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The Veterans: What happened to the honour of the parliamentarians?

Veterans! we send them to wars and they happily go and risk their lives for us; some never come back. As I write these lines some of our soldiers, veterans of tomorrow, are in the battlefield in Iraq, in harms' way. There they are doing what we have asked them to do: help destroy the genocidal ISIS.

As our soldiers stand on guard for us in Iraq and the government is considering despatching more of them to Europe, their comrades are being forced to do battle by our newly elected government in a court of law. Unfortunately the new government has resumed the fight the previous government had started with them but from which it had later retreated prior to the last election.

In 2014 the then Liberal leader Justin Trudeau had urged the Harper government to stop fighting with the veterans and "live up to our sacred obligation, end this court battle" and start giving them the help they deserve. In May 2015 all parties understanding that "sacred obligation" voted unanimously to recognise "a stand-alone covenant of moral, social, legal and fiduciary obligation exists between the Canadian people---and members of the Canadian Armed Forces---injured, disabled or died as a result of military service."

Now the Lawyers for the government argue the unanimous motion which elaborated the "sacred obligation" declared by our Prime Minister only "records the opinion of the then members of the Parliament "and not having the force of law it can't bind the government. One wonders whether each member of Parliament of 2014 who is still a member, and no doubt Mr. Trudeau is one among them, still believes in the "stand-alone covenant of moral, social, legal, and fiduciary obligation" vis a vis our veterans?  

The government lawyers argue the principle of the "honour of the Crown" which requires governments to always act honourably applies only to the aboriginal issues. True, as a legal principle it has so far been successfully invoked only in the aboriginal issues. But it is quite probable that confronted with the MPs' and party leaders' dishonourable conduct of solemn promises before the elections which they brazenly break afterwards--particularly in the case of classes of people such as the veterans--the Supreme Court of Canada may expand the principle of the "honour of the Crown" to help the veterans and others in need.

The question the veterans and the public are asking is: Is there any honour left among the MPs? Is a unanimous motion of the Parliament of Canada, even though of the last one, not worth the paper it is printed on? Where is the honour of the MPs of the last Parliament who sit on the government benches in this Parliament? Where is the honour in voting in support of a "a stand-alone covenant of moral, social, legal and fiduciary obligation exists between the Canadian people---and members of the Canadian Armed Forces---injured, disabled or died as a result of military service" and then argue the government owes the veterans no special duty of care? And worst of all that the Crown doesn't have to honourably deal with the veterans that risked their lives for us?

@ujjaldosanjh

 

 

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