Death of Canadian soldiers concerns us all

THE TORONTO SUN

EDITORIAL: Soldier's deaths concern us all

In his first four months as Prime Minister, Stephen Harper has left no doubt about two things: 1) He strongly supports our military in its dangerous anti-terror, pro-democracy mission in Afghanistan; and 2) he has little patience with the media.

Regrettably, a misstep on the latter front -- his government's bizarre decision, apparently without consulting military families, to ban media from covering the return of soldiers' remains -- threatens to undermine his fine example on the former.

Like many Canadians, we have applauded Harper's leadership on the military file; his visit to Kandahar, his keen grasp of the importance of this mission. We also support his decision to return to tradition and scrap the practice, begun under the Liberals in 2002, of lowering federal flags to half-staff whenever a soldier is killed in combat.

That decision has historical precedent and is seemly and logical, given the grim expectation of more casualties to come. The media ban is anything but.

Media coverage of fallen soldiers to date has been respectful. Relatives told the Canadian Press they greatly appreciated it. At previous repatriation ceremonies, reporters have not interfered with them.

It's impossible to compare today's media or the situation to the last time Canadians were regularly being killed in combat 50 or 60 years ago. Those soldiers were generally buried where they fell. Recent peackeepers' deaths have been mostly ignored.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor has said the media are still welcome to cover soldiers' deaths from the base in Kandahar, although he well knows how restricted the media are from doing that. "It is a private and solemn event between the families and the Canadian Forces," he said of yesterday's ceremony at CFB Trenton. No, minister -- it is an event that concerns all Canadians, and one they want to share.

Worst of all, this ban feeds the ugly, anti-American criticism from the left that Harper is trying to imitate U.S. President George Bush -- from the way he wants to run press conferences to the way he ends his speeches with "God Bless Canada."

Those issues are trivial and so far seem to have helped Harper more than they've hurt. But this is different. This is about the relationship between our military, our government and all Canadians.

This is about democratic freedom -- the very thing we are asking our soldiers to fight and die for overseas. Lest we forget.

MICHAEL McCAFFERTY COMMENTS:

Prime Minister Harper this is about democratic freedom and a nation honoring those soldiers who die overseas. I do not agree with your decision to ban the media from covering the return of dead Canadian soldiers.