Harper is right, even though he's wrong

There has been much discussion on allowing the media to record the arrival of Canadian soldiers who have been killed in Afganistan. The Harper government has decided to ban media from CFB Trenton when the bodies of the slain were disembarked and returned to their families.

Predictably, the media have taken great offense to this, suggesting it smacks of censorship, etc, and accusing the Harper government of fear that such images would reduce support for the war in Afganhistan.

But the ban is the right decision.

I cannot begin to imagine the pain that a family must feel upon the return of a slain sibling, child or spouse. It is a moment that belongs to them, and to those whom they invite to support them, not the uninvited lens of a camera.

Certainly there are some families who would like to have the arrival covered. However, there are others who do not. Unfortunately, often they do not arrive on separate flights. (In the event of a single casualty the families wishes should come first, but the government has chosed to ignore this exception.)

The embarkation of the bodies is done in full public view. The funerals and memorials are covered or not covered at the request of the families. There is no overarching need to compromise the desire for privacy for the 11 o'clock news.

That aside, it is interesting to note that you're hard pressed to find any commentator, conservative or other, who can credibly suggest that this is the reason for Harper's new policy.

And that is the sad part. The first hundred days have been so riddled with flip-flops, crass opportunism, principles of convenience, that the PM can't credibly make the case for decency.

And that is a truly sad state of affairs.