On Monday, the Senate Committee on Defence was in Edmonton to solicit advice from Canadian citizens on the composition of the Canadian Forces. Specifically, they were looking for ideas on the size, capabilities, equipment and role of the CF.
I used to have no respect for Senators and the Senate. I saw them as a bunch of unelected, lazy, patronage appointments and I wondered who's ass I had to kiss to get such a plum job.
Well, the above may or may not be true, but they sure have some patience. Of the approximately 20 presentations, about half were pro military, the other half I will refer to as "nutbar".
It seems that whenever the government asks for the opinion of its citizens on a subject, such as defence, the people take it as a cue to come and complain/comment on just about anything.
I won't comment on the pro military presentations, as it is the nutbar ones that were most interesting. The first guy to get up was all about the evil things CSIS has been doing to the Muslim community. He had no evidence of these "atrocities" except to say that CSIS agents were (gasp) calling up and talking to Muslims. What, no torture, beheadings, etc? Just talking? Surely he could have some up with something better that that.
Then there was a string of aging hippies/peaceniks (and believe me, they looked the part) who talked about how the environment/BMD/Bush/America/ was the biggest threat to Canada and how the Canadian Forces should be used to help people, etc. I got the impression they felt the CF would be best used giving out food and teddy bears to people, or shoveling snow in Toronto. Some had shiny, fancy documents that laid out their great plans for the Committee. There wasn't a coherent argument among them.
I will give the Committee members credit. They sat through the whole thing and treated each presenter seriously, no matter how wacko.
My favourite presentation of the night: The woman with the sign protesting the Official Secrets Act and how it was treating immigrants. Kudos to the Senator who, during his question, pointed out to her that what she really wanted to protest was Bill C-36, since the Official Secrets Act deals with what the government and government workers are allowed to release to the public (I believe this legislation has been replaced).
Most delicious piece of irony: One presenter made some comment towards Tommy Banks about lazy politicians, to which the chairman replied, "Tommy Banks is the most hard working Senator". This may be true, but it is up there with being called the smartest idiot or best politically informed Hollywood actor.
Damn them with faint praise.
Note: Laurie Hawn, an ex-airforce major who ran for the CPC in the last election and lost to Anne McLelland, was there giving his 2 cents.
Update: I forgot to add this point to earlier to this post. One thing I did notice was a certain question asked by the committee members. After most of the "peacenik" presentations, some form of the question "should Canada even have a military" would be asked. Everyone this question was put to answered yes. even the guy you wanted to cut the military budget by 90%.
Mark my words, this point will be made in the final report with some sort of statement about how the vast majority of Canadians support the military.
1 comment:
from the GF : you forgot to give credit to your beloved for nagging you to attend. And to change out of your blogwear so you wouldn't embarrass yourself (and me). I was hoping you would get all of your right wing bile out of your system if you could do it with an audience. I was wrong, you just brough more home with you. Hopefully there is a left wing blog out there currently describing you as a right wing ' nutbar '.
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