After renaming a highway and a full court press by high command and the government to label each and every fallen Canadian soldier in Afghanistan a hero, in the end the Canadian military has shown they are just another parcel to be delivered. If it is more convenient or economic to jostle them to and fro for three hours to unload baggage and another 117 soldiers, so be it. The body of Karine Blais was returned to Canada Thursday but was forced to make a stopover in Ottawa before being delivered to her final destination, CFB Trenton, Ontario (for my American readers, Trenton is Canada’s Dover). Many are outraged at this turn of events. Those of us who have had friends and relatives in the Canadian military just smile. Getting a flight home was always a problem and the fear of getting bumped by some officer or his dog anywhere along the line a constant fear. At least she wasn’t put on a baggage cart with other luggage to switch planes as one report suggests happened in Rochester, New York with a returning American coffin. Of course they are not heroes in the United States. America has far too many casualties to do the whole hero thing for every one.
But only the Canadian army could screw up public relations to this level. First there is the waste of taxpayer dollars to convince us that Afghanistan is a great and noble cause. I guess this incident means that plan is history. It gets worse. This was a female soldier which adds to the public relations fiasco. But wait there is more, she was French serving with the Royal 22nd (Van Doos). I can’t wait to see reaction in the French sovereigntist press. Who is in charge of propaganda at National Defence Headquarters, Gilligan? In its imperious ineptitude, they have managed to offend just about every group one can think of. I am surprised they didn’t wait until it was a Black French woman with autism to pull this boner. I mean let’s piss everyone off at once and get it over with.
Don’t forget taxpayers. The part of this story that has raised no comment as yet that I can find is that the governor-general and minister of defense met the coffin at CFB Trenton. Hold on. Think about this. The coffin was on the ground for three hours in Ottawa. Ottawa is where the governor-general lives and the minister of defense works (and lives while he is working, if he works, I don’t know). So, let me get this straight. The minister and governor-general and the coffin all travelled at taxpayers expense to Trenton for what exactly, a photo-op? Did they all travel together? You can drive from Ottawa to Trenton in less than 3 hours maybe one of them could have made room in the back seat. Why do they even have to be there? Maybe the prime minister should be there too. Hell bring the whole freaking parliament. They love nothing better than a free trip. Here’s a thought. Take the coffin home, to the family. Shouldn’t they be the priority not protocol? Do we need an official “Death Camp”?
Military observers (cheerleaders) commented to news outlets that it was a minor controversy being blown out of proportion. I tend to agree. It was an insensitive decision but in overall terms the coverage in the mainstream press is probably causing more grief to the family than the incident itself. Military observers are worried though about their little traditions and customs being broken such as failure to lower the flags while the plane was on the ground in Ottawa. If it was me in the coffin they could shove the flag where the sun don’t shine for all I would care. Actually when I die the flags over municipal buildings in my town will be lowered to half mast because I once served on city council. Honestly, if they forget I couldn’t care less. I would imagine the whole dead thing will be bothering me more at that moment.
Where I differ from the hotties with the olive drab pompoms is, if you make out that she was a hero, you can’t say this is a minor controversy. Heroes are a special category of people or sandwiches if you come from New York. Therefore this would be by definition a serious controversy. But she wasn’t a hero. She was a young woman with her whole life before her who died under a foreign sky for geopolitical reasons she never fully understood. This is a tragedy; not the fall of Agamemnon. Calling her a hero implies her death was necessary; it served a greater good. That may assuage the consciences of the political masters who threw her life on the dust heap of history. But it will never fill the empty chair at family gatherings or give her parents grandchildren. Maybe if Canadians would come to grips with that we might have fewer tragedies and the Canadian military would have fewer opportunities to trip over its own braid.
