The House of Commons is expected to pass a Liberal motion on Wednesday that would require a moment of silence and the lowering of the flag above the Peace Tower on any day a Canadian soldier is killed.

If it is passed, the Conservatives are likely to ignore the motion, which both other opposition parties have indicated they will support.

"I think it is the least we can do to show our respect for them and their families," Liberal MP Larry Bagnell told CBC News on Tuesday.

"We believe it's a sign of respect," NDP Leader Jack Layton said. "Canadians feel the same."

The Tories have stated they support the recommendations made by an expert panel headed by the former chief herald of Canada that opposes the move on the grounds that it would debase the honour.

But Conservative MP Jason Kenney, secretary of state for multiculturalism and Canadian identity, said the government was merely aiming to return the policy to what was the practice in Parliament during Canada's participation in two world wars and the Korean conflict.

"This should not be a political issue," Kenney told CBC News' Don Newman on Tuesday in Ottawa.

"Anyone who would suggest that the government is not interested in honouring our fallen I think would want to reconsider that."

In its report submitted this week, Robert Watt's panel advised the federal government to maintain the previous tradition of a lone anniversary to mark Canadian war dead by lowering the tower flag to half-mast on Nov. 11.

The Conservatives commissioned the panel to examine the issue following a public outcry in 2006 when they first announced they would not lower the flag to half-mast each time a soldier died.

2002 friendly-fire deaths sparked reversal

For more than 80 years, Canada honoured its war dead by lowering flags on federal buildings on Remembrance Day.

But former prime minister Jean Chrétien changed that in April 2002. When four Canadian soldiers were killed by U.S. bombs in Afghanistan, the flag on the Peace Tower was lowered to half-mast.

Despite enormous public outpouring of anger and grief over the soldiers' deaths by U.S. fire, veterans' groups were not happy about the Chrétien government's decision to reverse the Remembrance Day-only tradition.

Officials with both the Royal Canadian Legion and the National Council of Veteran Associations opposed the idea, arguing it was unfair to the memories of those who died in other wars and who were not given the same show of respect.

But the Peace Tower flag was not lowered in November 2006 when Pte. Braun Woodfield was killed in a vehicle rollover in Afghanistan, and the practice has not been picked up since the Conservatives came to office.

The panel also recommended flag-lowering on so-called "special days" — including the annual National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women, and Police and Peace Officers' National Memorial Day — should be scrapped.

Tony Cannavino, president of the Canadian Police Association, said he intends to fight such a move.

"To even think about changing it back or changing the rules and protocol, I think it is very disrespectful and we are going to be strongly opposed to that," Cannavino told CBC News.

The day to commemorate women is Dec. 6, the anniversary of the 1989 murders of 14 young women, all engineering students at L'Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal.


 

With files from the Canadian Press