OTTAWA (CP) - The Conservative government has taken steps to keep the public from seeing images of flag-draped coffins when fallen soldiers are returned home from Afghanistan.
For the first time since the Afghan mission began, the government will shut down an Ontario airfield when the remains of four soldiers killed over the weekend are returned Tuesday. Government officials said the new directive is permanent.
It echoes a policy attempted by the Bush administration. Concerns that a stream of images of coffins draped in the Stars and Stripes would diminish public support for the Iraq war prompted the White House to impose a publication ban.
With Canadian public opinion evenly divided on the Afghan mission, it appears the federal government may have similar political concerns.
The move comes after Canada suffered its worst one-day combat loss since the Korean war, when four soldiers were killed last weekend in a roadside explosion.
Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor insisted politics had nothing to do with closing the Trenton air base for Tuesday's return ceremony.
"I have made the most appropriate decision during this most emotional time for the families," O'Connor said.
"The repatriation of our fallen soldiers back to Canada is a private and solemn event between the families and the Canadian Forces."
Senior government officials said the decision to restrict access to CFB Trenton was O'Connor's.
But other government sources said the edict came directly from Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office, and that defence brass were ordered to keep the media at bay.
Canada's death toll in Afghanistan has reached 16 since 2002, and Conservative government officials fear the mounting casualties could present a political problem.
The government took a pounding from the opposition Monday for ending the Liberals' recent practice of lowering Parliament Hill flags when soldiers are killed.
Liberals called the move "callous." And they said the decision to restrict viewing of soldiers' caskets was unprecedented for a Canadian prime minister.
"He has lifted a page from the Bush book and borrowed the Bush modus operandi," said Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh.
"Dare I say president Harper is following in the footsteps of President Bush?
"(He wants the tragedy) out of sight, so that possibly it might remain out of mind."
MP Robert Thibault, who supports the Afghan mission, said an increasing body count is no reason to stop lowering the Peace Tower flag or shield Canadians from the human cost of the conflict.
But Conservative MP Brian Pallister said the situation in Afghanistan has changed, and so must the government response.
Canadian soldiers are "closer to the action" that at any time in recent years, he said, and the impact of casualties returning home must be taken into account.
"That really is the challenge in this: how do you give credit and honour those who made a sacrifice, on the one hand, without hyping the fear of more casualties in the future in the minds of Canadians?"
On the weekend, retired major general Lewis MacKenzie predicted "an adjustment in the political reaction" given the increasingly likelihood of more frequent casualties.
"You don't have to have the entire symbolic leadership of the forces and the nation for the fatalities coming back," said MacKenzie, a one-time federal Progressive Conservative candidate.
"I don't know how you scale back the media," he added.
http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News/NationalNewsArticle.htm?src=n042504A.xml
All hail Governor Harper and President Bush.
The conservatives can do all they want but I think they are going to fall on Afghanistan if they continue down this route.
For the first time since the Afghan mission began, the government will shut down an Ontario airfield when the remains of four soldiers killed over the weekend are returned Tuesday. Government officials said the new directive is permanent.
It echoes a policy attempted by the Bush administration. Concerns that a stream of images of coffins draped in the Stars and Stripes would diminish public support for the Iraq war prompted the White House to impose a publication ban.
With Canadian public opinion evenly divided on the Afghan mission, it appears the federal government may have similar political concerns.
The move comes after Canada suffered its worst one-day combat loss since the Korean war, when four soldiers were killed last weekend in a roadside explosion.
Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor insisted politics had nothing to do with closing the Trenton air base for Tuesday's return ceremony.
"I have made the most appropriate decision during this most emotional time for the families," O'Connor said.
"The repatriation of our fallen soldiers back to Canada is a private and solemn event between the families and the Canadian Forces."
Senior government officials said the decision to restrict access to CFB Trenton was O'Connor's.
But other government sources said the edict came directly from Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office, and that defence brass were ordered to keep the media at bay.
Canada's death toll in Afghanistan has reached 16 since 2002, and Conservative government officials fear the mounting casualties could present a political problem.
The government took a pounding from the opposition Monday for ending the Liberals' recent practice of lowering Parliament Hill flags when soldiers are killed.
Liberals called the move "callous." And they said the decision to restrict viewing of soldiers' caskets was unprecedented for a Canadian prime minister.
"He has lifted a page from the Bush book and borrowed the Bush modus operandi," said Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh.
"Dare I say president Harper is following in the footsteps of President Bush?
"(He wants the tragedy) out of sight, so that possibly it might remain out of mind."
MP Robert Thibault, who supports the Afghan mission, said an increasing body count is no reason to stop lowering the Peace Tower flag or shield Canadians from the human cost of the conflict.
But Conservative MP Brian Pallister said the situation in Afghanistan has changed, and so must the government response.
Canadian soldiers are "closer to the action" that at any time in recent years, he said, and the impact of casualties returning home must be taken into account.
"That really is the challenge in this: how do you give credit and honour those who made a sacrifice, on the one hand, without hyping the fear of more casualties in the future in the minds of Canadians?"
On the weekend, retired major general Lewis MacKenzie predicted "an adjustment in the political reaction" given the increasingly likelihood of more frequent casualties.
"You don't have to have the entire symbolic leadership of the forces and the nation for the fatalities coming back," said MacKenzie, a one-time federal Progressive Conservative candidate.
"I don't know how you scale back the media," he added.
http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News/NationalNewsArticle.htm?src=n042504A.xml
All hail Governor Harper and President Bush.
The conservatives can do all they want but I think they are going to fall on Afghanistan if they continue down this route.
