Did Don Cherry and the Canadian Forces put all Canadians at risk?

One of the benefits of having a military is that it makes it possible to be a civilian. The people with the uniforms and ranks and guns are the designated combatants in our society, which gives the rest of us the privilege of being designated non-combatants. In any system of prioritization or strategy, this makes us a lesser risk and threat and a less valuable target than combatants, because the enemy has no reason to believe that we as individuals will cause harm to them. Of course if they just want to kill people they're going to kill whoever's easiest to kill, but if they're thinking about efficiency or strategy they'll prioritize the people with the uniforms and weapons first, because the combatants are the ones with the training and equipment and mandate to shoot at the enemy. The rest of us are just walking around living life.

Don Cherry is a civilian. He is also 76 years old, a television personality, and a flamboyant dresser. All of these characteristics would normally mark him as a non-combatant. However, the moment he fired an actual weapon at actual people, he became a combatant. Which means that it is now completely logical for the enemy to conclude that any civilian who appears to be at least as combat-ready as Don Cherry is now a combatant.

Shawn Micallef tweeted that if Don Cherry gets to shoot a weapon, so should Anne Murray or Joni Mitchell. But it would actually be completely logical at this point for the enemy to assume that any visiting celebrities will shoot at them. Apparently it's part of the tour now! Realistically, if some of your compatriots had just been shot at by Don Cherry, why wouldn't you assume that Rick Mercer or Feist would shoot at you? And why not the other civilians on the base, like journalists and Tim Hortons employees and medical personnel? This one act of foolishness has made all civilians viable defensive targets.

On top of all this, think about how Canada got into Afghanistan in the first place. Because people who were from Afghanistan or supported by other people who were from or in Afghanistan attacked the US (i.e. one of our allies). It wasn't Afghanistan itself, it was rogue civilians affiliated or associated with or located in Afghanistan. And on this basis, our military has been occupying their country for 10 years. Our rogue civilian was clearly aided and abetted by the Government of Canada and the Canadian Forces. He was given permission to fire this weapon by military officials. The Minister of Defence was present. And, once back in Canada, he returned to his job with a Crown corporation. It really looks to me like Afghanistan, or the Taliban, or any allies thereof, could use this incident to justify any military attack on or occupation of Canada on the exact same basis that justifies our presence there.