This was the penultimate piece that finally ended one round of The Great Canadian Peacekeeping Debate by giving credit where credit was due and basing it on the UN’s own records in New York. And, like other pieces written on Canada and UN Peacekeeping, ad hominem attacks were levelled against the author, including some tinged with the fop intellectual snideness we have come to expect from the cultural mavens of the Toronto literati establishment. When the historical facts are inconvenient, smear the author. All I have to say to them is this: Put down your probiotic tofu shakes and your Twitter accounts and realize the world you thought existed, really didn’t and won’t. A Canadian general played a more significant role in the development of Cold War peacekeeping operations in the Middle East than a Canadian diplomat did. And if your anti-military prejudices block your ability to assess historical truth on its evidentiary merits, than you have the problem, not me.
I also learned later that a person in the production shop handling CAJ publication attempted to prevent sections of “The Forgotten” from being published and told the production manager, “He shouldn’t be allowed to say that.” She was told in no uncertain terms by those in charge that it was not her place to engage in censorship. It is quite astounding to encounter physical production staff who arrogantly think they have a veto on content either in CAJ or CMJ (a similar problem occurred with a piece I wrote on the FLQ) because of their dissimilar political views.
Tommy Burns isn’t turning over in his grave here in Kingston: He’s probably having a good belly laugh at all of this.