# Canada will send troops to areas of the world levelled by last week's tsunamis



## John Nayduk (4 Jan 2005)

From the Globe and Mail website.

 UPDATED AT 1:26 AM EST    Tuesday, Jan 4, 2005

 Canada will send troops to areas of the world levelled by last week's tsunamis if requested to do so, Prime Minister Paul Martin said yesterday, adding that the financial assistance his government is contributing to the relief effort will continue to rise.

With Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team finally preparing to head to Sri Lanka, the world has turned its attention to Indonesia, where remote areas of the country are relying on U.S. troops to deliver aid.

When asked whether Canada's military might have a similar role, Mr. Martin said he had been told that other armed forces already on the ground are capable of performing the required tasks.

"If, in fact, that were not the case, we would certainly be there," he said yesterday after meeting in Toronto with leaders of communities from countries most affected by the disaster. "We're certainly prepared to respond if the requests are made."

In fact, Aang Iswayuda, a spokesman for the Indonesian embassy in Ottawa, said Indonesia would love to have Canadian troops and helicopters delivering food to remote regions destroyed by the giant waves.

"If the government of Canada will send troops and helicopters, the government of Indonesia will be very pleased," Mr. Iswayuda said yesterday.

He praised Canada for a planeload of relief that left for Indonesia last Saturday and other flights that are expected to depart this week. But, because the waves swept away so many bridges and roads, helicopters supplied by the Indonesia army and the U.S. armed forces must distribute that aid.

"So that if any other government would send helicopters," Mr. Iswayuda said, "it would be really helpful for us."

The Canadian Forces are willing to deploy a supply ship out of Vancouver or provide other required military capabilities, Defence Minister Bill Graham said in Ottawa yesterday.

"We are obviously ready to offer what we have in relation to local needs," Mr. Graham said after confirming that the DART is leaving for Sri Lanka on Thursday to provide fresh water and a field hospital in the badly damaged eastern district of the country.

The international coalition in charge of relief efforts has a list of other required military needs, and Canadian officials are considering what else they can offer, Mr. Graham said. But Canada cannot meet certain requests. For instance, it cannot send air-traffic controllers even though they are needed because those in the Canadian Forces are already deployed in Afghanistan.

Still, the Defence Minister hinted that the supply ship HMCS Protecteur could be sent to the Indian Ocean. And a Canadian Forces Airbus is on standby to fly in equipment weekly. The plane made its second flight to the region yesterday with a trip to the Maldives.

The humanitarian effort is being stepped up as the death toll across Asia hovers just below 150,000 and teams work to determine the identity of the thousands of bodies found in the water and under the rubble.

Jack Straw, the British Foreign Secretary, has warned that nearly 200 people from his country who are still listed as missing were "highly likely" to have died. But Mr. Martin was not willing to give up on the roughly 150 Canadians who were in the region and have yet to make contact.

"I still think that there's hope," he said, "and if you take a look at earlier events, earthquakes, where weeks later people are found alive, I'm not prepared to close that door yet."

Meanwhile, federal officials said yesterday that the Prime Minister's trip to India later this month may be changed because of the catastrophe.

"We can say with certainty that there will be changes," said Scott Reid, a spokesman for the Prime Minister. "At this time, I don't anticipate that those will necessarily affect Japan or China, but India is likely to be impacted. It is difficult to be more specific right now because we're getting new information all the time on the situation on the ground in India."

Sources also said that having the Prime Minister visit one of the ravaged areas could be a logistical difficulty.

Mr. Martin said the federal government will provide more aid than the $80-million already announced, but he did not specify when or how much.

He said the government will ultimately set a cap on the amount, "but we are not there yet."

While most of the community leaders who met with Mr. Martin yesterday praised the attention he is giving to the disaster, some from Sri Lanka want the Canadian government to be more forceful in ensuring that the aid is not kept away from the regions held by rebel Tamil Tigers.

Manuel Jesudasan, a Toronto lawyer of Sri Lankan descent, said he wrote to Mr. Martin last week to warn him that equal amounts of aid were not reaching all areas of the country.

Mr. Martin said Sri Lankan officials assured him that aid was being sent to all regions equally.

"I raised the issue, first off with the President of Sri Lanka and was given her assurance. Second, I raised the issue with the Canadian High Commissioner, who gave me her assurance that, in fact, aid would be distributed equitably, that she would supervise it, and that we would be notified if in fact it were not," the Prime Minister said.

