Captain Nicola Goddard returns home
The Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, has backed down from an American-style policy that forbade the media from covering the return of the coffins of soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
It didn’t seem to bother Mr Harper when his critics in the House of Commons accused him of copying the US president, George Bush, in keeping footage of coffins returning to Canada off the nightly news, or when news organisations assailed him for restricting their access.
But grieving parents who criticised the government during their children’s funerals appear to have had an impact.
Parents like Tim Goddard, whose 26-year-old daughter Captain Nichola Goddard died during heavy fighting with Taliban guerrillas. During a eulogy at her funeral on Thursday, Mr Goddard said he was troubled by the Conservative government’s decision not to allow the press to cover the repatriation ceremony marking the return of her coffin to Canada. Ms Goddard was the 16th Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan since 2002 and the first female combat soldier to die in battle.
“I would like to think that Nichola died to protect our freedoms, not to restrict them,” her father said.
But, as Mr Harper may have realised, it is probably better for his re-election chances if Canadians don’t hear regular criticism of his government at the funerals of men and women who have sacrificed their lives serving in the country’s armed forces.
A “sensible” politician, Harper decided flip-flopping is the better part of valor.
Before people get going about funerals again let’s be clear that this is not coverage of funerals. It’s coverage of the military ceremony called Repatriation.
Repatriation is vital when our soldiers die in foreign lands. It is the only way to know that they came back home rather than being dumped in a pit and set on fire. And governments have been known to do anything to save a buck and face. Especially at the same time!
Amen name!
‘A “sensible” politician, Harper decided flip-flopping is the better part of valor.’
That is one of the things I hate most about politics: if you realize you have made a mistake and change course to fix it, you’ve flipflopped. I wonder how many stupid ideas we would be rid of if politicians were allowed to admit they were wrong.
Good news! Canadians are a lot less tolerant of this crap then we are.
Vince: Harper wasn’t just wrong. He was egregiously wrong! I was a parishioner at that very church were the eulogy was delivered. It is one of the most conservative Anglican churches in one the most conservative cities in the entire country. If Harper is being excoriated there, he’s in big trouble. Unlike an American President he’s elected from a district (riding) and has to win there too.
Well, it appears he followed my advice from the last time this came up (I wonder if he read’s Dvorak’s blog?) and listened to the soldiers, or at least their families – and he doesn’t need any more trouble with the press, who already hate him, because he hasn’t been playing by their rules on Parliament Hill.