RENT-A-COP AGENCY? evelations that Emergen- cy Preparedness Minister Harjit Sajjan supported a request for 100 members of the Canadian Armed Forces to act as an on-stage back- ground feature for a Punjabi pop star are shocking. That Defence Minister Bill Blair actually sent along Sajjan’s request to senior officials in the CAF is outrageous. As the Globe and Mail report- ed last week, Sajjan passed along a request from the orga- nizers of a Vancouver concert by Diljit Dosanjh for soldiers to appear on stage at his April show. Lieutenant-Commander Linda Coleman told the Globe the CAF politely demurred on the request. “... the CAF determined that meeting this request would not be feasible due to the tight timeline and personnel avail- ability,” Coleman said. At least one person in the upper eche- lons of the defence department showed a smidgeon of good judgment. What next? Should we sign up the Coast Guard for Pirates of Penzance? The Air Force for Flight of the Valkyries? Our army isn’t a comic opera. It’s not a rent-a-cop agency for 6 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2024 MITCHELL ADVOCATE ES TABS rep ee ANDY BADER, EDITOR Published weekly by the Mitchell Advocate, a division of Postmedia Network I Deadline for letters to the editor is Fridays at 9 a.m. the week prior to publication, E-mail to: abader@postmedia.com IS TT AN ARMY OR A foreign pop stars. A spokesper- son for Sajjan told the Globe the request was passed along because Dosanjh is a Punjabi megastar and it would be a way for the CAF to reach out to diverse young Canadians. Quite apart from how inap- propriate it is for the CAF to act as a talent agency, it’s import- ant to note Dosanjh has been a vocal critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as has | Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Dragging our military person- nel into a tableau that could turn into a criticism of a foreign power, especially one with which we have strained dip- lomatic relations, would have been a huge blunder. It’s one thing when military personnel participate in hockey games and events celebrat- ing this country’s history. It’s another when the only person being celebrated is a foreign pop star. Similarly, had the Olympics requested sending troops in support of Celine Dion and her stunning perfor- mance at the Eiffel Tower, that would have been reasonable. She’s a Canadian icon who rep- resents this country with grace internationally and security is a serious concern at the Games. -Postmedia | ye sure knows how to ‘throw a party lanbeennee ls Season's Pass Preparing myself for a bus: | weekend during Mitchell's 150th Homecoming celebration, the | five intense days July 31to Aug. 4 were even more than I expected. And I’ve been through this | before. Idon’t remember much of the 1999 Homecoming, as Ihad shared reporting and photo- graphing responsibilities for this newspaper. Believe it or not, I was not working at The Advo- cate 50 years ago, in 1974, when Mitchell’s centennial celebration was held, so this celebration was #2 for yours truly (unl less you count the cel- missed the soap box derby on the Saturday morning. What was I to do? I senta few texts around, and spread the word about my bad timing, and lo and behold, I had access to. photos of the highly efficient and popular event to supplement my coverage in this week’s issue and through social media. Whew! Still, I ae to miss anything and although I didn’t get every- where, believe me when I say it wasn’t for lack of effort. My first official assignment of Homecoming 150 was at the Mitchell Golf & Country Club where, minutes after my arrival, I 5) into neighbour a bea Zach Pat ebrations and the all-years high school reunion of the past). It was nothing I couldn’t handle, of course, although when darkness fell I scurried home like ahermit and rested, recharging for the next day. (Hey, I’m not getting any younger!) Iwas also happy that the majority of the events during Homecoming were within walking distance of my house, although I almost got caught with my pants down when I Now living i in Toronto sy busy with his fledgling career, Zach hadn’t planned on comingback for Homecoming until he was enticed to do so by Steering Committe Co-Chair Doug Feltz, who recruited him to capture all crossed yet again and I asked im if he was as tired as I was, and the look on his sweaty brow spoke volumes. But he did say he was glad he came home, and he looked forward to going through the 1.8 terabytes (or thereabouts) of footage he had shot over the five days and re-live some of the highlights. Iknew [had to edit my photos at the end of each day, prepar- ing and posting them on social media to give a hint of what was going on. People commented and enjoyed the end result, but it’s no fun editing photos at 1] p.m. after being out in the heat all day. We all should look forward to seeing Zach’s finished video. You know it'll be worth watching and re-living again and again as if it was yesterday, or even to see some- thing you might have missed. Kudos to all the organizers and volunteers who made it all happen. They deserve all our cacti e praise. Tllbe es related to through his lens. So he did. And he was every- where. (I guess I was too, because whenever I was out, I saw him doing his thing). By the end of Day 5 our paths around ina quarter century if Mitchell and West Perth pull off another Homecoming. I'll be 85 years young. Lord knows I won't be working for The Advocate by then and I canjustbe a participant.