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by Fred Kirby                              July 4,  2007

They too are citizens!

I recently attended the Annual General Meeting of the Community Living Kincardine and District Association. I cannot count the number of different AGM’s I have attended in my lifetime, but this one put me in a pensive mood. It has been 50 years since I visited a large brick house on Beverley Street in downtown Toronto where the Toronto Association for the Mentally Retarded had its offices. Two years earlier in Alberta, under the authority of a 1928 provincial law, an eleven year old girl was declared “mentally defective” and sterilized without her having any knowledge of the purpose for the operation. During the 1930’s many states in the US were leaders in eugenic sterilization and there is literature to support the argument that NAZI Germany was strongly influenced by this practice in the USA when the German government instituted similar laws and practices. 50 years ago parents who had to make the terribly anguishing decision whether it would be home or an institution for their child. The stigma on this segment of our population was so great then that a family I knew argued in Juvenile Court to have their “mentally defective” son with behavioral problems committed to the Coburg Training School for Juvenile Delinquents rather than the Orillia Training School designed for the developmentally challenged.

Fifteen years later, society was referring to this particular group of Canadian citizens as intellectually handicapped and some were being referred to George Brown College for academic assessment; later Seneca College ran a two-year experimental course assisting citizens from a local group home to improve their writing and reading skills. The institutions would continue to operate, but now the group home was an alternative.

The movement for integration into society has continued though progress has been painfully slow. There is a comprehensive name to cover this population, and I understand that developmentally challenged is the acceptable term now, and just as there are names dividing us into varying overlapping categories such as male Anglo Saxon Canadian, when considering us as individuals we are all citizens, we are all persons. It is that on which we should concentrate, not as black, white, Muslim, disabled or developmentally challenged but just individuals. All citizens have their personal needs, some more than others. Those developmentally challenged have special needs throughout their lives beginning at birth; it is a heart-wrenching burden no parent should have to endure alone.
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One parent in 1948 began the struggle with government for enhanced education programs in the institutions. By 1953 the Community Living Association had its first meeting as an advocacy group in Ontario and in 1958 the Association became National. Throughout the years it has been courageous parents who have led the struggle for better services and to have their children seen as persons, not inmates hidden from public sight. It has been a hard but magnificent struggle against great odds posed by an uncaring public and by politicians who make all decisions through the prism of elections and votes.

Advocacy should not be left to just parents. Community Living Kincardine and District needs members to participate in advocacy through Board and committee activities and to work with residents in maintaining the gardens and help where they can.

When you meet Mary or John on the street remember to say hello; for, like you and me, they too are persons. They too are your neighbours. “There but for the grace of God go I.”

July 18, 2007

July 31st is the 90th anniversary of the battle of Passchendaele, formerly known as the Third Battle of Ypres, which caused me to review that particular slaughterhouse of World War I.

Reading a comment by Liddell Hart, a leading military historian of both World Wars, about the battle, “A plan that was founded on faith rather than on reason….” I was struck by the similarities to Iraq and Afghanistan. The plan was the brainchild of one person, Field Marshal Earl Haig, who. “…adopted (it) in face of formidable facts….” He ignored the advice of his meteorological staff, his generals, and his intelligence-gathering people. Then, as the battle bogged down into relentless slaughter, Haig denied the realities on the ground and his armies continued to fight in atrocious weather conditions against a well-positioned enemy. In the end, on November 6, 1917, the British forces had not achieved their objectives but settled for some ground gained, four miles at the deepest, and a pile of rubble called Passchendaele. The butcher’s bill was 310,000 casualties for the British, including the Canadian first and second divisions, and 260,000 for the Germans. A year later the British forces were pulled back leaving the village to the Germans.

Afghanistan is a tribal country with a turbulent history owing to its location as an international crossroads. The border between Pakistan and Afghanistan was arbitrarily set by the British and ignored on both sides by the tribal people who, in many cases, share the same tribal backgrounds. Pakistan, like every nation before it, has never been able to control the border areas such as the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan. Those we call the enemy will always be there. Furthermore, we are propping up a government which, according to all reports, is rife with corruption with high-ranking members involved in the drug trade as deeply as tribal leaders and the Taliban.

The Liberal and Conservative governments have sent our military force into a no-win situation with no realistic plans and no clear goals. History and today’s realities are against them and they, like Field Marshal Haig, should have known that. They have played politics with the lives of our young men and women and will continue to do so until the public demands no more wasting of our young.

July 25, 2007

The first battle of Ypres (there were three) in World War I was in fact a dual battle. “There was a battle fought by the allied troops who held the shallow trenches in front of Ypres. There was a different battle being fought, in imagination, by the two chief commanders on the allied side – at their headquarters (far) behind Ypres.” History of the First World War, Liddell Hart, p. 160. Liddell Hart, the captain who taught generals, and was the pioneer of modern tank warfare, might well have been writing about Iraq or Afghanistan.

Politicians and senior command would not withdraw the allied troops from the Ypres salient even though the Germans looked down from three sides. Staying there, because Allied troops had already been slaughtered in the salient and withdrawal would make those deaths meaningless, cost the allies thousands more dead and wounded in the following years. I hear Canadians talk that way about Afghanistan: we cannot leave now because it would mean our soldiers’ sacrifices would be in vain. Poppycock! In a meaningless battle or a meaningless war, sacrifices also become meaningless.

First the Liberals and then the Conservative government committed Canada to fight in Afghanistan knowing little about the country, culture or people. Then they put Canadian forces under a NATO command system which itself is divided at two levels. Some members refuse to participate and others who had agreed to participate then set different parameters for their troops as to where they will serve and what they will do. That is some way to go to war!

Does our government know what the goal is for this military action and what the plan is to achieve the goal? How do you identify the enemy when the people of Afghanistan have similar characteristics and dress? Study their history. We cannot assume a democratic nation will emerge from the sacrifices of our young men and women. Where is the “evil” that justifies the sacrifices? Have we forgotten that the United States supported the Taliban at one time, and may well do it again once circumstances change? Know that the US now has trade relations with communist Vietnam. Women’s rights are no more honoured and their lives no more safe under the tribal leaders than under the Taliban. Women will continue to be murdered for wanting to enter a profession, forced marriages will still be practiced, and honour killing will continue to be practiced. And a corrupt government, if it survives, will still be corrupt.

If Lord Cardigan had cancelled the charge of the Light Brigade because it had the wrong target, would we call him a coward? If Field Marshal Haig had withdrawn his troops from the Ypres salient thus saving thousands of lives, would history call him a coward? It takes courage and integrity to acknowledge a grievous mistake; it is cowardly to deny the error and allow others to be slaughtered because of ignorance and vanity.

Our troops know they can be sent into harm’s way at any time, it is part of their job; but no soldier appreciates being put in harm’s way, wounded, killed or returned home with a twisted mind when it cannot be justified. Soldiers have a right to know that their senior commanders and politicians will not waste their lives.

For those who blithely say we must stay in Afghanistan and support our troops, think a while on the words of Siegfried Sassoon, MC:

“You smug-face crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you’ll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.”