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Washington Report, July 2006, pages 69-70 Waging Peace A Mother’s Mission
AS MOTHER’S DAY approached, Cindy Sheehan visited Canada on a speaking tour organized by the Canadian Peace Alliance. After her son Casey’s death in Baghdad in 2004, Sheehan’s high-profile campaign has enabled her to move on from this intensely personal tragedy. In Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver she spoke to packed audiences and received intense media coverage. Her presence in Canada showed that she has an uncanny ability to sense the pulse of a nation that opted out of the war in Iraq—a fact of which Canadians are extremely proud. To a Canadian public that is growing increasingly uncomfortable about the country’s role in Afghanistan her message was clear: Get out of Afghanistan—it is just a branch office of an immoral and illegal American-led war in Iraq. With more than 2,000 Canadians stationed in Afghanistan, and with attacks on foreign civilians and military personnel increasing daily, Sheehan’s message hit a nerve. The debate in Canada about lowering flags to half-staff for fallen soldiers and the role of the media in covering military funerals has intensified in recent days. A new poll conducted by the Strategic Council confirms that Canadians are growing suspicious and increasingly uneasy. It found that about 54 percent of Canadians strongly oppose involvement in Afghanistan, compared to 41 percent in mid-March. Negative sentiment has grown considerably in Quebec, where 70 percent of respondents oppose sending troops to Afghanistan, compared with 53 percent two months ago. Sheehan warned that Canada’s deployment of soldiers in Afghanistan simply “frees up more [U.S.] soldiers to be in Iraq.” The new Conservative minority government is hiding the reality of war by blocking media coverage of the return of soldiers’ bodies from Afghanistan, she stated, adding that such an act is reminiscent of the regime in Washington, DC. “I believe it’s a propaganda tactic to keep the human cost of the war away from the public,” she said during her visit to Parliament Hill in Ottawa. She may have a point, as the new minority Conservative government is trying hard to stay on message and avoid any missteps. Sheehan also characterized Prime Minister Stephen Harper as “just another Bush clone” who cares more about being “buddy-buddy” with the U.S. president than honoring the lives of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Speaking of her successful campaign outside President George W. Bush’s Texas ranch that brought world-wide attention to the Iraq war, she called on Canadians to stage a similar campout in front of their prime minister’s residence. “They should take their tents and put them on the prime minister’s lawn and say, ‘I want to know why you’re making our soldiers fight and die, and kill innocent people in Afghanistan, and I’m not moving until you let me know,’” she stated. Sid Lacombe, spokesperson from the Canadian Peace Alliance organizing Sheehan’s cross-country tour, agreed: “Cindy’s courage will be a great boost to the confidence of military families in Canada who are asking the same question that Cindy asked of George Bush, ‘Why do our children have to die for a lie?’” Sheehan and Canadian activists from the Council of Canadians and the War Resisters Support Campaign also called on Prime Stephen Harper to “open the border” to U.S. military deserters (see article on p. 50 of this issue). As the debate rages on about the country’s role in Afghanistan, let’s hope it contributes to the Canadian public demanding debate and dialogue on this important issue. —Shelina Merani |
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