WHITEHORSE, YUKON - It's time once again to dust off Charles Province's passage titled "Freedom".

Heralding the soldier seems especially appropriate this year, 2001, since many nations are actually engaged in battle as November 11 approaches.

The second Sunday in November will mark Remembrance Day in Canada and Veterans' Day in America. It will come exactly two months after the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon hurled the world into The Age of Terrorism.

More recently, a mob representing the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty laid seige to Toronto. On October 16, the financial district was hit by the defecating, vandalizing, violent thugs.

The next day, Christie Blatchford of the "National Post" wrote a front-page column headed "Post-Sept 11 Clowns' Antics Deplorable". Her blastogram slipped over onto an inside page under the banner: "This is What the Mob Looks Like".

Her hard-hitting observations about the disgusting antics of the anarchists behind the stupidity was illustrated with a sickening front-page colour photograph. Some swaggering jackass, too cowardly to uncover his face for a photo shoot, was torching the American flag.

Betsy Ross, who stitched the first American flag, would not have been amused. Neither was I. Neither was Blanchford and neither was Craig Docksteader of the Regina-based Centre for Prairie Agriculture.

But Naomi Klein of "The Globe and Mail" was, for some perverted reason.

The paid protesters were armed with rocks, sharp-end poles, gas masks, clubs, baseball bats and cans of tomatoes. More than yell and scream about an issue they don't even understand or care about, they gathered to damage private and public property.

Exactly how this crime was supposed to help poor people was beyond me.

It also was unclear to Blanchford and Docksteader.

In an October 22 release from the Prairie Centre Policy Institute, Docksteader wrote: "It seems to be a regular event now. Demonstrations against free trade, corporations, profits, poverty, or capitalism in general.

"We saw them in Seattle at the WTO (World Trade Organizations) talks. We saw them in Quebec at the Summit of the Americas.

"Every time you turn your head they show up somewhere else, insisting that free markets destroy the world and that excessive government control is the only answer to the world's economic and social problems."

To me, it's a sad commentary that America-bashing is taught in Canadian learning centres in conjunction with environmental studies, and demonstrators are paid to take to the streets to slam our cousins next door.

Someday, those "rotten, no-good capitalist pigs" may have to save our bacon from armies of armed invaders.

But the protesters bent on destruction didn't view the Maple Leaf symbolizing anything of value to make it worth the effort to burn the Canadian flag.

No, it was Old Glory that symbolized the virtues they have been brainwashed into loving to hate.

Below, Province's passage is a reminder of who gave these paid demonstrators the freedom to assemble in the first place. They were allowed to carry out their miserable deeds without being squashed under heavy tanks and mowed down with machine-gun fire.

But, oh, how low can the "Globe" go? Columnist Klein bragged in print on October 17 that she donated $200 to the despicable organization which paid demonstrators to hit the streets. Klein should put a black plastic bag over her head.

"I gave the money to the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, the most committed Harris-haters Ontario has to offer," she confessed.

"So there was a certain poetic justice to yesterday's (Oct. 16) news: A militant anti-Harris demonstration, organized by OCAP, turned into a street celebration of Mr. Harris's resignation. Victories are rare these days, they must be savoured."

While Klein's attitude is scary, I would never deny her the right to freely express her opinions in print. However, a modicum of self-imposed responsibility is necessary if she and her employer plan to continue exercising their freedoms.

A newspaper that hangs a too-far left, condoning property damage and thwarting capitalism and free-market trade, is one step from sliding down the slippery slope to losing freedom of the press. Klein will lose her freedom of expression. The Ontario Coalition Against Povery will lose its freedom to assemble and demonstrate.

So why is Klein doing what she's doing? Because she's too ignorant to know what dangerous territory she is treading on. And wouldn't care even if she did know.

Those freedoms she does not respect and cherish were hard-won by the soldier. And society and the press must be constantly vigilant. Freedom is the easiest thing to give away and the hardest thing to get back.

For sure, if we toss away freedom, Canada wouldn't have the capacity to bring it back. It is disgraceful, but Canada's once-formidable militia is no longer up to the job to protect its citizenry or defend the nation from assault.

What can be expected from a Department of Nation Defence that several months before the Attack on America couldn't account for $60 million frittered away on paperclips and pencils?

Yet the Canadian Forces was built on a proud heritage of being able to fight against the boldest and best--and win every time.

"During the Second World War, Canada mustered the world's third-most-powerful navy, fourth-strongest air force and fifth-greatest army," Terry O'Neill reminded readers in his October 22 article for "Report Newsmagazine".

Since then, this country has increasingly relied on the U.S., NORAD and NATO for its defence while the Canadian Forces focuses on minding the business of other nations as "foreign peacekeepers."

If Canada is serious about peace, Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his ministerial brood should heed the pearl of wisdom coined by General George Washington, first U.S. president: "To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace."

For Canada to let down its guard and weaken its defences is to intentionally invite war to Canadian turf.

Therefore, this nation will have to continue relying on the better fighting forces because Canada is helpless and defenceless on the homefront.

But that is no reason not to celebrate those capable soldiers--both U.S. and Canadian--who defended our countries by fighting and winning two world wars, the Korean War and every other imaginable conflict. Many of those soldiers gave the gift of life so we can sleep without fear.

So, we should not be prepared to let a bunch of mindless looney-bins back East deface the importance of those hard-won freedoms and burn our flags, for:

It is the soldier, not the reporter who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves under the flag and whose coffin is draped by the flag who allows the protester to burn the flag.

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Copyright 2004 diArmani.com