REMBRANCE.
As our family well knows we have loads of ancestors who volunteered for service in the World Wars at the princely sum of pennies per day in contrast to professional soldiers today who have made military service their careers along with decent wages and benefits.
And overlapping this is our distinguished Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who views Canada as a sorrowful, systemic racist and genocidal country - one that even He cannot apologize enough for.
For our sins our Flag has flown for months on end at half mast at His Command. With Remembrance Day rapidly approaching he has been embarrassed into raising our Flag days short of November 11th but even then inserts a special Remembrance Day for Aboriginal Veterans on the 8th - so the Flag goes up today, down tomorrow then up again and down on the 11th. Makes one's head swim.
The purpose of November 11th is to Remember all who fought and died for Canada regardless of race, colour or creed. So why a special day for our Natives? To me it is further evidence that we are becoming a nation of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th class citizens and whatever the least class turns out to be it consists of us White Male Anglophones.
So where did Justin learn to distain Rembrance and the Armed Forces generally? At his father's knee - of course, the infamous Pierre Elliott who rode around the streets of Montreal on a motorcycle clad in a German Helmut during World War Two as your Grandfathers were risking life and limb thousands of miles away from home and safety.
It got me thinking 'where does the Prime Minister get the power to lower our Flag'? In our ever centralizing and bureaucratic country nothing is down to the willy nilly ...everything seems to be conducted by law, regulation or policy / protocol. And low and behold there is one.
It is very scripted ...Flag down on the deaths of Monarchs, Prime Ministers and such with only Rule 16 giving the Prime Minister anything near discretion. It Reads:
16. Exceptional Circumstances...In exceptional circumstances, and on the advice of the Department of Canadian Heritage and the recommendation of the Clerk of the Privy Council, the Prime Minister may approve the Half-masting on the Peace Tower , and / or on all or some federal buildings and establishments in Canada or abroad, that is not provided in the Rules.
This likely results in a rubber stamp but even so it means that Trudeau does not have the sole power to jig with our Nation's Flag. I wonder too if either Heritage or the Clerk were in fact even contacted. Indeed, the current Clerk used to work for a Conservative Prime Minister ...Joe Clark so he cannot be considered a dyed in the wool Grit. It would be most interesting to have an off the record chat with him.
There has been lots of talk lately about Conservative MPs dissatisfied with Erin O'Toole and I can understand why. But conversely little or nothing from the Liberal Benches expressing concern about their Fearless Leader which in my mind which if they did would in my mind warrant flying our flag high even without a Rule giving us permission to do so.
As I See It...
'K.D. Bell'
