They really do not get it
This year, for the first time, the Canadian Human Rights Commission has the honour of laying a wreath at the National Remembrance Day Ceremony. The wreath will be placed by Chief Commissioner Jennifer Lynch, Q.C, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. chrc press release via blazing cat fur
These people are tone deaf morons. Here’s the deal CHRCers…Remembrance Day commemorates Canada’s war dead and honours those who served.
Rememberance Day is not political.
It does not celebrate the United Nations (a post WWII invention), the League of Nations or the Treaty of Versailles.
We do not stand a minute in silence to contemplate the fruits (bitter as they may be) of our countrymen’s sacrifice. Rather we honour our fathers and our grandfathers who fought for King and Country.
That the CHRC would turn this solemn, Canadian, event into some sort of weird celebration of an entirely useless document demonstrates just how far out of touch with Canadians these people are.
Were I in Ottawa I would attend the cenotaph service and when the Moron in Chief came forward to place her wreath I would turn my back. Shun the woman who so dishonours our veterans.
Update: Ezra provides Veterans Affairs Minister, Greg Thompson’s email address: Thompson.G@parl.gc.ca
I wrote:
Dear Sir,
My father served Canada in a corvette in the Gulf of St. Lawrence during WWII. My grandfather served Canada in a bi-plane where he became an ace during WWI and he served again recruiting during WWII.
I will be taking my children to the cenotaph ceremony here in Victoria to remind them of Canada’s Armed Forces’ sacrifice and valor.
With luck they will not be exposed to people who attempt to politicize the event.
However, if I were to take them to the National Remembrance Service in Ottawa apparently they would be exposed to one Jennifer Lynch, QC, head of the Canadian Human Rights Commission who wants to politicize the ceremony.
She is under the apprehension that it is appropriate to use our National Day of Remembrance to celebrate the purely political “the 60th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights”.
She needs to be reminded that Canada’s veterans are not props.
Please tell Ms. Lynch not to mar their memory with this tawdry grandstanding.
Please tell her to stay home.
Yours,
Jay Currie
(Which was, frankly, rather more restrained than my first draft…)
Update: Consequences…
A pal writes,
Next year when the Legion comes around to my store they’re being shown the exit, and they’re being told it’s because they disrespected the memory of my grandfather by allowing the CHRC to use him as a propaganda tool. I don’t give a damn if they don’t like it or what kind of reputation it gives me locally. I also don’t give a shit about the opinions of people who can’t be bothered to develop informed ones.
November 10th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
It’s a fine letter, Jay. Though I’d like to see your first draft.
November 10th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
JR, the first draft involved many bad words entirely inappropriate to Remembrance Day but wonderfully apt when it comes to the cunning stunts at the CHRC and their antics.
November 10th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Gosh. We didn’t go to war against the Nazis because of human rights? The Universal Declaration that followed the war didn’t flow directly from that? Read a little history.
Give your head a shake. You folks rising up cynically against this wreath-laying are the political ones. And you know it.
November 10th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
My response lacked the clarity of yours, but I think Messrs Harper and the conservatives will understand that I do not like Lynch attending.
It requested an expeditious resolution from ministers Nicholson and Thompson, we shall see if they respond to party supporters.
November 10th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Damn fine letter, Denyse O’Leary wrote a scathing one as well.
November 10th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Dawg, the objection is not to the war aims, it is to using our veterans’ sacrifice as a photo-op for an agency of the federal government which has lost the public’s confidence.
This is cynical showboating…you don’t put out a press release when you lay a wreath to honour Canada’s war dead.
This is tacky, tin eared and just might be the straw that breaks this wretched camel’s back.
It’s a vanity wreath Dawg and, as such, an insult to every Canadian who serves or served.
November 10th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Mr Currie. Thank you for your sharing your letter. This cannot be allowed to stand. If this solemn event is allowed to be distorted, then the post modern crowd will have yet another honourable tradition to twist and turn into anything they want.
November 10th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Dawg – you are WAY out to lunch on this one.
November 10th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
The UN Declaration was signed on December 10, 1948. The reason they won’t celebrate it on that day is that everyone knows it is a farce. We have our rights because we are prepared to kill people who try and take them away.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Of course the war was about human rights. But does that mean the UN, CHRC, or Dawg, have a good accounting of just what is a human right, e.g. where it comes from? Anyone who thinks today’s transnational UN-NGO take on “human rights” isn’t political, and often in a very brutal way (Rwanda, e.g.), might not appreciate why we are outraged at Lynch’s presence.
It would be similarly wrong if we anti-Lynchers attempted to lay a wreath in the name of the victims of false “human rights”, which might include those who now seemingly died in vain (to some degree) for real human rights. That would be to politicize the ritual event. But to criticize Lynch’s presence, from outside of the event, is appropriate to the discourse of a self-ruling nation.
