Canada Bars Press From Showing Military Coffins

Canadian soldiers secure the site of an attack in March (file photo) (epa) April 26, 2006 -- The Canadian government banned the media from showing images of the coffins of four Canadian soldiers when their bodies were returned from Afghanistan on April 25.

Canadian Defense Department officials cited privacy concerns.

The Ottawa government has also stopped lowering the flags to half-staff each time a Canadian soldier is killed. The decision prompted opposition politicians to accuse Prime Minister Stephen Harper of trying to whitewash the human cost of the Canadian mission in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

The roadside bomb blast that killed the four men on April 22 was the deadliest attack against Canadian troops since they were deployed there in 2002. Canadian military officials blamed remnants of the toppled Taliban government.

(AP)