MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – September 6, 2012

• Afghanistan  Trevor Greene, continuing to give back as he continues to recover from a 2006 axe blow to the head  “…. In 2010, Greene and (his wife) Debbie got an unexpected call. It was from a lawyer who told them that his recently deceased client, a James Motherwell of Vancouver, had heard Greene’s story and was so moved that he had left the former soldier a $100,000 bequest in his will.  “At first we thought it was a joke,” recalls Greene. But when it became apparent the money was real, there was no doubt in their minds as to what they would do with it.    Rather than put the funds toward meeting their own needs, Greene and Debbie used the gift as seed money to create the Greene Family Education Fund. They set up an endowment fund at Vancouver Foundation, where the income generated from the fund is used to support scholarships for women in conflict zones to become teachers. “And to ensure that children have access to education to break the cycle of poverty that makes them beholden to their oppressors,” says Greene.  “We did research and picked the Vancouver Foundation because of its long history, being Canada’s largest and one of the oldest on the continent,” says Debbie. “As well, we wanted to stay close to home with a reputable organization with years of experience.”  The Greene Family Education Initiative recently awarded its first scholarship; it went to a 16-year-old Afghan girl named Farifa, who is currently studying English and computers, and aspires to become a teacher in her country.  Over time, they hope to raise $1 million for the initiative ….”
  
• Stuart Langridge, R.I.P.  “A Canadian Forces soldier who took his own life “ping-ponged” between a civilian medical system that didn’t want to deal with him and a military system that didn’t know what to do with him, his grieving stepfather told an inquiry Wednesday.  The often emotional, heart-rending testimony from Shaun Fynes about the troubled last years and death of Cpl. Stuart Langridge was at once an ardent defence of the young man’s character and an angry indictment of the Canadian military.  “Stuart didn’t fall between the cracks, he was stuffed between the cracks,” Fynes told the Military Police Complaints Commission, which is holding a hearing into allegations that the investigation into Langridge’s suicide was biased.  “He ricocheted through the system and ping-ponged between provincial hospitals that didn’t want anything to do with him, and the medical unit that didn’t know what to do with him,” Fynes testified.  “They couldn’t figure out who was co-ordinating his care and who was responsible for his care. Stuart didn’t stand a chance. He was killed by the military.” ….”     
• Khadr Boy  “American military authorities have given the Canadian government the videotapes and documents it wanted related to Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr, Ottawa confirmed Wednesday.  Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said he needed them to decide on Khadr’s application to transfer to Canadian custody.  “Canada received the documents and tapes this afternoon,” Toews’ spokeswoman, Julie Carmichael, said Wednesday.  “When the items are reviewed, the minister will give them the appropriate consideration and render a decision in accordance with Canadian law.”  One of Khadr’s Canadian lawyers said there was now no reason for Toews to drag out the decision-making process any longer given Canada’s commitment almost two years ago to take him back, and urged the minister to act.  “He should make a decision now,” said Brydie Bethell. “There’s absolutely no reason for him not to decide.” ….” – a bit more here.
  
• “The man who brought an antique bomb into police headquarters isn’t in trouble. Police just want to talk to him.  Lethbridge regional police are asking the man – who unknowingly set off a chaotic chain of events Tuesday afternoon when he dropped off an unidentified military weapon at the police station – to tell them more about the explosive device.  The weapon, which local police initially believed to be a pre-First World War explosive, was eventually found to be a live First World War era military weapon with explosive filler encased in heavily rusted metal. Military explosive experts from Canadian Forces Base Suffield, north of Medicine Hat, were called in to safely detonate the device in a gravel pit off of Highway 3 Tuesday evening, hours after the police station was evacuated and surrounding traffic barricaded. Neither the Canadian Forces nor the Lethbridge explosive disposal unit could pinpoint exactly what type of device it was, hampered by the rust and deterioration of the weapon.  A man who claimed to have dropped off the antique weapon at the police station showed up at the Lethbridge Herald newsroom late Wednesday afternoon with a vintage, yellow-edged colour photograph of the small military device. The man wouldn’t give his name, but he said he’d waited at the police station’s front counter for several minutes, intending to turn in the weapon, when he got fed up with the wait and plunked the device down on the counter without giving police any information about it ….” 
• More (what appears to be foreign) bad guys nabbed  “The Honourable Vic Toews, Minister of Public Safety, and the Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, made the following statement on the dismantling of an alleged organized crime ring in Ontario. International in scope, the investigation was led by the Durham Regional Police Service with active support from the Canada Border Services Agency, the RCMP, and Toronto Police Services. A total of 35 suspects have been arrested or identified, with 263 charges laid related to identity theft, fraud and instructing commission of an offence for criminal organization, among others ….” – more on the baaaaaaaaad Roma (they’re NOT “gypsies” anymore) folks here.