Trevor Greene penned a letter to the editor published in a mainstream Toronto newspaper calling Prime Minister Stephen Harper on his use of the terrorist label to reduce criticism of the Northern Gateway pipeline project.
Greene was struck in the Afghanistan village of Shinkay March 4, 2006 after he took off his helmet as a sign of respect.
Harper's Conservatives took heat from Green Party Leader Elizabeth May in February when it emerged that the Canadian Security Intelligence Agency considers groups like Greenpeace a threat. In April, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver suggested barring environmental groups without expertise from environmental review hearings for projects like the Northern Gateway oil sands pipeline.
The Prime Minister's Office in Ottawa could not be reached for comment but Greene said he didn't expect such limits on free speech and association from the democracy he represented in the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan.
"I couldn't believe that one of our leaders, to be calling these people terrorists and extremists, we're fighting terrorists and extremists in Afghanistan," Greene said.
He was in the country less than 50 days when a terrorist's axe cut his mission short. Greene's story touched many Canadians when he beat the odds to survive the axe attack, emerge from a coma, regain some mobility and marry his fiancée. His story is told in his autobiographical book Forth of July.
When he heard Harper's Conservatives were using the eco-terrorist label to block defuse criticism of natural resource development in Canada, at first he thought it was a joke, then he said he was "very disappointed." Greene said he wants the public to "put it into context who the real terrorists are," and hopes others appreciate the freedoms we have in Canada.
"It's kind of hypocritical (in a) country where the prime minister is not practising democracy and he's preaching it over there."
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Darrell Bellaart
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