Ghost of a flea

Canada Should start hiring them to raise a Ghurka Battalion.

Course I think they should leverage their Sikhs and Martial Hindus too and raise a Battalion of those as well.

This is an excellent idea.

Mr. Harper: Are you listening?

Absolutely beyond belief.

Everyone responsible for this shitty little trick at the Ministry of Defence should be subject to criminal charges for fraud, the Minister should be tarred and feathered and every free Englishman should hang his head in shame.

Amen.

Seems like a prime target for an unbeatable lawsuit, though. Hard to see how MOD could insulate itself from that.

I would not be terribly optimistic. One of my treasured memories of life in England was signing an employment contract in which I waived my rights under relevant employment legislation. With the rare exception of emergency services and so forth, I am not certain such a contract could be binding in Canada. Either that or I have been luckier with my Canadian employers...

And the Crown, there as here, tends to exclude itself from laws it applies to everyone else. I would expect doubly so for non-citizens such at the Gurkhas. It may be some European law is pertinent to the case.

Raising a Canadian Gurkha regiment is a brilliant idea.

Sikhs, whose very religion is founded on taking out the Muslims, brilliant as well. "The Queen's Own Singh". And the Sikh regiment could be, gradually, officered by Canadian born Sikhs (which would allow them to take their shoot'em up skills to where they are needed rather than Vancouver neighbourhoods).

Best of all it would get rid of the stigma of our "white troops" shooting up the noble little brown beggers in the Taliban. Now our cafe au lait lads, with mercs from the surrounding territories, can kick some Taliban butt without the lefty cries of oppression.

the strategy worked for the Romans for a few hundred years...Hold out citizenship and you'd have Gurkhas and Sikhs and Nigerians and ex-Russian snipers lining up.

Of course, this would reduce the Canadian war to "Our mercs are better than yours." Which would be fine by me.

As for the pension issue - this sort of thinking is hardly the exclusive preserve of the English. Any bureaucratic state would see granting pension rights and then firing the people to whom the benefit has been granted, as a brilliant move. The English have no monopoly on this sort of thinking.