Ya know, ya gotta wonder about all this.
On one hand, they're shoving gender equity down everybody's throats (no pun intended ... yuck - that's one image I'd rather not have visualised ... ).
Then, when some troopers exercise their right to dress in drag, the CF Ombudsman gets all bent out of shape ... ?
And, he's all in a huff about "his mandate" ... ?
Well, what about the mandate of a superior officer to defend his troops (who sometimes can't defend themselves very well, especially against smarty-pants and bureaucrats with big brains but little gonads ...)?
Whatever ...
This sounds similar to the tempest in a teapot when they tried to vilify the Navy for their "crossing the Equator" type of rituals - what some would call "time-honoured traditions" ... (but, oh - I forgot - bureaucratic gobble-dy-gook overrides common sense and tradition, doesn't it?)
Personally, I'm not a football fan, so I could care less.
As for dressing in drag?
I nearly "kilt" the last person who called it a skirt.
Some people just don't know how to lighten up, do they?
Oh, gee - maybe it's useful for troops to be able to laugh at themselves once in a while. And, maybe it's not the worst thing in the world if we bring things out into the open, instead of hiding them ... dare I say ... in the closet?
Heck - I went to the MO this week, and nobody is giving me flak - actually, my buddies are being more supportive than ever. Maybe bureaucrats like the Ombudsman would benefit from REALLY understanding the psyche of soldiers, instead of forcing political correctness upon a group that has to deal with politically incorrect stuff like "friendly fire", landmine strikes, etc. ...
'Train' a drag
Parade draws ire of army watchdog
By STEPHANIE RUBEC, OTTAWA BUREAU
OTTAWA -- Canada's military watchdog is attacking a senior military officer for dismissing complaints that Winnipeg soldiers who dressed in drag during a parade were mocking mentally ill troops.
Defence ombudsman Andre Marin told Sun Media he received a flurry of complaints from the Winnipeg barracks about a November drag queen parade called the "French Grey Cup."
Marin said he dispatched a team of investigators in December to probe the parade that featured floats built by the soldiers to celebrate the end of the battalion's fall sports program.
Each float had drag queen soldiers as entertainment, including an Arabian-themed float featuring soldiers who recently returned from Afghanistan.
Several hundred Winnipeg troops were ordered by the battalion commander to attend the parade.
Marin said investigators are focusing on one float in particular, a black cage adorned with the initials CT and a sign advising that the next stop would be at the north end of the barracks, where mentally ill soldiers received treatment. It's charged that CT stands for Crazy Train and that the drag queen soldiers were poking fun at Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Maj. Malcolm Bruce, deputy Commanding Officer of the Princess Pat's 2nd battalion, told The Winnipeg Sun yesterday that the drag queen show is a 21-year tradition. "It's all done in good fun," Bruce said. "It's unfortunate that, I think, it was taken in the wrong context."
Marin slammed Bruce for wading into his investigation and fired off a letter to Bruce's boss "to indicate my displeasure at the comments and the fact that they're in violation of the (ombudsman's) mandate."
Marin said Bruce's comments could jeopardize his investigation. He expects to release a report late next month.
Marin's investigators were dispatched to Winnipeg at the same time he released his second report on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which found the military stigmatizes soldiers suffering from mental illnesses.
Marin said that makes the complaints about the Crazy Train float all the more disturbing.
