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Fallen troops coverage ban stirs Canada debate
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YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- The public's right to know versus concern for family privacy has taken center stage in Canada following the government's ban on media coverage on the return of fallen troops from Afghanistan. The new Conservative government barred the media from military ceremonies Tuesday at a Trenton, Ontario, air base, where the coffins of four troops killed in Afghanistan arrived last weekend. The government also has decided to fly Canadian flags at half-staff only on Remembrance Day, celebrated November 11, for military fatalities, not each time a soldier dies. The moves set off debate this week in Parliament in Ottawa on whether the government's actions are motivated by a desire to downplay bad news. Fifteen Canadian troops have died in the Afghan war, which began in 2001. A Canadian diplomat also was killed during this period. About 2,300 Canadian troops are deployed there. Answering questions Tuesday from opposition lawmakers in the House of Commons, top government officials said the ban was done to respect the interests of the next of kin. "It is not about photo ops and media coverage," Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said. "It is about what is in the best interests of the families." Harper said that "when there is a fatality in Afghanistan or in another theater the media does film the casket being loaded onto the plane in Afghanistan. From that point on, the government will respect all traditional military practices and protocols." "In the case of dealing with funerals and families who are grieving, I know the minister of national defense's primary consideration is that we do everything possible to assist at the departmental and political level with the grieving the families may be holding." Gordon O'Connor, minister of national defense, said, "There is no intention whatsoever of hiding anything from the press." He pointed out that "embedded reporters, print reporters, TV reporters" are in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, where Canadian troops are based, and "everything is recorded." "We are insisting that at Trenton, when the bodies return, the first time the families meet their fallen members, that there be a time of personal grieving," O'Connor said. "If the families want the media involved, they may get them involved in the memorial ceremonies or at the funerals. Some families do not want them involved, and some families do. We are being consistent." Opposition lawmaker Bill Graham said news coverage "permits the nation as a whole to pay its respect and to mourn its loss. At these events, the press have always respected the grief of the family." Graham also called the stance "an invention on the part of the government" and asked Harper "to reverse this unfortunate decision, so that all Canadians can participate and pay their respects to our soldiers in a military ceremony." Harper responded, saying he "would suggest to the leader of the opposition that politicizing these funerals is entirely unbecoming his office." As for the flag issue, opposition lawmaker Jack Layton said, "Canadians are rightly upset at the government's decision not to lower the Canadian flag when our soldiers fall in the field of battle. "If it is appropriate to lower the flag here on Parliament Hill every time an unelected senator dies, why is it not appropriate to lower the flag every time one of our soldiers dies serving this country?" O'Connor said the government has instituted "a consistent policy that the previous government did not practice." "That consistent policy is that we will lower the flag for all casualties in all wars and all operations on November 11, Remembrance Day. Everyone will be treated the same. All military casualties will be treated the same." 
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