Skip to content

What did the befallen fight for?

We are marking Veterans’ Week. Throughout Canada, ceremonies have been taking place, speeches are made, wreaths are laid at cenotaphs

We are marking Veterans’ Week. Throughout Canada, ceremonies have been taking place, speeches are made, wreaths are laid at cenotaphs, all in the name of keeping the memory of those fallen for the sake of our freedom, preservation of our values and basic principles that allow us to live the way we like.

Of course, throughout the week, the loftiest of the speeches will be made by politicians who will, naturally, use the occasion for stressing their patriotism and scoring a point with their constituents.

One cannot help thinking: Are our politicians really serving the causes that the befallen have fought for or are they paying only lip service?

In the Second World War, in the Korean campaign of the UN, Canadians fought for the preservation of the democratic principles as opposed to authoritarianism under the guise of either Nazi or communist domination.

In Afghanistan, the Canadian contingent is still facing the dangers of Taliban attacks, bombs and suicide missions in the name of building a democratic society in that country. But here at home, while veterans who survived Canadian military campaigns are gradually but steadily losing their entitlements, senators appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper are using taxpayers’ money for their personal expenditures. And this is only the latest one of the political scandals involving our federal government.

Just over the last two years, Robocall scandal involving alleged voter fraud, the ETS scandal surrounding alleged wrongdoing by Canadian government officials in awarding of a $400-million information technology services contract, the F35 Fighter Jet scandal and the XL meats affair due to reduction of funding to Canadian Food Inspection Agency have made an impressive list of the blunders of the politicians who will be telling the youth not to forget the memory of our lost ones.

Should we believe their sincerity?