Toronto orders removal of yellow ribbons from EMS vehicles

[Austere]

Originally Posted by Firecat

I don't even see why this is an issue.

I don't see why this is an issue either. It's never been acceptable for a government employee to plaster a government vehicle with any personal material. It's just not appropriate.

[Firecat]

Well, it looks like they voted to keep them

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...ub=TorontoHome

[DiuSee]

Originally Posted by Firecat

Let me ask this. If the truck had a pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness, should it be removed?

If one of these support stickers are allowed, then what about the rest. I'm sure at one point an ambulance is going to be cover in those support stickers, and we wont know what it is anymore, and when there is an emergency that ambulance would not be able to get to the location that it's needed. Also soldiers, police, firefighters, and paramedics all have something in common, they wear uniforms and their ambulance is part of their uniforms. They are called uniforms because they are to look united, if they don't then there is no point to having uniforms. If one truck is to have this sticker then either all trucks will have to have these stickers, or that one truck is going to have it's sticker removed.

[jetsetter]

Originally Posted by Firecat

Well, it looks like they voted to keep them

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...ub=TorontoHome

Excellent.

I don't support the troops

That is unfortunate. What do you have against people willing to fight and die for you?

[Firecat]

Well, in regards to Iraq...they're not. So in essence, I don't "support the troops" there. It's not a general feeling for all of them everywhere.

[jetsetter]

Originally Posted by Firecat

Well, in regards to Iraq...they're not. So in essence, I don't "support the troops" there. It's not a general feeling for all of them everywhere.

When I saw "support the troops" I mean support the troops as individual persons, no matter where they are. That does not mean that I support the war.

[GM_IV]

Originally Posted by DiuSee

Also soldiers, police, firefighters, and paramedics all have something in common, they wear uniforms and their ambulance is part of their uniforms. They are called uniforms because they are to look united, if they don't then there is no point to having uniforms.

You do know that the RCMP if they happen to be Sikhs are allowed to wear the turban instead of the mounties hat. I'm not sure if this applies to only Sikhs or turbans in general or even some other religious headgear but uniformity has already been thrown out.

[Firecat]

Originally Posted by jetsetter

When I saw "support the troops" I mean support the troops as individual persons, no matter where they are. That does not mean that I support the war.

To me it matters. I support the troops that didn't go to Iraq. I think they had a choice, and shouldn't have gone.

[jetsetter]

Originally Posted by Firecat

To me it matters. I support the troops that didn't go to Iraq. I think they had a choice, and shouldn't have gone.

Lol, you serious right? You try to make it sound so simple. "I'll stay home while my friends go off to fight and possibly die. I could have saved one of them but I wasn't there".

I'll support anyone who is willing to fight and die for me if need be. It should not matter where they are or what they are doing.

[jetsetter]

MONTREAL — Anti-war protesters will confront Afghanistan-bound troops on Friday in Quebec City as a sign of the tension in Canada's most anti-war province.

Organizers of the protest plan a counter-march to oppose what is intended to be a high-profile send-off parade by the Royal 22nd Regiment at Canadian Forces Base Valcartier.

More than 2,000 uniformed soldiers of the Vandoos and other regiments are scheduled to take part in a support-the-troops parade as part of a public-relations offensive by the Armed Forces to try to win the hearts of Quebeckers, who consistently show the lowest level of support for the Afghan mission in Canada.

But not everyone has been persuaded. Last week, anti-war protesters sent 3,000 letters to Valcartier military families, urging soldiers to reject their deployment and resist becoming “cannon fodder” for the war. On Friday, the demonstrators will protest along a parallel route to the soldiers.

“We are not aiming for confrontation, but you can't predict what every individual will do,” said Mathilde Forest-Rivière, a spokeswoman for the War on War Coalition.

For some, the conflict is personal. Francis Dupuis-Déri, a political science professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal, will be on the protesters' side of the barricades. His younger sister, Capt. Catherine Déri, will be marching with her regiment on the other side.

“I love my sister, so I'm very troubled and worried that she's being deployed to Afghanistan, even if it's her personal choice,” Prof. Dupuis-Déri said in an interview yesterday. “My sister will be on the other side of the police line on Friday.”

The professor calls the Afghan mission an “unjust war” and says he believes Canada is doing the bidding of the White House by sending troops. He wrote an open letter to his sister in Quebec newspapers last week, asking her – and other Canadian soldiers – how many would return home in coffins.

The Friday event “is to make the soldiers look like family men and sympathetic people, while they're going over to make the situation worse. Their presence will cause deaths and support a corrupt regime. We want to counter the army's marketing operation,” he said.

Capt. Déri, for her part, says she respects her brother's viewpoint but supports the Canadian mission's goals.

“I'm all for difference of opinion and my brother sharing his views. It's very democratic, and Canadians are flying around the world so that others have the same freedom,” Capt. Déri said in an interview.

Friday's march is part of a blitz by the Armed Forces to boost troop morale and bolster support for the mission on the eve of the Quebec regiments' departure.

