Body Bag outrage

[Jerry J. Fortin]

Talk about hysterical nonsense.

The body bags were sent as part of a routine shipment because the supplies needed replenishing. Nothing sinister about it, if they hadn't stocked their supplies, they would scream about that too.

Yet the reality is that the media is jumping on board. The public spin doctors have this in high gear.

[OddSox]

Yet the reality is that the media is jumping on board. The public spin doctors have this in high gear.

Yes, and I would hope that most Canadians aren't quite that gullible. If they are, then there is really no point to this, is there?

[capricorn]

Here is an excerpt of a Sept. Liberal party news release.

After months of ignoring pleas from Canadians to help them deal with the H1N1 flu virus, the Harper Conservatives have finally responded – by sending body bags to the First Nations communities on the front lines of the illness, Liberal Health Critic Dr. Carolyn Bennett and Winnipeg MP Anita Neville said today.

“This is an absolute disgrace. This is morally appalling. This Reform-Conservative government deserves to be condemned in the strongest terms for this insensitive and callous act,” said Dr. Bennett. “Instead of flu-kits, instead of preparing and planning to get the vaccine on time – instead of planning to save lives – they spent their time planning on how to deal with the deaths.”

Added Ms. Neville: “If ever this government owed anyone an apology for its complete dereliction of their responsibility to prevent illness and protect the lives of Canadians, it is now. This is completely unacceptable and Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and Prime Minister Harper should both personally apologize to the people of the Island Lakes communities.”

---

"Canada’s Aboriginal peoples deserve to be treated with respect by their government,” concluded Ms. Neville. “They deserve better than Conservative insults. All Canadians deserve better than this government.”

http://quebec.liberal.ca/national_e.aspx?id=16337

It turns out the order for body bags was placed by a nurse on the reserve.

Lo and behold, the National Post discovered this week that the only large delivery of body bags that Health Canada confirms actually got through, a 100-unit supply sent to the Wasagamack First Nation, was requested by the nurse in charge of the medical station on the reserve. The Health Canada bureaucrats -- the ones that Minister Leona Aglukkaq was so quick to apologize for -- take the view, rightly, that it is the first responders on the scene in remote areas who have the best idea of what their material needs will be in readying for epidemic disease. The nurse in Wasagamack, given general instructions to "order big," asked for an unusually large number, aware that aerial reshipments would be more difficult after winter set in.

Yet even after these facts were made public, the Liberals continued to bang on about the issue: As late as Thursday afternoon -- after the non-scandal had been debunked -- the Liberal caucus issued a press release that "called on the Harper government to speed up the availability of vaccines for Canadians vulnerable to H1N1, and demanded [Health] Minister Aglukkaq publicly apologize for sending body bags to Aboriginal reserves."

Let's all try to remember, without hyperventilating, that body bags are goods that are easy to store in a small space and have a long shelf life -- and are pretty much guaranteed to be used eventually, by all of us. And let's remember that, yes, they are life-saving equipment that prevents secondary infections. Soldiers -- or firefighters, or EMTs, or the Red Cross -- will be the first to explain the unhappy truth to you, in an adult manner, that when you need one, you really need one.

http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=2083868

Would it be too much to ask that Ignatieff apologize to the Conservatives for having laid blame before knowing the facts? Perhaps to prevent further embarrassment, he should advise his caucus to drop references to body bags in future sound bytes.

[jdobbin]

Here is an excerpt of a Sept. Liberal party news release.

You realize that the bulk of the Liberal release was about the lack of communication that had been going on and the sense of desperateness on some of the reserves that they didn't have flu packages prepared nor indication of when they would come.

The body bags arriving before the rest of the the supplies is frightening where the flu ravaged some communities last season.