T.O. Red Rally draws praise from MacKay, Hillier

Those donning red shirts to show their support at the CNE for "Red Friday" included Defence Minister Peter MacKay, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair and broadcaster Don Cherry.

"The rally today means so much to our troops, it means so much to the men and women who are working hard to protect us, to safeguard our freedoms and the lives of the people in Afghanistan and to those who want to live in an open and free country like ours," MacKay told the crowd.

"Being here today shows that we greatly, deeply appreciate their work. Being here means that you recognize the tremendous sacrifices that go along with this mission," MacKay said.

Hillier echoed MacKay's thanks to the crowd and said there is no doubt that the troops in Afghanistan will be appreciative of the rally and mass showing of support.

"They will have seen picture of this rally, they will have seen video footage of it, they will have heard about it by word of mouth, on email, on the Internet and through phone calls back home," Hillier said Friday.

"What that does is convince them that when they're 12,000 kilometres away from home and when you're on a dusty, dirty and dangerous trail, and when you're walking that trail doing your mission; Canadians are walking with them."

The rally was started in April 2006 by the wives of two Canadian soldiers stationed in Afghanistan.

Supporters of the Canadian Forces are asked to wear red on Fridays as a symbolic remembrance of fallen soldiers.

"The support is a wonderfully nice gift from Canadians to show on a weekly basis that hey, we are thinking about you," Lisa Miller, one Red Friday organizer, told CTV News on Thursday.

A number of rallies have since been staged including a massive show of support on Parliament Hill in Ottawa last year that brought out more than 10,000 people.

Organizers are anticipating Friday's rally could bring thousands of red-clad supporters to the CNE.

"If we can beat Ottawa, that's good news for me," Capt. Wayne Johnston told CTV News on Friday.

Friday's rally is being billed as a celebration and a chance to educate the general public on the work of the Canadian Forces.

"We have 27,000 square feet of interactive display with everything from a Leopard tank to naval displays to aircraft displays. We are indeed recruiting," Johnston said.

The rally comes as the bodies of two Canadian soldiers began the journey home from Afghanistan on Friday.

The deaths of Master Warrant Officer Mario Mercier and Master Cpl. Christian Duchesne raise Canada's military death toll in Afghanistan to 69 since 2002.

Duchesne was a member of the 5th Field Ambulance and Mercier was a member of the Royal 22nd Regiment.

With reports from CTV's Naomi Parness and John Musselman

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whitewolf
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This whole process started in America and was modified for use here in Canada.

So now we are becoming American like in our views of war and patriotism?

BIG problems coming up on the planet, guess we are going to be right in the middle of it because this is where we are headed with this.

I personally support every soldier who goes out and does with great courage what most of us wouldn't want to do but brainwashing a nation do not support

This mission is unpopular because wise people know there may be no end and a lot of us think this is about votes as well.

God help us

P Jones
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Can an individual support the troops, but not the mission? I believe that the two do go hand-in-hand. But, it is relative to the individual.

What one needs to remember though is that if you do not support the mission, then you do not support the Canadian military in providing Afghanis with freedoms that we apparently take for granted. You deny them the freedom of speaking out ... much like many here are speaking out about the mission.

Also, if one does not support the mission, then I believe that one does not support the soldiers in doing what they trained to do ... and what they overwhelmingly seem to love doing.

Joe C
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I fully support the mission in Afghanistan. Look at how much has been done over the last 6 years: families are rebuilding their lives, women now have basic rights, children are now going to school, etc. If we were to pull out now before the job is done, that would be nothing but a shame, and the sacrifice made by the 70 soldiers would have been in vain.

MIke
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Toronto has finally discovered what the City of Ottawa has been doing for a year now.. "Wear Red Fridays" Way ta go "TO", pretty soon you guys will be in sync with the rest of us instead of behind the curve. This is a great opportunity to show our support for our men and women in uniform. I salute Toronto for standing up for our forces. Kudos!

David
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GG,

The Afghanistan mission is not an American job. Can the British, Australians, Dutch, French, Danes, Norwegians, Germans, Italians, and New Zealanders, among many others, all be wrong? The whole world is in Afghanistan, so why should Canada leave?

Barb
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I think it's great that we show our troops we support them and understand why they volunteer for this dangerious mission, and I think this should be said over and over again The troops volunteered themselves and wasn't forced to go by government.

JTJ
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This is great news, nice to see the support from different levels, God knows they sure need our support.

BB
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I fully support the Wear Red Friday's campaign to show support for our Troops. In fact many areas have been doing this for quite sometime now. I personally can't remember the last time I didn't wear red on a Friday.

GG
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I fully endorse and support.." supporting the troops" ..they put their lives on the line for all of us...that being said this mission cannot be supported..it is all wrong...in any event I hope our government will either relocate the troops to other parts of Afghanistan where it is less dangerous, so we can still help their country or pull out, if that moving is not possible. Get the Americans back there to finish THEIR job. "Wayyy to go troops" We support YOU 100 % all of you are heroes..our government...not so much..they dont get it