A
travelling tribute to the men and women who lost their lives in Afghanistan will arrive in your province or territory during the next year or two. The memorial, featuring plaques of the 161 Canadians killed, will be welcomed by their families and friends, but some of us will react much differently.
Former National Defense Minister
Peter MacKay unveiled the temporary display in Ottawa on July 9th. It will be open to the public and remain on Parliament Hill through Remembrance Day, before heading off on a two-year journey across the country to visit provincial legislatures and then on to Washington.
The memorial appears to be straight-forward but, in reality, it carries with it a heavy dose of hypocrisy regarding the Conservatives' real objective of the tour and their treatment of military veterans.
The main goal of the memorial is not so much to honor those killed but to have the display instill into Canadians the idea that the Tories command a modern-day fighting machine ready to join others to defend "freedom" wherever necessary. To clearly link us to the prowess of the Americans, the display includes plaques of the 40 U.S. military personnel killed while under Canadian command in Afghanistan.
