The annual ritual is simple: pin the poppy, remember the fallen and take the rest of the day off.
But that’s all too much for two Nova Scotia judges who have ordered military vets not to wear poppies in their courtrooms.
A caller to the Frank tip line yesterday let loose: “I work at the Kentville Justice Centre, and there are two judges who won’t allow staff to wear poppies in the courtroom… Some of the people I work with are ex-military… Imagine telling them they can’t wear a poppy.”
Turns out, the Sheriff’s Services Manager in Kentville told his deputies last week that poppies must be removed before they step into the courtroom: Judges orders.
“We’ve been told not to say anything,” quoth one deputy when asked why. (Enterprise jernalism!-ed).
A court clerk told Frank that if they want to wear a poppy, they must get prior permission from the sitting judge.
Two killjoy judges won’t hear of it: Justice Jean Dewolfe, Supreme Court (Family Division), and Judge Ronda van der Hoek, Associate Chief, N.S. Provincial Court.
Quoth Andrew Preeper, N.S. judiciary spokesperson: “[T]he courts must be neutral at all times, particularly inside the courtroom… In order to ensure a neutral hearing, staff are asked not to wear symbols of support in the courtroom.”
Wait ‘til Tim Houston hears about this!
Readers will recall when an announcement appeared in the Sackville Heights Elementary School newsletter in the days leading up to Remembrance Day last year: “To maintain a welcoming environment for all, we kindly request that service members wear civilian clothing.”
And Timbits simply wasn’t having it. “Leaders at this school are disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country,” he typed on FB.
Cue the hearts and cry-face emojis, and the chastened school principal’s grovelling apology.
So, er, over to you, Timbits. Show those judges who’s boss!
STOP PRESS!
A few hours after we published this story, Timbits took up our challenge:
“It has come to my attention that,” he wrote on Facebook, [that] individuals working in certain court facilities [have been prohibited] from wearing poppies while on duty… Ordered under the guise that the poppy is somehow a ‘political statement.’… This is disgusting… The judges who issued this order are wrong… I respect the independence of the judiciary [but] I respect veterans… more.
“Because of these judges–”(That’s enough contempt of court!-ed.)
We all need to stop and think about how our choice of symbols could be hurtful to the MAGA among us.
You wear a POPPY out of respect for the men and women who did their utmost to give us the life we have today! A POPPY is not political! Your purchase of a POPPY supports the men and women left in the Military through our Legions. I have no respect for those 2 fools in Kentville!
No doubt that you think that the wearing of the poppy ahould be required?
She doesn’t say that.
Telling someone what they think like that happens in dictatorship style situations.
The sort that might be even more prevalent if people hadn’t laid it all on the line over principles.
Do you have a problem commemorating their sacrifice, the results of which helped entrench your own freedom, with a little plastic flower?
Does this ban extend to the legislature and parliament?
And ensure superficial political neutrality in food courts all across the land?
So Remembrance poppies are political? Someone’s neurons must’ve been infused with poppy smoke.
Jean and Ronda, you’re hereby sentenced to a battlefield tour of north west Europe with a mandatory stop at the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery.