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Thoughts on decision by The Lorne Scots

Looking at this from a different perspective, and what I'm hoping is probably the case...

Perhaps this was a mere oversight.  Let's not be too busy to go on a witch-hunt & burn one of our own because the initial optics look bad. 

This could have been a simple matter of something showing up on someone's desk for "participating in event X" and someone saying "Yeah, sure."  Without knowing the historic and/or religious implications.


I highly doubt someone in the CF is so intensely interested in the India-Sikh nonsense that they DELIBERATELY chose to authorize this & "choose sides".  While that may be the end result in terms of optics, I doubt this was the intention.

Perhaps we can just call this a bad judgement call, a learning opportunity, and move on.  Unless something is done maliciously or with deliberately bad intentions, let's not pull out the pitch-forks just yet.

 
CBH99 said:
Looking at this from a different perspective, and what I'm hoping is probably the case...

Perhaps this was a mere oversight.  Let's not be too busy to go on a witch-hunt & burn one of our own because the initial optics look bad. 

This could have been a simple matter of something showing up on someone's desk for "participating in event X" and someone saying "Yeah, sure."  Without knowing the historic and/or religious implications.

I highly doubt someone in the CF is so intensely interested in the India-Sikh nonsense that they DELIBERATELY chose to authorize this & "choose sides".  While that may be the end result in terms of optics, I doubt this was the intention.

Perhaps we can just call this a bad judgement call, a learning opportunity, and move on.  Unless something is done maliciously or with deliberately bad intentions, let's not pull out the pitch-forks just yet.

By the time you get to be a LCol in the reserve Army and, worse yet, a BGen in the regular Arny (Comd 4 Cdn Div) you are supposed to be fully aware of (not just interested in) the nature of the "India-Sikh nonsense" and its implications for Canadian foreign policy ... anyone who is not aware of that should not be even a lieutenant in the Canadian Army, much less a lieutenant colonel.

Of course it's "a bad judgement call," bad enough that the CO should be relieved, tomorrow, and BGen Paul (who cannot be fired for political/PR/ethnocultural reasons ~ he's indigenous, likely the most senior serving indigenous member) should be packing his bags for a long, Long, LONG tour in Brussels or Mons, à la then Col, later BGen Serge Labbé after the Somalia affair.
 
@Jarhamar, @MilEmE09 I can't believe I have to cut and paste this here in regards to helmets.

From the Dress Instructions:
c.A turban shall be worn by members with ceremonial, mess, service dress. Turbans shall also be worn with occupational and operational dress, subject to the safety and operational considerations noted in sub-paragraph a., above. When engaged in combat operations, operational training or when serving with peacekeeping or multinational contingents, adherents of the Sikh religion shall, when deemed essential, cover their head with a patka or other customary clothing item (see paragraph 21.), over which they shall wear the headdress (including combat helmets) and other items of military equipment as ordered by the commanding officer.

They didn't need to be wearing helmets and my assumption is that the showing of turbans was sort of a priority here.

@Chris Pook, if you look at the images, there were other non turban wearing soldiers in the parade.
 
I promise I didn't edit the content of anyone's post, just changed the title to accurately reflect the unit's name. Some dude named Lorne Scott might be a nice guy, but he's not who the unit is named after.
 
By Friday the only people in Canada whose memory will be on this are military people.
Indo-Canadians have enough sense and are not so fragile - they know what it’s like to make a bad decision and move on.
India already had its mind made up about Canada, they will just use this confirm their suspicions regardless of the underlying reasons.
Sikhs’s are bemused.

If anyone needs an ass kicking out the door, it’s the MND (but not just for this.)
 
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