November 11th, 2008 at 5:59 am
Great letter Jay as it is nothing but ” ...a vanity wreath” as you said. I can only imagine Lynchum wants to rehabilitate her image but as usual falls upon her backside at the expense of our veterans.
Her active service included serving Coffee and Biscuits to other politicians.
I can only imagine that the Chief of Protocal who allowed this farce can be none other than the ‘Stooge in Training’ “Lucy” over at DND.
November 11th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
I didn’t hear, did she attend?
November 11th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
God bless the veterans and our current soldiers, they serve and have served with honour.
Also, God bless Dawg as he is so obviously stupid. When you’ve served as I have Dawg your opinion will count, and not a moment before. Begone, dolt!
November 11th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
“When you’ve served as I have.”
Sorry, it didn’t exactly grow you a neuron, soldier.
Laying a wreath on behalf of human rights was entirely appropriate. As I noted, the 1948 Declaration grew directly out of that war: and 2008 is the 60th anniversary. What is grossly inappropriate, if I may say so, is the political capital that the anti-rights crowd is trying to make of this.
My old man went to war to stop you guys. I see the job was left unfinished.
November 11th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
And if anyone thinks my comments was over the top, here’s what a conservative has to say about sexually assaulting a peace demonstrator, cartooned over at a site on Jay’s blogroll:
That Marine is giving the young lady what she should have gotten when she was a child so she wouldn’t grow up to be a leftard and picket in front of a Marine Recruiting station with a peace sign. Obviously you don’t know any Marines. Trust me the Marines I served with and under would do that in a heart beat – especially the crusty old TOP’s (Master Sgt’s) and not think anything of it…
Besides there isn’t a Marine who would respect a leftard like this young lady or treat her like a lady. She, in this cartoon is being treated the way all peaceniks should be treated. Don’t get the honor and respect we give those ladies of society that deserve it confused with what a Marine will do to those who don’t respect our country or our Corps.
My Dad, who was at the Falaise Gap, would wonder what the hell he’d been fighting for, if he were alive to read this fascist drivel.
November 11th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Whoops. NOT on your blogroll. Sorry, Jay. He seems to be on everyone else’s.
November 11th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Hey, it’s the No-Holocaust-Exhibit-in-the-War-Museum argument all over again, ten years later.
After a century in which far more civilians than uniformed personell died as a result of war, this sort of military chauvinism is puzzling, even a little shameful. It denies the reality of total war and the targetting of civilians in favour of a romantic and wholly unrealistic view of soldiers-as-sole-protectors-of-all-things-good-and-decent-in-our society.
BTW, how is the CHRC announcing that Lynch would lay a wreath on the 60th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights—a document who creation was inspired by WWII, a document drafted in part by a Canadian—any more self-aggrandizing than Jay’s post about taking his sons to the Cenotaph so they could “begin to learn”?
November 11th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Dawg, when the Rememberance Day ceremonies stop being solely about remembering our soldiers, such as a great uncle that went and is interred near Anzio, and becomes about the UN, then such activity will be appropriate. Until then it is not, your opinion notwithstanding.
Being a member of the Greens I’d hardly say that I am trying to make some form of political point out of this. You being a Leftard, it is hardly surprising that you would try to throw such a smear around.
What is particularly astounding is your note about your old man going “to war to stop you guys”; why exactly are you comparing me to Nazi’s? Or is it the Japanese military you refer to? If that was your intent you truly are filth.
November 11th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Interesting too that I am assumed to be stupid because I simply do not agree with The Dawg. Another typical leftard smear.
November 11th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Actually, Dave, Dawg is one of the few lefties I have the least respect for. He maybe wrong but he is not filth…maybe a bit dirty around the edges ;)
November 12th, 2008 at 5:10 am
Great letter Jay and thank you. What a vile disgrace! Veterans did fight …”to honour the men and women who have served so valiantly to uphold Canada’s commitment to universal dignity and justice – values that transcend cultures and traditions….”blah, blah blah…. they fought for their buddies first, Country second and to kill Germans…...period!
Remarkable! “Remembrance Day” has been neglected for 30 or 40 years, Korean War vets ignored and our military abused and this piece of political nonsense rises up to take a position of prominence. This cannot go unchallenged!
November 12th, 2008 at 6:11 am
Dave,
I don’t know about Dawg, but I assumed you were stupid because you said stupid things, such as calling people you disagree with “leftard” and stating ludicrous propositions such as “When you’ve served as I have your opinion will count, and not a moment before”
It seems to me you confirm that stupidity when you write “when the Rememberance Day ceremonies stop being solely about remembering our soldiers”, since it suggests that you have failed to notice that Remembrance Day is not “solely” about remembering out soldiers. It is mainly about that, certainly, but given the history of the wars in which those soldiers served – and which millions of civilians died – not solely.
November 12th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Hair splitting aside truewest, the day sure as heck isn’t about the UN.
November 12th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
No, but it is about human rights.