MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – September 24, 2012

• Afghanistan  One reviewer’s take on Robert Semrau’s book  “Anyone is wrong who may think the book by former captain Rob Semrau — The Taliban Don’t Wave — is his justification for what happened in Afghanistan in 2008.  Although Semrau is the first Canadian soldier ever to be court martialed for allegedly killing a wounded enemy on the battlefield, his 291-page book devotes barely a page to the incident that led to his court marital and dismissal from the army.  It’s an astonishing book. More than any account I’ve seen, it tells vividly and graphically what it’s like to be an infantry soldier in Afghanistan, working with the Afghanistan National Army (ANA), trying to bring them up to speed to protect their own country against the Taliban ….”
• Well done participants!  “More than 18,000 Canadians and members of the Canadian Forces ran, walked, or rolled together in the 5th Anniversary edition of Canada Army Run — acknowledged by running gurus as the fastest growing run in the country. This event, which has broken attendance records since it was launched in 2008, sold out in June.  Among the VIPs who took part in the Opening Ceremonies were His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada; the Commander of the Canadian Army Lieutenant-General Peter Devlin; Minister of National Defence Peter MacKay; and Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson …. Fundraising efforts from this year’s Canada Army Run have generated more than $100,000 for Soldier On and the Military Families Fund, with donations still coming in. More than $150,000 in proceeds are also expected to be donated to Soldier On and the Military Families Fund ….”
• “The Harper government spent $750,462 in legal fees fighting veterans over the clawback of military pensions, documents tabled in Parliament show.  Federal Liberals have been demanding to see a breakdown of Ottawa’s legal costs in the class-action lawsuit launched by veterans advocate Dennis Manuge, of Halifax.  The response was tabled in Parliament last week, but Justice Minister Rob Nicholson refused to release an itemized count, invoking solicitor-client privilege.  Instead, he released a global amount for the lawsuit, which has been dragging its way through the courts since March 2007.  Liberal veterans critic Sean Casey described the legal bill as an “obscene waste of taxpayers’ money.” ….”  Here’s the document the information came from, shared for personal and research purposes only.
• “Media are invited to attend the Tri-National Military Mental Health Symposium to be held at the Embassy of Canada in Washington on September 24. The event will be hosted by the True Patriot Love (TPL) Foundation and the Embassy of Canada, and will feature distinguished guests from academia, charities, government agencies, and industry in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.  Mr. Chris Alexander, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence, along with symposium participants including Canadian Forces (CF) personnel, will discuss how the private, charitable and public sectors can improve synergy and efficiency in order to work together to help injured personnel and their families ….”
  
• “The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence, will speak (today) at the opening of the 4th International Conference of Ombudsman Institutions of the Armed Forces on the importance of a combined effort to ensure fair treatment and support for the defence family ….”
• Analyst:  Time for more thought behind laws to protect Reservists’ full-time jobs while supporting the businesses filling the gap  “….  Military reservists have become a vital component of the Forces. Without reservists, Canada would not have been able fulfil its military commitment in Afghanistan: Roughly a fifth of all Canadians deployed to Afghanistan were citizen soldiers.  Owing to federal and provincial job-protection legislation, which compels civilian employers to restore a reservist’s job upon return from military duties, reservists’ employers tend to bear a disproportionate share of the costs when their employees are deployed overseas or domestically.  Concern that this legislation would make employers reluctant to hire reservists — and erode the relationships among employers, reservist employees and the military — caused the federal government to announce a financial incentives program for employers of reservists.  But how should the federal government develop such a program? …. Benefits could be based on compensation levels obtained from past employer payroll data. The implication is that a reservist’s civilian wage reflects his or her specialized skills and, hence, disruption costs on employers.  Benefits could also vary by the size of the company: U.S. evidence on reservists shows that smaller firms are generally less able to absorb employee losses. Compensation could fluctuate from a low of 40 per cent (for large firms) to a maximum of 80 per cent (for small firms) of a reservist’s annual salary, with a ceiling ….”     
• Canadian change of heart re:  getting rid of landmines?  “…. For years, countries such as Bosnia could rely on Canada for financial support to clear landmines and help their victims.  In 1997, the Canadian government helped spearhead what became known as the Ottawa Treaty, an agreement signed by 125 countries to end the production of landmines, clear the ones that had already been laid and destroy all stockpiles.  The treaty was a watershed. While countries had long recognized the damage caused by landmines — Canada started destroying its stock of 30,000 in 1996 — the number of landmine casualties continued to climb. In Belgium, they were still digging up 80 mines a day — mines that had been laid during World War I.  Lloyd Axworthy, Canada’s foreign affairs minister at the time, called the treaty “this generation’s pledge to the future and a bridge to the millennium.” The International Committee to Ban Landmines won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.  It helped that the cause had the support of Diana, Princess of Wales, who travelled to the landmine-laced countries of Angola, Pakistan and Bosnia.  But 15 years later, Canada appears to be abandoning the cause. Landmine experts and current and former diplomats say Stephen Harper’s Conservative government is telling demining groups that landmine removal is too closely associated with past Liberal governments.  “The Conservatives like to say, ‘It’s not us,’” says Gerry Barr, former executive director of the Canadian Council for Independent Cooperation, an umbrella group of aid agencies. “It means they haven’t built that brand. Someone else has. The Liberals did. So why would they support it?” ….”     
• Speaking of landmines ….  “A high-ranking officer of the Canadian Forces has been fined $2,500 after pleading guilty to signing a document that claimed he and his Ottawa mistress were in a common-law relationship.  Lt.-Col. P.W. Fredenburg, of Toronto, who is a military landmine expert, was charged in 2008 with making a false statement in a document that was required for official purposes.  He was fined by a military court martial last July at the Lieutenant-Colonel George Taylor Denison Armoury, in Toronto. The decision was only made public this week ….” more from the CF Justice Info-machine here.
• “Zafar Bangash stepped off his makeshift stage across the street from the U.S. consulate Saturday to hugs and kisses from his Muslim brothers.  Bangash, director of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought in Toronto, led a crowd of roughly 1,500 in chants against the anti-Islamic film, Innocence of Muslims.  “The Muslims, united, will never be defeated,” yelled Bangash, the crowd following suit. “Shame, shame, U.S.A. Shame, shame, U.S.A.”  Bangash, the organizer of the protest, told the crowd to rise up against the inaction of the U.S., and the Canadian government as well.  “Harper, Harper, shame on you,” said Bangash, the crowd of men, women and children roaring his words back at him.  “Islamophobia has now become the official policy of the U.S. and Canadian governments,” Bangash said once offstage. He said that neither government has taken enough action against the film.  “Not a single Canadian politician has uttered a single word about this scandalous and filthy movie,” said Bangash, adding the statement issued by the U.S. government is not enough ….”
• BUH-bye…. “U.S. immigration officials say a suspected Guatemalan war criminal who was in custody in Calgary is now behind bars there after being extradited from Canada.  Last August, Alberta’s top court dismissed Jorge Sosa’s appeal of his extradition across the border where he faces immigration charges.  This week, he was extradited to California where he is accused of violating U.S. Immigration laws by lying on an application for permanent residency and ultimately citizenship.  Sosa ended up in Canada after fleeing American officials investigating allegations he was a war criminal who lied to U.S. officials to become a naturalized citizen ….” – more here.