The Montreal Gazette reports today that the Royal Canadian Legion in St. Anne de Bellevue flies its flag at half-mast upon every death in Afghanistan but at the Legion in Notre Dame de Grâce, the Canadian flag remains at full staff. “If we did that during the Second World War, the flag would have been at half-mast for six years,” said Frank Stenway of the N.D.G. branch, where members have voted against half-masting for each Canadian death in Afghanistan.
This not a new issue, of course. It came up when the Conservatives became the government. The Liberals, under Paul Martin, began lowering the Peace Tower flag on each soldier's death in Afghanistan. But the Conservatives ended that practice, citing tradition that Canada — and Parliament — honours those sacrifices on Remembrance Day. Some veterans of other wars weighed in at the time saying the Remembrance Day honour was the appropriate one and lowering the flag for an Afghanistan death would seem to be suggesting that those deaths were more worthy of such an honour than a death in Korea or Normandy or anywhere else.
Meanwhile, in Parliament, Andrew Telegdi, the Liberal MP from Kitchener, Ont., wants the House to adopt his private members bill which would call for the flag on the Peace Tower to be lowered to honour each death in Afghanistan. He found some support yesterday for this idea among the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP but none from the Conservatives.
There are some long-standing rules about the sorts of events that trigger the half-masting of the Peace Tower flag but the death of a soldier overseas is not one of them.
“For the most part, the policy of the previous [Liberal] government was that if a Canadian soldier died overseas, the flags would be lowered. That policy seems to have gone by the wayside,” Telegdi said in the House yesterday. “We are talking about something that is very simple and very basic. We should be commemorating the passing of the soldiers who have been killed overseas while serving this country, soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice. We should be commemorating their passing in this House and also lowering the flag on top of the Peace Tower.”
Harold Albrecht, a Conservative MP also from the Kitchener area, says Telegdi's bill is problematic simply because it would fail to honour others who also gave their lives in service of Canada and Canadians: “Is the member aware that this motion, as it is worded, would fail to give the same honour to Canadian Forces personnel killed while serving at home in Canada as it would to those abroad? Would the hon. member explain the reason for that? What clear criteria does the member use to define “peacekeeping”, “peacemaking” and “humanitarian missions”? Is the member also aware that his motion fails to give the same recognition to the sacrifice of policemen or firemen who are killed in the line of duty in Canada as it would to government personnel killed on a humanitarian mission abroad?”
Meanwhile, Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis closed the debate with this plea:
” I am sure that members in this House are aware of the death of Sergeant Christos Karigiannis in Afghanistan last June. Christos Karigiannis is a fifth cousin of mine who gave his life while serving our country. I am a privy councillor and thus the flag will be half-masted upon my death. I would gladly trade this in order to have seen the flag half-masted for Sergeant Christos Karigiannis and any of his comrades. Therefore, I am asking for unanimous consent of the House to adopt Motion No. 310, in the memory of my cousin, Christos Karigiannis, and all the other members of the armed forces who have given their lives in Afghanistan and other places of war. ”
He did not receive that unanimous consent.
I think it would be a nice touch for the government to lower the flag but protocols do have to exist and there are many arguments against including our fallen in Afghanistan while excluding others. The decision not to lower them sparked me to “lower the flag” on some of my blogs when a Canadian dies. That post stays at the top of the entries for 10 days.