It Ought to be Treason

I don't understand how this could have happened.

This is not the Canada that I believe in.

How could our nation have descended to the point where the head of our military can give orders that violate both the will of the people and the will of the elected Parliament?

Shouldn't there be a law against this? Shouldn't someone be in jail at this point? Shouldn't our Minister of Defence, Gordon O'Connor, have relieved General Hillier of his duties the moment he found out that Hillier had sent Canadian men and women in to the Iraqi war zone?

I looked up the definition of treason in Canada. The only way to commit treason in Canada is to either try to assassinate the Queen or to help enemies of Canada to defeat Canadian forces. This even includes giving away secrets.

There's nothing in there, however, about taking Canadians in to war. Somehow it isn't considered treasonous to take us unwilling in to war. It's only if you fight on the wrong side that you get in trouble.

But honestly, how is this not a betrayal of everything that it means to be a democracy?

The worst part is that there's no way for the population to punish General Hillier for this travesty, this immoral venture disguised as a "training mission". He isn't an elected official. We can't bounce him out in the next general election. The only guy we could really punish is the Minister of Defence - who was already forced to resign for his piss-poor handling of the abuse of prisoners taken by Canadian forces. Gordon O'Connor probably won't even run in the next election, otherwise I could vote against him. (He is, of all things, my "representative" in Parliament. How ironic is that?).

No. For hiding this from us, we have to punish the entire Conservative government. We have to throw them out and tell them they've betrayed us and betrayed us horribly. They've cut deep in to the honour of our nation, of what it means to be Canadian. We must punish them and let every future government know to keep a tight rein on the military brass who would cheat us like this.

We are not your warmongers. We do not revel in martial exploits. We are proud of the honorable service of our soldiers, but not in foreign aggression. Never like this.

That's not who we are and we won't let you change us.

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