Remembering the fallen. Part 2

In part 1 I offered the suggestion that people who were busy, uncomfortable or simply found it inconvenient to attend a Remembrance Day event should do what makes them feel comfortable. Certainly no thinking veteran will find fault in any decision along that line, keeping in mind that any and all are welcome at cenotaphs across the country.

I also included a sketched CV, so I won't bore you with it again.

This year, as in all years since 1919, a particular "class" of person will most certainly attend: politicians. (Please understand that I want to spit when I say or write that word).

The Canadian political class of the 21st century attends Remembrance Day services for one reason: optics. While there may be a numbered few who actually hold attendance at such an event a matter of sincere personal feeling, the majority, a huge majority, do not. They are there to be seen amongst the crowds, near the uniforms and to gain political traction. Too often they are offered a place of prominence or worse, a speaking part.

That has veterans rankled this year like no other year in the past. I have spent the past year communicating with thousands of my fellow veterans. I can count on one hand the number of those veterans who believe the political class of this country has any interest whatsoever in the welfare of veterans. When the question of the duty of the federal government to live up to its obligations to veterans is brought up there is one resounding answer: Failure.

The Harper government, for all its bellicose "support the troops" rhetoric, has been responsible for the worst treatment of veterans in the modern era. Denial of pensions, clawbacks of benefits and the perpetuation of lawsuits to quash legitimate claims by the wounded are just a few of the abuses heaped upon veterans by Stephen Harper and his ministers. Harper has publicly smeared veterans who attempted to voice their complaints, all the while making sure he gets a photo op amongst "the troops". And, if all that didn't make veterans mightily angry, Julian Fantino, the newly-minted minister of veteran's affairs, sealed the deal and generated pure rage when he tried to redefine a veteran to include himself.

Julian Fantino is not a veteran. Stephen Harper, who took it upon himself to lecture reporters on the conditions in the trenches at Vimy Ridge, has not one day of service. But you can make book on the fact that both of them will show up on Remembrance Day expecting a position of prominence and a speaking part.

There are approximately 900,000 living armed service and RCMP veterans in this country, a vast majority of whom find themselves enraged at the actions and words of Harper, Fantino and, to be completely frank, politicians generally. The current Veteran's Charter which is responsible for hacking disability benefits to veterans was introduced by the Liberals, supported by the NDP and implemented by the Harper Conservatives. No party is clean.

So, while I have heard a loud suggestion that politicians should stay away from Remembrance Day ceremonies and I understand the sentiment, I would disagree. No one should be refused attendance.

However, they should take great care as to how they appear. A place at the back of the crowd would be most appropriate but that's not likely. What is not appropriate though is a place in the front or on a podium. Given their abysmal treatment of veterans they would do well to keep a very low profile. If they intend to deliver a wreath they should do so in absolute silence.

And, if they think a speaking part is due them because of their high office they should be aware that a movement is in the works to have groups of angry veterans turn their backs on them.

Right now an elected school board trustee would have a tough time gaining political traction with veterans and it gets worse as one works up the political back-stabbing pole. Given the recent behaviour of prominent politicians most veterans have one wish for the Canadian political class: A plague on all your houses; you have broken faith with us. 




The print version is here.


Thanks to Alison for the video link.

From whence the power flows

DAMMIT JANET! is keeping a weather eye on the emerging pack of Conservative anti-choicers intent on imposing their authoritarian religious will on the women of this country. Go read and then return.

The article referred to in fern hill's post comes from the uber-propagandist, anti-woman, Lifesite. What makes it interesting is that it is not breaking news. Lifesite has simply regurgitated this older report from The Windsor Star in an apparent effort to keep up some momentum which would have been lost over the holidays.

What makes it more interesting is that this is now the fourth nutball Conservative to have yapped off in less than two weeks about "re-opening" the abortion debate.

To which Harper replies that it won't happen while he's prime minister.

There is absolutely no reason to believe him.

Harper's party is manufactured from an alliance of the worst of political outcasts. Refugees from former Ontario premier Mike Harris' "common sense revolution" to evolution-denying, thought-vacant, science-is-too-tough-so-it-can't-be-true christian freaks. Then Peter MacKay, after lying to his membership, folded the rotting corpse of the Mulroney-shredded Progressive Conservative party into the batter. From all of this, the Harper party built its base.

Charles P. Pierce recently described the current day Republican Party in the US thusly:

... nativist hooligans, anti-intellectual crackpots, Christomaniacs, and the sad detritus of American apartheid ...

A description which, with only the slightest adjustment, would serve to describe the alliance of refuse which makes up the Harper party. Lee Atwater*, if he were alive today, would be proud.

And now Harper has a problem. His alliance of feces-flinging knuckle draggers got him what he wanted and they're starting to call in some markers.

While the Harperites were stuck in a minority in parliament he could easily shut them up on the premise that such extremist ideological public statements, unpalatable to most Canadians, would not only deny them a future majority but might cost them their tenuous minority in any future election.

Now, Harper possessing the power he craved, and the position from which to expand it, will either have to deliver or pay an even greater price - division from within and a dilution of his personal hold on power. He can no longer silence the freaks with the threat of an electoral loss. Re-election doesn't come up for 36 months and the poo-chuckers have been sitting on their hands for six years. They are, if nothing else, an impatient lot who will demand the reward they were promised or think they were promised for giving Harper his dream.

Harper has already proven he is prepared to drive legislation with only ideology at the wheel. He's also demonstrated a keenness for jack-booting his legislative agenda into law.

Now, he's going to kick it up a notch and make sure you can't hold his party of rejects to account for their words. From Frances Russell:

When Parliament rose for the Christmas break, there were signals the Harperites were planning to go where no government has gone before and place all business conducted by parliamentary committees -- or at least all potentially embarrassing business -- behind closed doors.
...

The government is especially sensitive about discussions on social issues such as abortion, capital punishment and official languages, Comartin says. He warns that if the government is able to keep everything behind closed doors, it can, given its majority on each and every committee, ensure committee reports will be "totally opaque" so that the public will never know what was said or what specific action was taken.

The only reason you would want to hide all that away is because you've got something to hide. And the reason the government is so sensitive is because they know it won't wash with most Canadians.

Clearly, abortion is back on the table. Harper is feeding you the big lie.


* Lee Atwater was the repugnant individual who, when he wasn't smearing or generating outright lies about opposition candidates during US presidential campaigns, became known for building the base of the US Republican party with southern anti-black racists. His legacy in the US Republican party lives on.