By arthur Weinreb
Monday, September 11, 2006
These words that headlined a column by Kathleen Harris in Saturday's Calgary Sun should not really be news -- but they are. The fact that the prime minister of Canada is going to pay tribute to the 24 Canadian victims who died during the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001 should not really be big news -- but it is.
at 5:50 p.m. EST, Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be making a statement in Ottawa that will remember the Canadian victims of 9/ll; something that his two predecessors never thought to do. Harper is also expected to speak about Canada's current commitment in afghanistan and is sure to incur the criticism of those NDP "Canadian soldiers act like terrorists" types and others who simply refuse to see that the civilized world, including Canada, the land of tolerance and diversity, is under attack from radical Islam. Hopefully, the memories of the 24 Canadian men and women who lost their lives in the Twin Towers and on planes that day will not be forgotten in the anti-war rhetoric that is bound to follow.
Shortly after the events of 9/11, then Prime Minister Jean Chrtien barely mentioned the victims at all. He had no desire to visit New York's Ground Zero, going only when then Canadian alliance leader Stockwell Day decided to attend and embarrassed him into going along. at one point Chrtien was in the United States and could have easily gone but decided to bypass a visit to New York, opting instead to hurry back to Canada to attend a Liberal fundraising function. Chrtien did have his priorities. If Chrtien mentioned Canadians at all in reference to 9/11, it was not the victims but the residents of Gander who magnanimously opened their doors to travellers who were stranded their when air traffic was halted. Chrtien acted as if somehow his government was responsible for and should be given credit for the acts of kindness that those in Gander gave to the mostly american passengers who wound up stranded in Newfoundland.
Chrtien used the opportunity of the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks, not to remember the victims or show concern for their families but to blame Western "greed and arrogance" for the attacks that killed over 3,000 people on american soil. and since we know that those Canadians who were at the World Trade Center five years ago today were not there to sing Kumbayah or demonstrate in favour of same sex marriage, whether he realized it or not, Jean Chrtien was blaming the victims, including those 24 Canadians who perished, for their own deaths.
although it is somewhat difficult to find something that Paul Martin could be found to have done even marginally better than Chrtien did, he at least surpassed his old boss when it came to the country's victims of 9/11. In his 2004 and 2005 official statements commemorating the events of September 11, 2001, Martin at least expressed his condolences to the families of the Canadian victims; something Chrtien never mentioned on previous anniversary dates.
The prime minister of Canada speaking live to Canadians to commemorate the events of that tragic day and to pay tribute to those Canadians who lost their lives and their families is long overdue.
In Memoriam
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