This story of a Canadian Forces officer killed by Israeli forces in 2006 has it all: disrespect, lies, suppression of information, and collusion all the way up to the PMO.
The Defence Department has quietly removed from the Internet a report into the killing of a Canadian military officer by Israeli forces, a move the soldier’s widow says is linked to the Conservative government’s reluctance to criticize Israel for any wrongdoing.
Maj. Paeta Hess-von Kruedener and three other United Nations observers were killed in 2006 when the Israeli military targeted their small outpost with repeated artillery barrages as well as an attack by a fighter aircraft.
In early 2008, the Defence Department posted on its website a 67-page report from the Canadian Forces board of inquiry into the killing. The board found Hess-von Kruedener’s death was preventable and caused by the Israeli military.
But less than a year later, the report was quietly removed from the DND website and has since remained off-limits to the public through official channels.
The Department of National Defence claims that the report contained classified information. The Royal Canadian Legion, which obtained a copy of it, quickly debunked this falsehood:
Legion magazine compared both the 2008 version and the 2012 copy issued under the access law, discovering that the latest version actually contains more information than the original.
For the Harper government Israel can do no wrong—even when Israeli forces deliberately murder a Canadian soldier:
At one point, a general in charge of UN operations in Lebanon called the Israeli liaison officer and told him, “You’re killing my people.” Previously, the Israelis halted such attacks when protests were received.
Later that day, an Israeli fighter pilot directed a precision-guided bomb through the door of the UN bunker. The blast from the massive bomb killed the four men.
The cover-up began almost immediately:
Gen. Rick Hillier, then the chief of the defence staff, later described the major’s death as a “tragic accident.”
Stephen Harper demanded to know what Major Hess-von Kruedener was doing in the bunker in the first place, suggesting some wrong-doing on his part, even though Harper had to have known that the soldier had been ordered there.
As for DND, they didn’t bother to inform Cynthia Hess-von Kruedener that her husband had been killed. She learned about it on the TV news.
Now she is speaking out. And those who genuinely want to show support for our troops should join their voices to hers.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: If the original report was posted on the Legion website as reported by David Pugliese, it is no longer to be found there. A friend, however, directed me to a copy of it, posted here. [H/t Holly Stick, b/c]
And… Pugliese has been in touch. There has been some unspecified trouble on the Legion website; they will post the link once the problem is resolved.
