The (Continuing) Audacity of O'Connor and Hillier

When it comes to transparency with this current department of defence, the only area where it truly fits that bill is in its exercise of political propagandizing.

Following last week's hullabaloo surrounding accusations that O'Connor had not, in fact, had his department pay for full funeral expenses for all soldiers - as he said he had on the record in the house (ie. he lied, again) - it seems that the Cons' political advisers have decided to try to divert attention away from that ugly mess by now proclaiming 2007 to be 'the Year of the Military Family'. What a slap in the face. Count on them to act like an abusive spouse who thinks they can make it all better if they just bring home a bouquet of flowers the next day. That's what they do. They're opportunists and manipulators.

And to kick it off, who else but O'Connor's military chief of defence staff turned political sockpuppet, Rick Hillier?

Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier says it's only fitting to celebrate the spouses, children and parents of people in uniform given the sacrifices that they make each day.

"They are the strength behind the uniform," Hillier said in a statement.

You just want to give Hillier the proverbial (and, of course, non-violent) smack upside the head, don't you?

As for the Dinning family, suddenly the money's on its way to cover their son's funeral costs (not that the public humiliation caused by this entire mess had anything to do with that development, of course):

On Thursday, the chief of military personnel phoned the parents of Cpl. Matthew Dinning to apologize a day after they held a press conference to plead their case.

Rear-Admiral Tyrone Pile called the corporal's father, Lincoln Dinning, and promised to send a cheque to cover the difference between what the funeral cost and what the military paid, as well as to pay for outstanding grief counselling bills.

"He apologized profusely for the situation and said it got stuck in the system and it shouldn't have," Dinning told CTV's Question Period co-host Craig Oliver on Sunday.

"And, as they say, the cheque is in the mail."

Right. And if you buy that excuse you're either a) a Conservative b) living in denial or c) both (the most likely answer).
 

Another Canadian Killed in Afghanistan

Via the NYT:

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Five Americans and two other soldiers died when a Chinook helicopter was apparently shot down Wednesday evening in Afghanistan's most volatile province, a U.S. military official said. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force said other troops rushing to the scene were ambushed and had to call in air support to drive off their attackers.

Initial reports suggested the helicopter was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade, said the U.S. official, who insisted on speaking anonymously because the crash was still under investigation. NATO said there were no survivors.

Along with the five Americans, two soldiers from Britain and Canada who had been passengers were also killed, military officials said.

This, on the same day that opposition MPs were once again calling for useless defence minister Gordon O'Connor to resign for lying in parliament about the DND's funeral funding inaction.

May this soldier rest in peace.

In other news from Afghanistan:

JALALABAD, Afghanistan, May 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. military said coalition and Afghan troops killed six Taliban and arrested four in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, though a provincial official and residents said the casualties were villagers.

According to a coalition statement there were no coalition or civilian casualties suffered during a firefight that erupted in an operation in the mountains of Nangarhar province.

The statement did not mention the location in Nangarhar, but Dadak Zalmai, the chief of Khogiani district, said there was a pre-dawn raid on a house in his district.

"The troops killed three civilians and took four with them," Zalmai said.

Several residents said seven civilians, including women and children, were killed and eight wounded in the raid.

How many more civilians are going to die in these botched raids?
 

O'Connor Lies Again

During question period on Wednesday, Gordon O'Connor denied that he had said on Monday in the house that all funeral costs had been paid for fallen soldiers' funerals.
When questioned by Paul Steckle - L (Huron-Bruce,ON), who also demanded that O'Connor apologize to the Dinning family (who have now gone public with their complaints against DND after feeling that their integrity has been impugned), O'Connor responded with this:

Hon. Gordon O'Connor (Minister of National Defence, CPC): Mr Speaker, I think if you check the record, I didn't say that they all got full compensation. I said I directed that they get all full compensation. If there are any anomalies, Mr Speaker, the chief of defence staff is going to ensure that all families are contacted to make sure everyone gets proper compensation.

From Monday's hansard, this is what O'Connor said:

Hon. Dan McTeague (Pickering—Scarborough East, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, it is fairly clear that Canadians do not care about bureaucratic submissions to the Treasury Board, as we learned yesterday, asking for more funds. Canadians want funeral cost aid in full right now.

Will the Prime Minister give a personal guarantee—which we have not heard—here and now, that effective immediately, the Government of Canada will pay the full costs of the funerals for our soldiers who have paid the ultimate price? Yes or no?

Hon. Gordon O'Connor (Minister of National Defence, CPC): Mr. Speaker, I will give a better guarantee than that. We have been doing it since I have been in office. Any family that has had to bury one of its loved ones is entitled to full recompense for the funeral.

