Charter rights and media liberties

I was trying not to upstage my birthday post, but this makes me angry so I will.

CBC News: 'Nobody tells me no' shot female officer declared in interview.

Fine. Good. A male officer, also a parent, was shot and got one line. Wow, a female RCMP officer. Who would have thunk it?

I'm sure they were both excellent officers and have life stories, people who care about them. I'm also sure it's part of the job description to get shot at, much as it is for soldiers, male or female.

What I'm not sure of is that anyone's heard of this thing, what's it called again, oh yeah: EQUALITY.

Gah.

From a different story in the Star (bolding = my emphasis):

Another email exchange suggests that political interference squelched a media release containing details of the return of Capt. Nichola Goddard's body after she was killed in May.

"We have just received direction from higher (that) no (media advisory) is to be issued regarding the return of the remains," Maj. Daryl Morrell, director of army public affairs, writes in an email.

The emails also reveal the defence department, with the blessing of O'Connor's office, actively frustrated media efforts to note Goddard was the first female soldier to die in combat.

"There has been significant effort to downplay signifying the gender of Capt. Goddard. Everyone in theatre is a soldier," wrote Capt. Vance White, who acts as spokesperson for Gen Rick Hillier, the chief of defence staff.

The department turned down "dozens" of media requests to profile women in military service to "remove attention/emotion from the gender issue," White writes in one email.

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Unrelated, but from the same story, and hilarious (emphasis mine):

"Morale of the troops in Afghanistan is literally fantastic, as it is back here in Canada."