Remembrance Day 2013
2013/11/11 2 Comments
Andrew blogs and tweets public policy issues, particularly the relationship between the political and bureaucratic levels, citizenship and multiculturalism. His latest book, Policy Arrogance or Innocent Bias, recounts his experience as a senior public servant in this area.
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Multiculturalism in Canada: Evidence and Anecdote
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Multicultural Meanderings 
http://commentaryforhealing.blogspot.ca/2013/11/this-november-11th-wear-white-poppy.html
Like thousands of others across the country, I attended the Remembrance Day service at the local cenotaph. I thought of my grandfather, killed in France in WWI so his family never got to know him. I thought of my Dad and my uncle, who left jobs they loved here in Ontario (dairy farm labour and forestry) to join up and serve throughout WWII. Dad was a sergeant in the Royal Canadian Artillery whose service included D-Day and through the Liberation. He returned home in 1945 to Sunnybrook with war injuries then worked hard for the next 54 years here. Yet our current government insists those men would not have qualified as Canadian citizens, that there were no Canadian soldiers in any war prior to 1947 (and of course, we, their children cannot be citizens either, so it was taken in 2003). My Dad’s siblings who stayed home working on farms automatically became citizens in 1947 so it appears only veterans are being targeted. This makes no sense whatsoever to me. Why is the government laying wreaths at memorials on November 11th and then claiming the men they claim to honour were not part of Canada at all?
Surely this is wrong: time to fix that Act and take the power to revoke and grant citizenship out of the hands of individual politicians.