TV ban on Canadian coffins sparks debate

Pallbearers carry the coffin of one of the soldiers killed in Afghanistan last week at Canadian Forces Base, Trenton, Ontario, on Tuesday. PHOTO: AP

The Conservative government banned the media from showing live images of the flag-draped coffins of four Canadian soldiers when their bodies were returned on Tuesday from Afghanistan, provoking anger among political opponents and some family members.

Ottawa also stopped lowering the flags to half-staff on Parliament Hill each time a Canadian soldier is killed, prompting Liberals to accuse Prime Minister Stephen Harper of trying to whitewash the growing human cost of the Canadian mission in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

A roadside bomb blast killed the four men on Saturday in southern Afghanistan in the deadliest attack against Canadian troops by hostile forces since they deployed there in 2002. Canadian military officials blamed remnants of the toppled Taliban government for the bombing.

The remains of Corporal Matthew Dinning, Bombardier Myles Mansell, Corporal Randy Payne and Lieutenant William Turner arrived before sundown on Tuesday at the Canadian Forces base in Trenton, Ontario.

The media were banned from the evening ceremony, a move that mirrors US policy that generally bars coverage of returning US coffins since the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003.

Like Pentagon, Canadian Defense Minister Gordon O'Connor cited privacy concerns.

"When the bodies return to Trenton, where the families receive the bodies for the first time and they come face to face with the reality that their loved ones are dead, this is for their private grief," O'Connor told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp on Tuesday.

He noted media were allowed to cover the solemn send-off ceremony just before a Hercules transport plane left Kandahar with the bodies.

He also said the Conservatives -- who ended the Liberals' nearly 13-year hold on power in January's elections -- were returning to an 80-year-old tradition of honoring fallen soldiers by only lowering the flag on Parliament Hill once a year, on Nov. 11 which is Remembrance Day.

Harper accusations that he is using the power of his office to conceal Canada's mounting military casualties from the public spotlight.

"It is not about photo-ops and media coverage," Harper told the House of Commons, which engaged in a raucous debate. "It is about what is in the best interests of the families."

At least one family is disturbed by the media blackout and the lack of lowered flags. The uncle of Dinning told the CBC that the family believes the government is trying to cover up the growing casualties in Afghanistan and was disturbed that family members were not informed of the unilateral decision by the government to cancel a public ceremony.

The CBC broadcasts live the repatriation ceremonies for the 11 other soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2002, the first Canadians to die in direct combat since the Korean War.

Still, some 100 Canadians who died while serving in peacekeeping missions over the last half century were brought home to quiet burials with little media coverage.

Richard Leger, father of Sergeant Marc Leger, who was killed in Afghanistan in April 2002, told the CBC on Tuesday that the nationally televised return of his son's coffin helped his family to heal. Sergeant Leger was one of four Canadian soldiers killed by a US pilot who mistook their live-ammunition exercise for a hostile attack.

"I think Canadians need to see this, every Canadian. It says we care about these soldiers," Leger said, as tears rolled down his face. "It's hard for me to explain it, because it's in my heart. You're going to be removing that for the other families and I don't think that's right."

Liberal critic Ujjal Dosanjh called the media ban "absolutely un-Canadian" and accused Harper of acting more like a US president than a Canadian prime minister accountable to parliament.

"Dare I say `president' Harper is following in the footsteps of President Bush?" Dosanjh said.