Delay, deny and die: The Harper government and veterans
On May 10, 2012, with the expansive lawns of Parliament hill turning green under a warm spring sun behind him, renowned war artist Allan harding Mackay tore up four original pieces of his art.
A few days earlier, he had destroyed another piece of artwork on CBC TV’s Power & Politics. The artist, who has more than seventy works hanging in Canada’s war museum and other public collections, called it a “lone wolf” protest against the treatment of veterans by the Harper government. “I absolutely feel vets have been abused,” he told me. “They are given a one-time paycheque to deal with a lifetime of injury.”
It didn’t seem possible that the Conservative government could ever be criticized for its treatment of the military. During the Afghanistan War, it had promoted the highly successful “support our troops” campaigns, and many Canadians began wearing red on Fridays. Stephen Harper admired, and did not hesitate to deploy, Canada’s soldiers, sailors, and pilots. When he was a member of the Official Opposition, Harper had wanted Canada to go to war in Iraq, and had abjectly apologized to Americans after Prime Minister Jean Chrétien refused to join in the invasion. As prime minister, Harper committed Canadian forces to topple Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in March 2011, and was proud of the fact that a Canadian led the NATO mission. The Harper government had spent $850,000 on a November 2011 flyover to mark the end of the Canadian mission in Libya, where the only casualties were Libyan. Retired general Lewis MacKenzie told me, “The trouble with that victory fly-past in Ottawa, which reminded me of Bush and the ‘Mission Accomplished’ speech, is we don’t really know who we ended up supporting in the end. Now the warring has started again between the Libyan factions.”
READ MORE: http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/11/11/delay-deny-and-die-the-harper-government-and-veterans/
No comments:
Post a Comment