"We will not accept that Canadian aid is not distributed equitably. That was a condition of our aid and is one that we will insist upon."

With a report from Brian Laghi in Ottawa


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## Pikache (4 Jan 2005)

> "If the government of Canada will send troops and helicopters, the government of Indonesia will be very pleased," Mr. Iswayuda said yesterday.



What troops? What helicopters? *tongue in cheek*


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## Navalsnpr (4 Jan 2005)

Interesting!!!

I would figure that because of the high tempo that our Military has been in for quite some time now, that our involvement would be limited to financial funding and the DART contingent.

I also noticed on the news last night that some of the senior RCMP inspectors that dealt with identifying bodies from the Swiss Air Crash left last night to assist with the effort.


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## Peace_Keeper (4 Jan 2005)

What helicopters? why our top notch Seakings could turn the tide in aid operatiosn with our troops...


*cough*


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## jc5778 (4 Jan 2005)

Just so people are aware, this whole "What troops?" well there are hundreds of us in Shilo I will speek for who are NOT I repeat NOT overburdened, overworked, stetched thin blah blah blah.  I am sure most of us would be there right now without question.  As far as keeping military readiness, my Battalion is looking at 2 - 4 years on paper before deploying.  Yah yah I know things change but a few months at least of helping the victims would not hamper our operational effectivness.  Sitting at home on the couch watching other countries troops (i.e. Australia, US etc..) doing whatever they can,handing out aid etc.. really bothers me deep down.  I feel embarrased for just sitting here and not helping.   :-[


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## scotty884 (4 Jan 2005)

LOL good point 7-10   over worked LOL  I havent been anywhere other than to good ol Wainwright and back.  I would love to lbe able to lend a hand in any means.  Shilo is often forgotten about by the way.


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## Ex-Dragoon (4 Jan 2005)

Peace_Keeper said:
			
		

> What helicopters? why our top notch Seakings could turn the tide in aid operatiosn with our troops...
> *cough*



Deploy on an operation first before making any snide comments...oh wait you are a 15 yr old cadet it will be a while before that won't it?


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## Gayson (4 Jan 2005)

What about all those reserves who want tours.  What about all the reserves in the DRU?

Troops in the DRU recieve some training of use here and veterans of past DRU OPS would probably be useful there.


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## John Nayduk (5 Jan 2005)

I'm sure I'll get flamed for this but they could offer a 6 to 12 week class C contract to reserves for this task.  As it is not a traditional military task there wouldn't be a need for 3 months work-up (or time for the survivors).  This would leave the regular force to maintain their operational taskings in other places.
Any serious comments?


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## Love793 (5 Jan 2005)

Another Recce Guy said:
			
		

> I'm sure I'll get flamed for this but they could offer a 6 to 12 week class C contract to reserves for this task.   As it is not a traditional military task there wouldn't be a need for 3 months work-up (or time for the survivors).   This would leave the regular force to maintain their operational taskings in other places.
> Any serious comments?



Your favorite MCpls would finally stop hassling the Ops WO.


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## John Nayduk (5 Jan 2005)

Oh stop teasing!


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## Love793 (5 Jan 2005)

;D


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## Lost_Warrior (5 Jan 2005)

On a more serious note, Reserve soldiers could play a good role in this.   There would be no need for any combat work up training.     Reserves were deployed during Canadian disasters (I know this is nothing like them but still..) and have proved to be hard working.   I think if the government had the will, Reserves itching to help could play a large role for Canada.   

I would certainly sign up to go help, and I know a bunch of guys from my unit who have already talked about this same topic, who would be willing to go as well.


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## Michael Dorosh (5 Jan 2005)

Lost_Warrior said:
			
		

> On a more serious note, Reserve soldiers could play a good role in this.  There would be no need for any combat work up training.   Reserves were deployed during Canadian disasters (I know this is nothing like them but still..) and have proved to be hard working.  I think if the government had the will, Reserves itching to help could play a large role for Canada.
> 
> I would certainly sign up to go help, and I know a bunch of guys from my unit who have already talked about this same topic, who would be willing to go as well.



A general call out request for the Reserves would only highlight the government's failed policy of not having job protection legislation....


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## spenco (5 Jan 2005)

Another Recce Guy said:
			
		

> The Canadian Forces are willing to deploy a supply ship out of Vancouver or provide other required military capabilities, Defence Minister Bill Graham said in Ottawa yesterday.



