TAYLOR: Harper’s bluster doesn’t pass muster
Last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper continued to wage his war of words against Russian President Vladimir Putin, assisted by the usual media stooges who seem intent on beating war drums rather than producing objective reporting.
A headline in the Globe and Mail proclaimed, “Harper ramps up Canada’s NATO forces to combat Putin’s ‘menace.’” That seems like pretty heady stuff until you read through the entire article to realize the actual announcement involved Canada sending 75 soldiers to attend the annual United States-led Saber Strike exercise in Poland.
This is in addition to the six CF-18 fighter planes lovingly dubbed “Canada’s six-pack” by the tub-thumpers that were sent to Campia Turzii air base in Romania on April 29. Despite the muscular-sounding nickname, this handful of aging aircraft is deployed without munitions and with a mandate to conduct a training exercise with the Romanian air force. While it is true that they are now based closer to Russia than they were at CFB Bagotville, they are still nowhere close to the current crisis in eastern Ukraine.
Likewise, the government’s claim that HMCS Regina has been deployed in response to Putin’s “menace” and “expansionism” also requires a little more media scrutiny. As a Halifax-class patrol frigate, Regina is primarily an anti-submarine vessel with a limited surface-to-air defence capability. It is presently sailing about in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, some 1,500 kilometres from the Crimean Peninsula, which is in the Black Sea. To claim that the 200-member ship’s company is bolstering NATO’s hand in the showdown with Putin is absurd.
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