Canadian Reporter Suspended for Praising War Effort in Afganistan
OTTAWA (Reuters) - One of Canada's top television reporters has been suspended from her job for praising the country's increasingly troubled military mission in Afghanistan, the company said on Friday.
Christine St-Pierre, a veteran Ottawa correspondent for French-language public broadcaster Radio-Canada, wrote an open letter to Canada's 2,300 troops telling them to ignore mounting criticism of the mission.
Five Canadian soldiers were killed last weekend, prompting ever louder calls for Ottawa to review the mission. One opposition party wants the troops to come back next February, two years ahead of schedule.
"We owe you all our respect and our unfailing support … dear soldiers, your tears are not in vain, your tears are brave," St-Pierre wrote in the letter, which Montreal's La Presse newspaper published on Thursday.
Radio-Canada suspended her for breaching internal regulations that stipulate employees are not allowed to express their opinions on controversial issues.
Entire article (H/T: Allahpundit), Radio-Canada reporter hit for backing Afghan mission.
I grew up in Canada, so I know how liberal-minded the country is. Many Canadians view the Afghan conflict as America's war. In fact, a recent poll claims that a majority of Canadians blame American foreign policy for the terrorist attacks on 9/11. So why should they send troops to Afghanistan, right?
(Some American's react to the poll results.)
How different would the poll results have been had the terrorist plot, by militant islamists, to destroy several Canadian targets succeeded? Who's foreign policy would Canadians have blamed then? Anyone who blames a nation's foreign policy as having caused a terrorist attack is seriously misguided. The terrorists are the cause of the attack. Not the other way around.
Disagreeing with a nation's foreign policy does not give a rogue group of people the right to murder nearly 3000 innocent civilians. Terrorist groups like al-Qaeda do not represent a State or foreign government. So they can not be held accountable for their actions in the traditional sense.
Furthermore, these people (the terrorists) made a conscious decision to use violence instead of petitioning their respective governments to raise grievances against the United States. Many governments in the middle east repress their constituents and when challenged, they simply deflect criticism by blaming the United States or Israel.
I think Christine St-Pierre did the right thing by praising the troops in harms way. Too few reporters and news agencies do that these days. It makes me wonder… would she have been suspended if she had criticized the mission instead? Probably not.
If you want to see the brave actions of Canadian troops at work, check out one of my previous posts…