He's talking about CFB Esquimalt right?  Thats pretty sad when the MOD dosent know where the naval base on the west coast is.


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## Storm (5 Jan 2005)

My personal favorite about this was a Maj stating on TV last night that they trained for exactly this type of mission just recently, so they are in a perfect position to be highly effective. So my question is: what was that about not deploying right away because of this being a different scenario than what DART was designed for? Somebody, somewhere, is either confused or lying. Regardless of who it is, or what the reson for the discrepancy is, it certainly makes the government and CF look like a bunch of amateurs that can't get their story straight. Not good.   



			
				spenco said:
			
		

> He's talking about CFB Esquimalt right? Thats pretty sad when the MOD dosent know where the naval base on the west coast is.



I was assuming he meant a civilian freighter, which would likely be from one of the docks around Vancouver. They're much more effective at hauling large amounts of cargo than anything the military has...


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## spenco (5 Jan 2005)

Yeah, that would make a lot more sense...


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## Lost_Warrior (5 Jan 2005)

> He's talking about CFB Esquimalt right?  Thats pretty sad when the MOD dosent know where the naval base on the west coast is.



He used to be our foreign minister...and was thrown into the MoD position during a cabinate shuffle after Martin was elected.  I am willing to bet my military career that he can't even properly recite the CF rank structure....


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## Navalsnpr (5 Jan 2005)

I'm sure that Reservists are eager and willing to go on such a mission, but the majority of them have probably not gone through the DAG process. Obviously if we were talking about a couple of dozen personnel, that would be easy to do. But if a couple of hundred Reservists had to be DAG'ed, then there would be some time to consider to have the process completed.

Obviously they couldn't deploy in days, but maybe in weeks....

Also there is the issue of funding for the callouts...

A few things to consider here.


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## John Nayduk (6 Jan 2005)

Each Brigade could DAG their own people and the funding could be found by diverting some of the promised money or by not putting so much on the National Debt.
If the government wanted to make it happen, they could.


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## Ex-Dragoon (6 Jan 2005)

> I was assuming he meant a civilian freighter, which would likely be from one of the docks around Vancouver. They're much more effective at hauling large amounts of cargo than anything the military has...


And you know this how? Have you ever been on an AOR or watched one being loaded or unloaded? Ever been involved in a replenishment at sea?


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## Storm (8 Jan 2005)

Ex-Dragoon said:
			
		

> And you know this how? Have you ever been on an AOR or watched one being loaded or unloaded? Ever been involved in a replenishment at sea?



Ok, so I phrased the second part of that badly, and should have provided some more detail. Also, I jumped the gun and misread it as a cargo haul not the provision of "other required military capabilities." Chalk one up to not paying enough attention. Oops   :-[

Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

As for the reason for that statement if it were just a cargo haul at issue:
I'm wasn't downplaying the versatility of our AOR's, merely thinking that for a pure cargo haul from point A to point B a ship designed specifically for this is more reasonable, as it is set up entirely for cargo containers and has a much smaller crew.


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## JasonH (8 Jan 2005)

Another Recce Guy said:
			
		

> If the government wanted to make it happen, they could.



Political lazyness is what I call it.

Then again be in there shoes for a minute, now after it is being announced there going everyone and there mother are going after the government for even bothering to HAVE a DART unit (Or whatever it may fall under).

I'll see if I can scrounge up the articles.


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## Love793 (8 Jan 2005)

They need to have someone on the ground first t see what is needed in the area (I believe the term is COMMANDERS RECCE).  I think we're doing a pretty good job so far of supporting the disaster assistance.  When the PM returns from his visit and sits down with the Yanks and Brits, I'm sure we'll here more.


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## JasonH (8 Jan 2005)

I agree fully with the recce thing btw, besides would you wanna end up putting something worth 20 million in a middle of a governmnet vs rebel battle?  Wouldn't think so.


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## bossi (9 Jan 2005)

Jay Hunter said:
			
		

> I agree fully with the recce thing btw, besides would you wanna end up putting something worth 20 million in a middle of a governmnet vs rebel battle?   Wouldn't think so.



Golly gosh ... what an extraordinary coincidence that you'd mention that this morning ...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/09/srilanka.violence/index.html

Sunday, January 9, 2005 Posted: 3:54 AM EST (0854 GMT) 
BERUWALA, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- A grenade attack has killed three people and wounded 34 others in eastern Sri Lanka, where tsunami relief efforts are underway.


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