk to him about how even peacekeeping missions were not without danger and death, in fact at times the danger was even more while our soldiers were denied access to weaponry to protect themselves. (more…)
Gutfeld Goes Too Far On Fox News
| 3/23/2009 | Posted by Patti under Ethics, Military, World News |
Fox News network is reportedly one of the highest rated in the USA. I’ve never been a particular fan of it, I’ve generally found a lot of their reporting more along the lines of a national gossip show, sort of like the broadcast version of the National Enquirer. I’m a Canadian, so for the most part, what passes as news south of the border isn’t really my business.
I’ve grown up with an awareness that a lot of Americans have very little awareness of their neighbour to the north. I can remember as a kid encountering other children in Algonquin Provincial Park, (that’s in Ontario) and them asking me what ‘state’ I came from. When I told them I lived in the Province of Ontario, the usual response was “what state is that in”?
I well remember how strange I thought those kids to be that they couldn’t fathom that they were standing in the province I came from. It was later I learned that ignorance came from a lack of information about this country and even less interest in knowing.
Back to Fox News. One of their so called news shows is called “Red Eye” hosted by Greg Gutfeld. For the most part Gutfeld and the cronies who participate on the show with him think they are rather funny in their perspective. Sort of Fox’s answer to the Leno or Letterman. (more…)
Murder Charge Debate
| 1/6/2009 | Posted by Patti under General |
The new year started off with a Canadian soldier serving in Afghanistan being charged with second degree murder in the death of an unarmed presumed insurgent during a battle in Helmand province that took place in October. Captain Robert Semrau, a member of the Operational Mentoring Liaison Team who train and work with the fledgling Afghan army was charged Dec. 31st. He’s in custody and being returned to Canada where he will face a hearing to determine if he will remain in custody until his case is heard.
We all need to remember that Captain Semrau like any Canadian is entitled to be considered innocent until proven guilty. Until the details of the charges and the alleged incident come out, we don’t need to be rushing to judgement.
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