CAPTAIN GODDARD DIES IN AFGHANISTAN

I believe they should be allowed to hold any of the positions men can.
The only concern I have, and I'm sure I'm not unique in this respect, is that should a women be a POW, a whole new game of torture can be played against them...one that men don't generally play toward men.

What irks me about this case is the dealings of it by the Harper administration.
Harper echoed and mimiced Bush's policy of banning media personnel from covering the arrival of the body ("for the sake of the family"), yet have advocated the public attend the funeral (media included).
We are sadly headed in the very same direction as the US in so many respects.

Father criticizes privacy policy

Tim Goddard took aim at Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to ban the media from covering the arrivals of military coffins to Canada.

Harper says the decision was made to protect the privacy of families in mourning.

"I find it troubling the privacy decision means keeping the press outside the wire where the bad guys are," said Tim Goddard. "I would like to think Nic died to protect our freedoms, not restrict them."

The family requested the funeral be public and set up speakers outside the Calgary church for people to listen to the ceremony.

Captain Nichola Goddard's funeral service in Calgary today will be broadcast and webstreamed live at 12:30 p.m. Sault Ste. Marie time by the parliamentary cable channel CPAC

Mr. Harper again refused to back away from the news media ban yesterday. As he has in the past, the Prime Minister suggested that the policy was introduced in deference to the wishes of military families for privacy. "It's particularly a terrible thing for the loved ones and if they want to open or not open their funerals, or if they want some privacy when the bodies arrive, my view is that's their right."

He added: "I don't think they should have to explain their position to the media or anybody else at those moments."

Sources have told The Globe and Mail that the new policy originated in the Prime Minister's Office, not the Defence Department, and that its motivation was primarily political. PMO officials have denied this.

Ms. Wilson and two other parents of fallen Canadian soldiers said yesterday that they believe the public should at least be able to view the ceremonies on television, so that they can honour the fallen soldier and share in his or her family's grief.

"When my son was brought home, I found it very comforting to know that the nation was sending their condolences and grieving along with me," said James Davis, Cpl. Davis's father. "I found it very comforting."

Mr. Davis said he believes that Mr. Harper was "a bit reckless" in the decision to ban the news media. "I think he was moving too quickly on that. I think he probably thought he would follow along the lines of what the United States is trying to do -- downplay the sad part of war."

candidone1 wrote:

What irks me about this case is the dealings of it by the Harper administration.
Harper echoed and mimiced Bush's policy of banning media personnel from covering the arrival of the body ("for the sake of the family"), yet have advocated the public attend the funeral (media included).
We are sadly headed in the very same direction as the US in so many respects.

Do you think the media has some strange right to video the coming home of dead soldiers? I didn't know the pain and suffering of others was a right to view? The family members certainly have a right to attend but no one else does. When the bodies come home it should be a private thing for families only and friends they want to bring for support. The media has no right to this and neither should those not involved. It is a good call on the part of the leaders of the US and Canada. Let the families receive their dead loved ones in peace instead of some sort of media circus how ever "respectful" the media plans on being.

Harper arbitrarily changed the rules governing press conferences, insisting his staff decide which journalists pose questions. That is a dubious American practice to which the Ottawa media rightly objected