On Thursday, 1,700 soldiers in their desert-coloured uniforms will attend a CFL pre-season game between the Montreal Alouettes and Toronto Argonauts at Montreal's Molson Stadium.

Soldiers are also heading to 18 cities and towns across Quebec to hand out flags representing the Afghan mission, as part of a “goodwill” gesture, said Lieutenant-Commander Hubert Genest.

“We often have to explain the work we're doing,” he said, calling the mission “noble” and saying it coincides with Quebeckers' priorities of peace and stability.

“We're trying to engage people so they understand there's a difference between the mission in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that Afghanistan is for a good cause,” he said.

The $125,000 send-off on Friday is the final public event for the troops before they deploy at the end of next month. It begins with a gathering for soldiers and their families at the Quebec City Convention Centre.

Original plans called for the parading troops, under the eye of politicians and dignitaries, to file down Quebec City's Grande Allée and past the Quebec National Assembly. But the Armed Forces are in talks with police about possibly changing the route, another army spokesman said.

Quebec-based soldiers are to land in Kandahar at a time when opposition to the mission in the province remains high. A poll published in the current issue of Policy Options, a Canadian public-policy magazine, found that only 38 per cent of Quebeckers thought the Afghan mission enhanced Canada's reputation, 10 points below the national average.

Hey look, more idiots. Canada is actually doing some good in Afghanistan and these stupid hippies try to interfere with that good work.

Reminds me of the 60s and 70s when 99.9% of those who protested the Vietnam War really had no idea what they were protesting.

[DiuSee]

Originally Posted by GM_IV

You do know that the RCMP if they happen to be Sikhs are allowed to wear the turban instead of the mounties hat. I'm not sure if this applies to only Sikhs or turbans in general or even some other religious headgear but uniformity has already been thrown out.

They're allowed to wear a turbans, but the rest are not a 24hrs a day 7 days a week head gear. I've never heard of one except for that one.

Originally Posted by jetsetter

Hey look, more idiots. Canada is actually doing some good in Afghanistan and these stupid hippies try to interfere with that good work.

Reminds me of the 60s and 70s when 99.9% of those who protested the Vietnam War really had no idea what they were protesting.

We didnt want to send them in anyways, the American government forced us to send them in.

[jetsetter]

We didnt want to send them in anyways, the American government forced us to send them in.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interna...sistance_Force

Being part of NATO means supplying troops on the few occasions that it is required.

[DiuSee]

Like I said there is no real point to this war, just the American government being a-holes. What seriously did Iraq do to the U.S.? Is this seriously all just because of Osama Bin Ladin's orders to have the 3 planes crash into the buildings? If those are the reasons, then the U.S. haven taken themselves to another low, as they are returning bullying with bullying.

[jetsetter]

Originally Posted by DiuSee

Like I said there is no real point to this war, just the American government being a-holes. What seriously did Iraq do to the U.S.? Is this seriously all just because of Osama Bin Ladin's orders to have the 3 planes crash into the buildings? If those are the reasons, then the U.S. haven taken themselves to another low, as they are returning bullying with bullying.

Who said anything about Iraq? I could understand an amount of hostility if Canadian troops were being deployed to Iraq but they are not.

[Firecat]

Originally Posted by jetsetter

Lol, you serious right? You try to make it sound so simple. "I'll stay home while my friends go off to fight and possibly die. I could have saved one of them but I wasn't there".

I'll support anyone who is willing to fight and die for me if need be. It should not matter where they are or what they are doing.

Again, they aren't being killed for you. It does matter where they are and what they are doing. Under your line of thinking, this country can (without cause) send soldiers to invade any country they want....and that would be fine. It doesn't work that way. The soldiers should have refused to serve in Iraq. Just like some Israeli soldiers refuse to serve in the occupied territories. If more soldiers from all around the world were to follow this same path, the world would actually be a safer place.

I don't blame soldiers for fighting in Afghanistan, even if I have issues with that war. This country was attacked, and the enemy sought refuge there. I can understand that. And pretty much the rest of the world did as well, as there was very little opposition to that war.

I'm really not even interested in discussing this. I know we've gone over this plenty of times already.

[jetsetter]

I suggest checking this blog out for some perspective.

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/

[Firecat]

I don't believe the writings of a journalist embedded with a group of soldiers can provide much perspective.

[jetsetter]

Originally Posted by Firecat

I don't believe the writings of a journalist embedded with a group of soldiers can provide much perspective.

You would be suprised. Yon does get around.

[DiuSee]

Originally Posted by jetsetter

Who said anything about Iraq? I could understand an amount of hostility if Canadian troops were being deployed to Iraq but they are not.

Even Afghanistan, we don't need out troops there either, and whats the point of American troops in Iraq?

[un-dee]

First of all I think that is a Canadian issue and its not that big of a deal. Secondly, what annoys me is that "holy cow" thinking about the armed forces all the time. It is their fucking job. You may support them as much as you want but I think all that "How can you not support the troops, you evil man" talk is just two-faced.