The man is a serial liar.

Via the Dinning's press conference:

Lincoln Dinning has written three times to the Defence department to be reimbursed for the expenses related to the death of his son, Matthew, who was killed in Afghanistan a year ago.

Mr. Dinning has also written to Prime Minister Stephen Harper to ask why the families of married soldiers receive a $250,000 death benefit and the families of unmarried soldiers get nothing.

He has yet to receive a reply.

Of the more than $25,000 that Mr. Dinning and his wife, Laurie, have had to pay to bury Matthew and to deal with the psychological trauma of losing their son, they have received a little more than $6,000.
[...]
Last August, Mr. Dinning wrote to his family liaison officer at the Department of Defence to say he had been reimbursed for about $5,600 of a $12,151 funeral bill. He asked for an additional $3,000 to cover the costs of the arena that was required to hold the 2,300 people in the family's home town of Wingham, Ont., who wanted to attend the ceremony.

He did not claim an additional $4,000 that the family paid for a reception for those people because he felt that that was the family's personal choice.

He did ask, however, for $1,200 for grief counselling for his wife that was not covered under his own medical plan and for $525 to cover the cost of a hotel room in Ottawa so that he and his wife could attend a memorial when Matthew's name was added to the honour role.

Another letter was written in February asking for additional grief counselling costs. Mrs. Dinning told reporters that the department informed her that mothers in her situation should require no more than four sessions of counselling.

Unconscionable. Yet the Conservatives will hang onto O'Connor just as Bush protected Rumsfeld, no matter how much he lies or denigrates this country's reputation. He should be fired. Period.

Related: The DND's funeral compensation policy.
 

Random News & Views Roundup

Busy day here so just enough time for a quick roundup...

- It may just be a bit easier for ET to phone home in 2009. Introducing Iris.

- The DND has missed a court deadline and has asked for a 3 month extension in the lawsuit filed by the BC Civil Liberties Association and Amnesty International about the plight of detainees in Afghanistan.

Mr. Champ said the government's letter asked the groups to support the request for an extension. The letter says the Defence Department is currently busy with multiple investigations into allegations of detainee abuse, and that it is difficult to get documents from Kandahar, where the Canadian army is waging counterinsurgency operations against Taliban militants.

How difficult can it be? They have fax machines, don't they?

- It's a conspiracy:

The Liberals and the Green party on Friday confirmed they have agreed to work together to try to oust Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay from his riding in the next federal election.
[...]
Dion, who said the move shows his party is serious about addressing climate change, said the Liberals will not run a candidate in the riding where May intends to seek her party's first federal seat.

In exchange, the Greens have agreed not to run a candidate in Dion's Montreal riding.

Layton had to chime in, of course:

Earlier Friday, NDP Leader Jack Layton said the deal was undemocratic and denied Canadians the right to choose who will represent them in Parliament.

Get over it, Jack. Do you want Mackay gone or not? This is politics. Deals happen - all the time. You, of all people, should know that. Predictably, the tories are whining as well because they never ever ever make such deals, as we all know.

- This is interesting: Females outnumber males online in U.S., study finds

An estimated 97.2 million females aged 3 and older will be online in 2007, or 51.7 per cent of the total online population in the U.S., according to a report by eMarketer.
[...]
A Statistics Canada study of adults conducted in 2005 found a minuscule difference in usage between the sexes, with 68 per cent of men versus 67.8 per cent of women counting as internet users.

By the way, we online women are not "geeks". I prefer to think of myself as "technologically-enlightened".

- When you read stories about prison abuse in the US like this one, you can't help but remember that convicted Abu Ghraib torturer Charles Graner was a former US prison guard as well - perfect for the job in Iraq, obviously.

- Bombings, gunbattles on rise in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the German defence minister declares No signs of Taliban "spring offensive". Maybe he doesn't follow the news...

- Let's just broaden the Iraq war, shall we? Turkish Army Seeks OK for Iraq Raids:

ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkey's military asked the government Thursday to approve attacks on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, signaling growing frustration over a lack of action against the guerrillas by Iraqi and U.S. forces.

Such action could put an overstretched U.S. military in the middle of a fight between two crucial partners, the Turks and the Iraqi Kurds, and Washington urged Turkish restraint. A recent surge in Kurdish attacks in southeastern Turkey has increased the pressure on Turkey's military to act.

When WH press briefing sockpuppet Dana Perino was asked about this development on Thursday, she said she would have to brush up on the happenings in the region. I suggest she do that PDQ.