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Media barred from covering soldiers' return
Updated Mon. Apr. 24 2006 6:44 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
The media will be barred from the airfield at Canadian Forces Base Trenton, Ont., when a plane carrying the remains of four Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan lands on Tuesday evening.
In the past, television and print media have been invited to cover the arrival of the remains of Canadian soldiers who have fallen overseas.
But sources told CTV News that reporters will not be allowed to cover the repatriation of the remains when the aircraft lands at the base.
Military sources would not say why the decision was made. But a news release is expected to be issued by the Department of National Defence Monday evening.
CTV's chief political correspondent, Craig Oliver, said the government will likely say their decision was made in part to protect the privacy of the families.
But Oliver added it appears the Conservative government is concerned that with the mounting casualties in Afghanistan, the mission is losing the battle for public opinion.
"(The government) is afraid that Canadians, seeing the bodies, seeing the coffins, that the images are so strong it's turning people off on the mission," said Oliver.
"This is very much in keeping with the decision by the George Bush White House to do the same thing in Washington, about the bodies of American servicemen coming back from Iraq."
In 2003, the Bush administration banned media from entering the central military morgue at Dover, in Delaware, where soldiers killed in Iraq are received.
"There won't be any video shown to Canadians of the bodies being returned or the families," said Oliver.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is not expected to travel to CFB Trenton to meet the coffins when they land in Canada. The Globe and Mail reports that Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and Gen. Rick Hillier, Chief of the Defence Staff, will likely be there.
In April 2002, then-prime minister Jean Chretien, the defence minister and chief of the defence staff attended a ceremony at Trenton after four soldiers were killed in Afghanistan that month.
Flag decision
The news comes on the same day that O'Connor defended a new policy not to lower flags on government buildings to half-mast every time a Canadian soldier is killed.
In a Monday letter to The Globe and Mail newspaper, O'Connor said the newly elected Conservative government is returning to a policy where the flag on the Peace Tower is only lowered on one day a year -- Remembrance Day.
"The previous Liberal government broke with this long-standing tradition that confidently brought Canada through its wartime history and instead decided on an ad-hoc basis to lowering the flag of the Peace Tower," he wrote.
"As Minister of National Defence, I can tell you that this adhockery unfairly distinguished some of those who died in Afghanistan from those who have died in current and previous operations.
"Lowering the Peace Tower's flag on November 11th ensures that all of Canada's fallen heroes are justly honoured."
In the event that a soldier dies in combat, flags will be put at half-mast within the operational base, the home base of the member and the National Defence Headquarters from the day of death until sunset on the day of the funeral.
Also, all flags within the service (Navy, Army, or Air Force) of the member will be half-masted from sunrise to sunset on the day of the funeral, the letter says.
The change in flag protocol comes as the bodies of four Canadian soldiers begin their journey home.
Cpl. Randy Payne, Cpl. Matthew Dinning, Bombardier Myles Mansell and Lieut. William Turner were killed in a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan over the weekend.
The latest attack on Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan will lead to further debate on extending the mission, Liberal Defence Critic Ujjal Dosanjh told CTV's Question Period on Sunday.
"Canadian public opinion is already divided," Dosanjh said. "There's no question in my mind that as more casualties continue to happen, Canadians will increasingly ask more questions.
"It's appropriate for Canadians to ask questions -- they always have. They support our troops. We support our troops. Despite that, there might be questions and we as politicians need to be ready to answer them."
Meanwhile, the mayor of Toronto has made a decision to lower the flag atop Toronto City Hall, beginning Tuesday, to half-mast in honour of the four Canadian soldiers.
One of the soldiers, Cpl. Matthew Dinning, was from the Toronto area.
Flags have been lowered at the soldiers' home bases and at National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa.
Canadian flags outside post offices in Edmonton are also at half-mast -- Lieut. Bill Turner was a part-time army reservist who worked in that city as a letter carrier.
"It is important because (Turner) was one of our members,'' Ramon Antipas, president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers local, told The Canadian Press. "He truly believed in the mission. This is in recognition for what he was doing."
A total of 15 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have died since 2002, when Canada first became involved in Afghanistan following the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime.
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