The Rants of Issachar

The government's currently taking flak for deciding that they will return to practice of lowering the flag on parliament hill only on Remembrance Day. The previous government had taken to lowering the flag "on most similar occasions" according to the CanWest News Service.

As unpopular as it might be, the government's decision is the right one. We honour our war dead together on a single day each year. Remembrance Day has been our tradition since the end of the first world war. We share this tradition with other commonwealth countries and that brings us closer to our allies.

There are a few problems with deviating from this tradition, but the most obvious is the fact that the former government lowered the flag on most similar occasions. Why one and not another? That's the problem when you start making these decisions based on the emotion of the moment.

I also think that by lowering our flag whenever a death occurs we cheapen those deaths. Seeing a flag at half mast makes one stop and think. The more often we see a flag at half mast, the less we stop and the less we think about it. It would be nice to believe that we can get out of this by not having any casualties, but that is the attitude of an ostrich. As long as our soldiers are out there putting their lives on the line to defend what's right we will have casualties. We need to honour their sacrifice without sullying their memory with maudlin sentiment.

Finally, we need to have common stories about our soldiers that aren't simply about their deaths. When we focus on a fallen soldier we quite rightly think more about that soldier's sacrifice than what our military is accomplishing. This is as it should be, but if we don't think about what the military is doing and why it is out in the field, that soldiers sacrifice loses something.


The Prime Minister's office has also declared that the media won't be allowed to take photos when the bodies of four fallen soldiers are returned to CFB Trenton. Again, this is as it should be. The return of a soldier's body is a personal matter for the Canadian Forces and the soldier's family. It is not a photo op for the Prime Minister, and I'm glad Mr. Harper understands that.


Photo courtesy of The Hill Cam. (Public Works and Government Services Canada).