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MUST READ: Douglas Bland: “Does Bob Rae endorse lawful desertion from the Canadian Forces?”

National Post contributor Douglas Bland exposes the idiocy of Liberal MP Bob Rae (for accuracy purposes I am compelled to use my own moniker for him, “Bare-Ass” Bob Rae), and his lunatic 60s-era far-left extremist call for Canada to happily accept all U.S. military deserters. 

Douglas Bland: Does Bob Rae endorse lawful desertion from the Canadian Forces?

Posted: July 16, 2008, 7:03 PM

In a comment published in the Toronto Star (Why U.S. war resisters deserve refuge in Canada, 11 July 2008), Bob Rae pleads for Canada to accept any member of the United States armed forces who decides to desert his comrades and country and seek sanctuary in Canada. He argues that because a solider might believe that the war in Iraq is unpopular he or she therefore “faces a conflict of values and loyalties” and thus has a right to desert. Further, Canadians ought to honour this assumed right without question. Mr. Rae puts the “all-volunteer army” in a whole new light — volunteer to enlist and volunteer to leave at any time and on any whim.

If this concept is sound enough for the US armed forces, is Mr. Rae recommending it for the Canadian Forces too?

Before he answers that, Mr Rae ought to consider these questions. As foreign minister or justice minister in a future Liberal government, what would he do if a member of the Canadian Forces deserted on the grounds that in his or her opinion Canada was conducting an unpopular war in Afghanistan (as some say is the fact today)? What would Mr. Rae do if Canadian soldiers deserted their unit because they believed that they could not be compelled to serve on any mission not authorized by the UN, as the Liberal government ordered them to do in Kosovo, for example? Would Mr. Rae support the desertion of aboriginal members of the Canadian Forces who refused to follow orders to support the civil authority in a conflict with an aboriginal community as at Oka? More generally, what amendments would Mr. Rae make to the National Defence Act to provide the rules for the lawful desertion by members of the Canadian Forces during government-ordered active operations?

[Read the rest at the National Post]

Joel Johannesen
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