Eugene Forsey Liberal

Friday, September 19, 2008

Hello HQ!!!

Peacekeeping vets fume at Tories for denying them their medals

Are you there, HQ? Umm, narrative, narrative, narrative!!!

Get military-identified on case: Iggy, Pratt, Manley, etc.

posted by Eugene Forsey Liberal @ 10:55 AM  

2 Comments:

  • At 5:34 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Liberals accuse Tories of picking and choosing veterans' sacrifice in medal controversy (FedElxn-Liberals-Meda)
    Source: The Canadian Press
    Sep 19, 2008 17:15

    REGINA _ Liberal Leader Stephane Dion accused the Conservatives on Friday of picking and choosing which veterans deserve recognition.

    At a campaign stop in Regina, he called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to extend eligibility for the Sacrifice Medal to peacekeepers, as well as those who fought in Korea and the Second World War.

    Some veterans are outraged that the medal, introduced on Aug. 29, will only recognize soldiers who fought in Afghanistan since Oct. 7, 2001.

    A spokesman for Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Thursday that the government wasn't prepared to revisit the question of a cutoff date in the middle of an election campaign.

    Dion called the date ``arbitrary.''

    A veteran wounded by shellfire in Sarajevo in 1995, retired captain Fred Doucette, wrote to Harper last month, also urging the prime minister to change his mind.

    The criticism stings for the Conservatives because they have carved out a reputation of standing behind veterans, going to the extent of featuring old soldiers in their pre-campaign television ads.

    Dion said the contradiction between Tory words and Tory deeds is disappointing and unacceptable.

    ``Anyone who has served in the Canadian military and sacrificed their health or their lives in our service deserves our unqualified respect,'' Dion said in a statement.

    ``We owe it to these brave Canadians to whom we owe so much to elevate this issue above campaign politics. I'm sure all Canadians would support a decision to fix this mistake immediately instead of waiting for the end of an election.''

    The criteria for the Sacrifice Medal also excludes some soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan _ much to the dismay of their families.

    The honour is given to soldiers who were wounded or killed by ``hostile fire'' and that measure alone means as many as 13 of the 97 soldiers who've died in Afghanistan won't qualify.

    Dion says that should be rectified as well.

    INDEX: DEFENCE INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL
    © 2008 The Canadian Press

     

  • At 6:36 PM, Blogger Eugene Forsey Liberal said…

    I wrote this short post at 10:55am, before going off to work on David Pratt's campaign, and "Anonymous" posted this CP story at 5:34pm, the CP story dating from 5:15pm, the LPC press release a few minutes earlier. This is an example of the kind of small useful effect a person can have, in addition to larger things.

     

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